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Can one apply for many visas at the same time? I am looking at traveling long-term.

Or can you apply in a country that is not your country of residence? I don't want to have to travel back to South Africa very couple of months.

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    What's your citizenship? South African?
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 28, 2015 at 4:43
  • I don't understand why this question was closed.
    – Sridhar Sarnobat
    Aug 3, 2021 at 21:40

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It very much depends on your residence and citizenship, and which visas you're applying for. So we can't write an answer for every single visa. I'll try to generalise.

Often it requires that you send off your passport. So unless you have more than one passport (possible for some countries), you're clearly not going to be able to apply for more than one.

However, others like Russia, Uzbekistan require letters of invitation, so you can apply for those letters.

Uzbekistan, once I got my LOI, I was able to just pick up the visa on the road - I had to specify in advance which embassy, but got it from Riga, Latvia.

Others (like Russia, although I've been told this may have changed), insist that you must apply from either your country of citizenship, or country of residency, if you live elsewhere.

Still others let you apply on arrival and take 5 minutes.

So unfortunately, you'll have to do the dog work and research it all. Each country is different, so go through a site like visahq.com, and work out 1) where you have to apply for, 2) whether you need to send off your passport or 3) whether you can just pick up the visa on the road, or on arrival.

Good luck! Always hop into the [chat] if you want a chat about visas people have had trouble with.

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    One other aspect Mark didn't mention is that quite a few visas have short valid periods, so you can only apply a month or two before your planned arrival date, which further complicates the "where I am / where I can apply" situation.
    – user13044
    Jan 28, 2015 at 5:01
  • Thanks Mark and Tom! So how do people travel around the world (not that that's the plan). I would like to go to the UK for 6 months and then to France, which will all be visitor visas. So are you saying that the French visa expire before I get there? I have seen so many different blogs and everyone seems to give different information. (Just making 100 % sure)
    – Renee
    Jan 29, 2015 at 10:20
  • @Renee that's a separate question, and we don't do those in the comments here. Either ask a separate question, or join the Travel Chat where a lot of us have done long term travel. If we're not there just leave a message and check back again :)
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 30, 2015 at 6:46
  • Aside, don't think I mentioned French visas anywhere. You apply for specific dates, so then it won't have expired...
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 30, 2015 at 6:47

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