Visa

What does it take to get a visa in Tanzania? Four months, a lot of patience, really good friends, and even better Friends of Friends.

When we first arrived in Tanzania, we both had tourist visas that lasted about two months. But to volunteer long term, we needed volunteer visas. So our first few days in Tanzania we spent in Dar es Salaam trying to obtain these visas.

During those first few days, we went to the immigration office five times to be told each time “you need to address you cover letter differently” or “you need the official MCW stamp” or “you need two copies of your passport, not one.” The immigration office is an over-crowed, windowless room where lines do not exist, so you have to stand in the masses, pushing your way to the window to be yelled at by a power-hungry immigration officer. We say that with a tinge of sentimentality, because we’ve been there over 10 times.

We were able to navigate our way to having all of the correct documents, but the official MCW stamp was in Songea, so, defeated, we boarded the bus to Songea to try there.

In Songea, our quest continued. Over the course of five days and six visits to the Songea immigration office, we filled out all the forms, got all the stamps, and addressed the letter correctly. Finally, the office there told us that our packet (of our entire life history, resume, transcripts, etc) was ready to go, but that they couldn’t actually process it in Songea. We had to take it back to Dar es Salaam (a 15 hour bus ride) for that.

Since the processing time for a visa is supposed to be about a week (or so we thought), we decided to outsource, and sent our packet with the processing fee ($120 USD per visa) with a friend to Dar es Salaam. Over the next month, the saga continued. Through phone conversations with the friend in Dar es Salaam, we learned that Arthur’s was dropped off but not paid for, and that Courtney’s couldn’t be processed because they needed her teacher certificate. We were still a long way from success.

Unfortunately, our friend had to come back to Songea, so he handed over our money and application to a friend of his, who he swore he trusted. Friend of a Friend. After waiting a month, having Courtney’s tourist visa expire, the FriendOfaFriend told us our visas were ready, and that he would send them right away. Success?

No. An entire month went by without a visa. The FriendOfaFriend didn’t answer his phone. Where were our visas? After a month of repeated phone calls, we finally learned, through another friend, that the FriendOfaFriend had never actually gone to the immigration office. Instead, he had stolen the money, then just told us a story to string us along. Great. No money, no visa, and two months later we were still at square one.

We got lucky and got our money back (through an act of generosity of a different friend of the FriendOfaFriend), and tried again with a new person in Dar. Another FriendOfaFriend. The first thing he told us was that he had another friend in the immigration office, who had told him that if we paid an extra $200 USD we could get our visas in a week. Bribes aren’t our style, so we didn’t do it. Another month goes by. Arthur’s visa is days away from expiring, and Courtney’s has been expired for almost two months. But the New Year brought us some luck. Because they had already accepted his paperwork, Arthur was able to get his volunteer visa by going to the immigration office and pestering the officer relentlessly. Partial success!

Courtney on the other hand still had nothing. The immigration office now said that she needed a Tanzania teacher certification even though she isn’t teaching in a government school.

After another few trips to the immigration office, Courtney was able to get a month extension on her tourist visa (they did not comment on the fact that it had been expired already). But we were at the end of the line for getting Courtney’s volunteer visa, so we started to look for help elsewhere.

We needed more a more reliable FriendOfaFriend. We went to the former Tanzanian ambassador to the UN (an acquaintance through MCW). He was friends with the director of immigration and he said he would talk to him. Three more weeks go by and Courtney’s visa expired again. On that same day, the director of immigration called Courtney on the phone and said that they could work things out, but did not actually approve her visa. Not sure why.

But then, the next day, February 2^nd, exactly 4 months after arriving, the ambassador called saying he had Courtney’s volunteer visa in his hand.

Cheers to FriendsOfFriends!