Be prepared

Securing a business visa for travel abroad can be a costly and time-consuming process. Gary Noakes looks at the services available to save money and beat the embassy queues

Any SME boss who decides to cut out the middleman and go direct for their Chinese, Indian or Russian visa usually thinks again when they arrive at 8am to see the queue snaking around the block.

These are just three countries whose visa applications can involve a wait of several hours if you decide to apply in person, with the additional peril that if there is one small mistake on the necessary paperwork, you have to start all over again.

Business travellers have the added hurdle in that obtaining a visa for work purposes is usually an entirely different process than travelling as a tourist. Taking China as an example, the list of things needed to get a business visa is quite specific.

Apart from the necessary forms, your passport must be valid for six months with two totally blank pages. You also need a photo plus an invitation from the company you are visiting printed on headed notepaper. This must include a whole raft of detail about you and your proposed stay.

It is no wonder that a number of specialist agencies have sprung up to cater for the needs of travellers unable or, more likely, unwilling to do the job themselves. If, for example, you don't want to go through the process for China yourself, Chinese Visa Direct, one of a number of small agencies, charges £100 for a single-entry business visa on its normal four-day service or £139 for a three-day turnaround. These compare with £65 and £77 if you go to the embassy in person, something that fewer people are now willing to do given the time and cost involved.

Ross Consular Services, one of the oldest-established visa-processing companies, charges between £47.50 and £75 for its services depending on the country. Darrell Smith, a director of the company, says that the need for third-party processing companies had increased in line with the demands from embassies.

"It has turned into a growth industry because getting a visa has become more complicated than it was," she says. "We have been going since 1977 and over the years a lot of companies have shot up. Countries like Russia and India now ask for ludicrous amounts of information. There is certainly more manpower needed than four or five years ago."

Apart from the paperwork, there is one simple reason for using a processing company, particularly if you live a long way from an embassy.

"The most obvious advantage is not having to queue up yourself," says Visa Swift's senior account manager Carlos Claro. "The majority of embassies now have agency queues so they accept as many applications as we can give them because they know we've checked them. There are not many embassies left that offer a same-day service, so you then have to come back another day to collect it if you don't use an agency."

Among destinations that present difficulties, Claro names Nigeria - "a bit of a mess" - and Saudi Arabia as two countries where the use of agencies is advisable. "For Saudi Arabia, it is almost imperative. They now insist that your details are entered in Arabic on their website. We have employed an individual to do this who is fluent."

Another advantage visa agencies have is that their staff visit embassies every day.

"Because we are in and out all the time there have been occasions when we have found that information on embassy websites has not been updated," says Claro.

Another company, TLCS, a market leader, is painfully aware of the whims and vagaries of embassy demands. "Last year, Russia changed its visa requirements something like five times in seven days," says Managing Director Charlie Chalmers. "We have a team here whose sole job is to monitor these changes closely."

However, TLCS also points the blame at applicants for slowing up the process. "Most people do not read the questions properly," adds Sally Powell, the company's head of business development. "It's almost like the more senior you are, the less time you have to look at the detail. That's why you need an agency."

If you do go through the process yourself and secure your own visa, do not assume that you are home and dry. All airlines will give passports a quick flick through at check-in to see if a visa has been secured only so that they can avoid fines from the destination country. These cursory checks will not usually spot, for example, whether you have enough valid pages in your passport, something that an agency will automatically check for. Suddenly, on arrival, that multi-entry visa secured by an individual months ago might become invalid without you or the airline knowing until it's too late.

Generally, airlines cover their own backs and wash their hands of passengers' visa problems. Unlike booking a package through a tour operator, there is no compulsory duty of care offered by airlines to warn business travellers about their visa needs. This is ironic considering that the simplest trip to Spain, a visa-free experience for UK travellers, will bring a mandatory security request for information from carriers that the Spanish government insists upon, such as your hotel address.

Similarly, obtaining visas on arrival may seem a simple process, but even here, there are pitfalls. When a country stipulates that visas may be obtained on arrival, some airlines may still refuse boarding if no visa is shown at check-in. Acquiring visas on arrival can also depend upon the method of transport used - in some cases, it can be valid for sea passage, but not for air travel. It may also depend on the possession of certain documents, such as a vaccination certificate, or an invitation from the company you are visiting.

Another potential hurdle is that visa on arrival must sometimes be paid for in local currency. Then of course there is the extra queuing and the hazard, once again, that some countries just change the rules when they feel like it. Turkey, Egypt and Jordan are three countries that permit business travellers to obtain visas on arrival, but the granting of them is subject to the whim of individual officials and the rules can change at any time, particularly in the current 'tit for tat' environment. The message is clear: check with someone that knows the idiosyncrasies of each country before you leave.

Whatever the difficulties, do not be tempted to pass yourself or your staff off as tourists. Arriving for a two-day stay with a suit and laptop will not convince any immigration official, and in today's security-conscious world, it could result in a very long wait for the flight home.