One month we’re going somewhere straightforward, the other…emerging tourism in more off-the-beaten-path destinations like Libya. So what does it take to be one of the first Westerners to be issued visas as visitors and tourists?
We first submitted copies of our passport front page to our local tour agency at least 3 months ahead of the trip, whereupon after an extended nail-biting wait for over 2 months since, we finally received the following documents from our sponsor approximately 3 weeks before the beginning of the trip:
- Visa code
- Hotel voucher
- Confirmation document of your tour
We printed all 3 documents and included them along with the following other printed documents we had already prepared ahead of time:
- Our USA passports valid for 6 months
- Filled out and signed (in black ink) visa application form on the https://www.embassyoflibyadc.org visa site
- $160 Money Order (can obtain from bank or US Post Office) to “Embassy of Libya”
- Prepaid envelope from FedEx, UPS, or USPS with tracking number and your return address label filled out
- A recent passport-size (2×2 inch) color photograph with a white background
- (photographs must be full-face shots in which the applicant is facing the camera directly. Side or angle views are NOT accepted).
We then placed all the aforementioned in an Express same-day envelope via Fedex, USPS, or UPS and mailed it all to the Libyan Embassy on 1460 Dahlia NW Washington, DC 20012. At the same time I also e-mailed our 2×2 passport photos to our agency to finalize permits within the country.
Within 72 hours aka a single day turnaround I got my visa back! The timing was
- Day 1 Tuesday 6am – Visa code, hotel voucher, and confirmation document of my tour emailed over
- Day 1 Tuesday 8am – Email received when I woke up, printed, and placed in envelope
- Day 1 Tuesday 10:30am – Shipped via FedEx Priority Overnight
- Day 2 Wednesday 10:30am – Documents delivered to the Libyan Embassy
- Day 3 Thursday 2:21pm – Documents shipped out from the Libyan Embassy with my passport inside self-addressed envelope
- Day 4 Friday 11:57am – My passport returned to my address with my new visa inside!
After having received our visas, we then booked our flights arriving and leaving the country. As per their regulations, we all had to be on the same flight coming in and out so we chose the following LibyanWings flights:
- Arrival: Tunis TUN to Tripoli TIP 16th of April 09:20 – 11:30 YL0801
- Departure: Tripoli TIP to Tunis TUN 20th of April 08:10 – 08:20 YL0800
Letti, however, due to a mixup with passports where the info for her primary passport was sent where she had meant for it to apply to her newer second passport, opted instead to try the new e-visa program that Libya just rolled out as of this week as a backup option:
- Head to their new E-visa website: https://evisa.gov.ly/
- Create a new account and login using an OTP code that will be emailed to your email address
- Complete application form
- Upload a .jpg visa photo of yourself with a white background. File must be under 1MB
- Upload your .jpg passport photo, File must be under 2MB
- Pay with credit card where the e-visa fee is $68USD
- Your visa is valid from 90 days upon the issuing date.
- Once your visa is ready you will be notified by email and can download the visa PDF document.
Some tips to note while filling the e-visa website application:
- When entering your answers into the text box including addresses do not enter commas, apostrophes or numbers in addresses. Only letters and spaces.
- If you have entered in a field incorrectly it will give you a ‘system busy’ error message. Review what you have entered and ensure Tip #1 has been followed.
- Your middle name may include your parents name on the visa – this is due to Libyan naming convention with how locals are named. This will not be an issue.
