**Everything about visas changes regularly. Rules, deadlines, whether you even need one. This article likely has info that’s already out of date, so check all the info before you apply.**

During the very first Mongol Rally in 2002, Mr Tom and Mr Joolz made it as far as the Iranian border before they got turned away for their lack of paperwork and their lingering smell. Since then, we’ve come to accept that visas are a painful but unavoidable part of modern travel. Like being surrounded by music that you last heard at your school disco and getting force fed passages from Shantaram from a guy so stoned he hasn’t noticed he’s not wearing trousers.

With the Mongol Rally in mind, we asked visa expert Julia for the worst mistakes she’s come across in her time on the bureaucratic front lines.

Multinational team? You have twice the fun.

Mistake 1 – Not Applying For The Visa

Yup. Not getting the Visa you need is probably the worst mistake to make, yet every year an impetuous team decides to chance it.

Let’s talk Turkey and Turkmenistan. If you are from the EU you can travel visa-free for 30 days in Turkey. Unless you are from the UK or Ireland, then you’ll need to get yourself an e-visa. Similarly, Australian, New Zealand or US passport holders need that paper but if you hail from Brazil, Iceland, Mongolia or the Seychelles you don’t. Simple so far.

Some countries, like Turkey, will be set up to issue your tourist visa on the border, usually for slightly more money. Arrive unprepared, the Turks will probably still have you.

However, shimmy up to a Turkmen immigration officer without the right piece of paper to stamp, they won’t let you in. That’s going to leave you with your back to the Caspian Sea or Iran. Either way, a damn expensive situation to get out of.

Here’s Julia to explain this process:

Get turned down from a border and one of two things will happen next:

– They will turn you around and ask you to go back to the country you just left. That could potentially work, but only if you don’t need a visa for that previous country or if your visa was valid for 2 or more entries.

– If the above fails, you’ll be stuck in the ‘no man’s land’. The immigration officers won’t take pity on you and won’t let you in just because they are nice. You will stay there until you or the embassy of your country resolves the issue (they will have to get involved, yes) and you’ll be then flown home, potentially being deported.

You know what makes it really tricky to get visas? Having a deportation in your travel history. In 2015, Rallier Phil couldn’t get into Russia because of a ‘deportation’ from Kazakhstan in 2014. They didn’t give a fuck that he was flown out by his insurance company with a dodgy kidney.

The USA, UK, Australia and Canada are particularly skittish about issuing visas to tourists with any hint of chequered record, so a cock-up that ends in deportation could come back to haunt you.

If your name’s not on the list, you’re not coming in

Mistake 2 – Not Getting The Same Visas as your Teammates

Does this seem a little obvious? That’s because it is.  Alas, more than one rally team has come a-cropper after someone’s missed a country out of their visa collection.

The solution? If you rock up to a country that doesn’t issue visas on the border, the fool who’s missing one will have to find a way over or around that country. Usually, they fly, it’s disgustingly expensive and they have to wait around at the other end for their pals in the car to catch up. A bit shit really.

Once a visa is issued, the dates can’t be amended or extended. There’s no returns policy either. If you want to change it, you have to apply for a new visa – which means paying again and waiting again.

Don’t rely on getting a visa extension in-country either. The Idiots Abroad in 2014 were about to overstay their visa in Uzbekistan and reckoned on getting an extension. Request denied, they raced to a border crossing in the guidebook. When they got there, knackered and out of diesel, they discovered the book was out of date, the crossing was closed and they were definitely going to miss their exit date.

After a standoff between two police chiefs, a night in Uzbek jail, paying a $500 fine each, they earned the contempt of the British Embassy and a deportation stamp in their passport:

“The Embassy did what they could, which wasn’t much. They offered us a phone to ring home and update family on our problems but that was it. They told us they couldn’t support us in any way or do anything but did tell us to go to the Uzbek district police office, register ourselves with them and be at their mercy. We were all pretty nervous as no one could tell us what was going to happen to us; all they did was tell us that we were in real trouble. Great!”
The Idiots Abroad – 2014

We checked this situation out with the Foreign Commonwealth Office and for any (British) teams aspiring to be the next Idiots Abroad, this is exactly the level of support to expect. For this kind of situation, they will spend no public funds to help you out of your jam nor will they mediate on your behalf.

Travel on an invalid visa or passport, the British Embassy will facilitate a line of communication with your family but it’ll be up to you to deal with the relevant authorities in country:  “Because each country can decide who they allow into their country and (outside the EU) no country has any obligation to explain their decisions to the British Government.” They also cannot “investigate crimes, get you out of prison… because we cannot interfere in another country’s processes.”

The Idiot’s Abroad were able to continue their rally, somewhat poorer than before and each sporting a head of hair that would make them stand out at a UV party. We imagine they’ve been dining out on their tales of back-alley diesel negotiations and Uzbek prison cells ever since. 

The world is your… no, sorry, we’ve no idea what that is

Mistake 3 – Not Getting EXACTLY the Same Visas as your Teammates

No, this is not the same thing – now we’re talking about dates.

Everyone on your team needs to have the same dates and the dates for neighbouring countries need to overlap. If one visa expires before the next country starts you’ll end up either overstaying or stuck between the two countries.

“The only way of changing anything is to apply for a new visa, which is costly and time-consuming, so get it right from the start. That means that the dates on the visas must overlap, must match those on your team-mates’ visas and must cover the maximum allowed validity.” – Julia

In 2008 team Desert Taxi ballsed this up royally. One of their three had a different date of entry for Russia. Already stamped out of Kazakhstan but not allowed into Russia, they made the brave call to suffer the consequences as a team. Founding the Autocratic Republic of Taxistan, they spent six days in no man’s land, playing cricket, God Save the Queen and cheering other rally teams through. There was no power, no shop and no toilet and they survived on charity and their wits. They only got through when the final visa date became valid. Which was probably quite a relief, especially for the teammate who had contracted dysentery. 

“Ties are souring with the Russians, who are less and less willing to provide us with water. Not surprising considering the spontaneous bouts of nudity and almost continuous ABBA we are subjecting them to.”

– Team Desert Taxi

Mistake 4 – Leaving it Too Late

Visas are time-consuming. If you are planning to drive through central Asia or Iran, you are looking at weeks, potentially months to get your visas sorted.

“If you leave it too late you’ll end up changing your route to the simplest one which isn’t necessarily something you’d like to do.”

– Julia

The visa process can be painfully opaque. Once the application is underway sometimes everything goes smoothly, sometimes it can take days and weeks longer than the estimated. They’ve got your passport and there is nothing you can do to speed up the process unless you are up for splashing the cash on express delivery when you apply. To get all your visas you also might need to send your passport into some embassies, though it’s needed less and less as the years go by and e-visas are introduced. But check anyway and make sure you’re taken any other travel plans into your visa acquisition schedule. 

Every year there’s a smattering of teams who come to the launch and then stick around waiting for a passport delivery before they can rejoin the mass convoy east. Bit of a bloody shame really.  

Mistake 5 – Not Doing Your Research

Double-check any advice from veteran Ralliers and guidebooks because visa rules change. Often.

The daddy of all the other mistakes. 

If you’ve got this far, you can probably handle these last scraps of advice:

If a visa form is asking for an address, find one. Don’t leave the section blank and hope the embassy won’t notice. 

Russia historically doesn’t make it easy to get a multiple entry visa. Check the most recent set of rules very closely as you plan your route. 

Cheerful stuff isn’t it? Don’t worry, we’ve pulled out a few examples here but these are just for inspiration. You’ll almost certainly, probably, maybe be ok.

And if not, we’ll be talking about you for years to come.