With all the covid restrictions lifted and many South Africans now wanting to travel abroad, many of them are experiencing another dilemma.
Where applications for foreign visas in the past used to be a reasonably smooth affair, travellers that want to visit Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, are now encountering a backlog in visa processing – and these backlogs are still being pinned on covid.
Acquiring a visa to enter the United States has become so problematic that some travellers are even venturing to neighbouring countries such as Namibia and Botswana to obtain their visas.
Marianne Strydom, manager of Boland Travel in Paarl, said that currently the earliest appointment that South African travellers may get for a visa application appointment at the US Consulate in Cape Town is March 2023.
For most travellers, this is beyond their intended departure times as many have already bought tickets that predate that time.
The US embassy says covid is to blame because its consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are understaffed as a result of the pandemic.
Embassy spokesperson David Feldmann said the embassy is doing everything possible to solve the problem, including hiring and training more visa staff and waiving in-person visa appointments for certain work, student and exchange visitor applicants.
But the tourist industry says the visa backlog stretches across the globe and includes Europe.
Strydom said that currently the minimum period of time to get a UK visa is four weeks, and that does not include the long waiting period to get an appointment.
She said Schengen Visas (European) vary from country to country, but that waiting times for appointments are much longer than during pre-covid times. Some countries are a bit quicker with applications, while others take a lot longer.
“Foreign embassies and consulates are still short-staffed and this is causing delays.”
She advises overseas travellers to do their homework well before booking their tickets so as to avoid visa dilemmas and to thoroughly check each country’s visa requirements and waiting periods on their websites.
She also advises travellers to ensure that their passports are in order.
“You must have a minimum of three empty pages to apply for a foreign visa, and it must still be valid for a minimum of six months at your time of travel.”
Strydom further said that foreign travel has definitely picked up and that the demand is growing.
Despite e-travel having taken a large bite of the travel industry, she said that companies such as Boland Travel are still doing well, despite the very long travel drought during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“During this period when we basically were not able to do bookings, we still kept closely in touch with our regular customers. Now it is very much getting back to business as usual.”
She added that other than with e-travel, hands-on travel agents are able to guide their clients along every step of the way with their travel requirements and if anything goes wrong, they, unlike computers, are there to assist, no matter where in the world you are.
