“Hola, Bolivia ¡Aquí voy!”
My flight landed in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia on December 13th, 2018 around 1:55 am. My boyfriend and his family were waiting at the airport, and I was nervously waiting at the immigration line at the airport.
I had a lot of emotions about this trip, and the most prominent one was excitement. I had never been to South America, and it would be a huge adventure for me to converse and paddle my way through Bolivia with the little, elemental Spanish I had acquired in an undergraduate course over four years ago. I was particularly excited to reunite with Andres and meet his family for the first time. I was slightly nervous to meet Emma, their very hyper and strong dog (I came to realize that a couple days later) who is also the big loving baby in the house. A wag of her tail occasionally sent me to childhood Asian days where Asian kids were trained to be obedient with the wags of a stick. Ain’t it a pleasant memory indeed? 😂
Anyhow, I mainly want to describe my experience with getting a Bolivia tourist visa as a Group 2 citizen. I should mention that the second most prominent emotion I felt about this trip was anxiety, which was caused by the visa application process. I am not exaggerating when I say how complicated and frustrating the entire process is.
Let me give you a warning, especially if your travel date is getting close and you are becoming frantic about the visa.
DON’T SEND YOUR VISA APPLICATION PACKAGE TO THE BOLIVIA CONSULATE.
I tried that and sent out my package to the Bolivia consulate in Washington D.C since I was studying in the states as an F-1 student. It was three weeks before my travel date. “Fortunately” … FedEx messed up. It was supposed to arrive a day later, but there was a week delay, and I decided to request that it be returned to my address instead. I did that for three major reasons:
- It is impossible to reach the Bolivia Consulate in Washington D.C via email or phone. No matter how many times I tried to call, it would always go to the voicemail which said that the mailbox was too full to accept any more. Essentially, you can’t get a hold of them to communicate about any question/concern you may have regarding the visa process. They are unreachable. So, after FedEx messed up, how am I to know how long they would take or whether I would get it at all. It would be like dropping your important documents in a black hole. No way of knowing until (if ever?) you get the package back.
- I didn’t trust FedEx with their service after they were inexcusably delayed for an entire week even though I paid for the express one-day shipping. The return of the envelope was challenging too. They were delayed another week, for who knows what reasons they may have. I called them every day, reminding them how important, urgent and time-sensitive the package was. What was quite frustrating is that they kept moving the delivery date to Monday, and then Tuesday, then Wednesday, Thursday, and so on. Every day, it was pushed to the next day without any reason. When I called, they said, “We are so sorry. We only know what the online tracking information says (This, I can get it too without having to give them a call!). We don’t know why it keeps getting delayed, but we will certainly put your message.” After a week, it arrived, and I was finally able to breathe. I was really happy to reunite with my passport, without which I wouldn’t be able to travel at all.
- I heard that visa on arrival at Bolivia immigration at the airport was easier. It seemed to be the only certain way at that moment, considering my distrust in FedEx, the unresponsive Bolivia consulate in Washington D.C, and the impending travel date. It was most important that I had my passport in time for the travel.
Well. Pretty solid reasons, right?
I came to realize later that visa on arrival is the only way to get the tourist Bolivia visa since the consulates in other countries no longer have the authority to issue tourist visas anymore. So, it was the right call.
So holding my package tightly to my chest (not literally), I packed some stuff away and left for Santa Cruz de la Sierra airport. On the other side, Andres and his family were tackling with the immigration office to get the invitation letter approved, which I came to know was an integral component of the application package. Dear people, I hope your host family is nice and kind enough to go through this kind of tedious and painful process. I am so grateful to Andres’ family for helping me through that process. It was no piece of cake, and they had to make several trips to the immigration office to pick the officers up to check, inspect the house, convince them to approve the invitation letter, and so on. The first letter was rejected because they needed an official letter from my school saying that I needed to go back to the states to continue my studies and get my degree. They didn’t explicitly say that before, so we didn’t know we had to include it. In the second attempt, we got all the documents well and beyond what we thought was required to get the invitation letter approved, such as a copy of my I-20, my F1 visa, passport, copy of my B.A degree from Berea College, etc. They also asked for proof of my relationship to the host family, so we also presented photos of me with my host family for the years that we have known each other. Fortunately, the invitation letter was officially approved at the last minute. My host family got the letter on the day I arrived in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and they brought a physical copy to the immigration office at the airport. All the on-arrival-visa-tourists were processed last. I was quite nervous about the visa process, but it went smoothly. My host family arrived early and explained about the situation. While I waited in the line, one of the officers went out and fetched the invitation letter from my host family, and put it together with the other documents I brought. Below are a list of the documents I submitted for the tourist visa application:
- Sworn statement for visa application
- Bank statement as proof of economic solvency
- Invitation letter from the host family
- Round trip itinerary
- I-20, a copy (they didn’t need it)
- Proof of yellow fever vaccination
- A passport valid for at least the next six months
- 1 photo, 2” by 2” with a light background (they didn’t need it)
They immediately approved the visa, asked for $100 (though most of the websites say $95), and glued the Bolivia tourist visa in my passport. They then took a few photos of me and let me go. It was a quick process, and I was finally able to breathe for not having to turn around and go back to the states.
The takeaways from this experience is not to trust what most of the websites say (not even the official Bolivia website since they don’t keep it updated). You kind of have to communicate with the locals beforehand to sort the details out.
Well, there you go!
I hope you find this article useful, and I wish you the best of luck with your visa process.