Ever Used HAL's Travel Visa Service? How Did It Work For You?

[SargassoPirate]

I have a world cruise booked on HAL.  I was looking at the number of places that require a Visa and two of them look to be onerous processes -China and India.  India wants information on my parents, where they were born, what their nationality is - or was since they are dead and not traveling with me - and looks to be about a five-page application.

 

If you have used the HAL Visa service, how did it work out for you?

 

Thanks

[canoncruiser]

I used their  VISA service a few years back for an around SA  cruise on the late lamented Prinsendam. They were efficient and very helpful.I’ve also used them for a  World cruise on Cunard which required a lot of VISAs-again they were  excellent😉

[rkacruiser]

I used their service for my world cruise and had no issues.  Don't recall the ports, but there were a couple of ports where visas could not be obtained prior to the cruise and the details and visas were obtained on the Amsterdam.  

[jhannah]

I utilized the visa service to enter Russia back in the day. Painless.

[Scrapnana]

I have used the Visa service once and that was because at the time U.S. citizens had to go through some service to get a visa for India.  I think the situation for India visas has changed a great deal which I will look into when it gets closer to actually going to India.  Yes, you did have to answer numerous questions about yourself that did not seem to have anything to do with the time you would be in India.  It cost about $500 to get a Visa for India and China and this was in 2013(and I had to mail my passport away)!  I am hoping by the time I need these again it can all be done on-line.

[sandiego1]

I submitted an application on line for India visa. It took a few tries to get it through as the error messages weren’t great. So I had to try a few different options to get it done. I would do it again myself as it is much cheaper than using a service.
 

My China visa was done by my office before I retired. I don’t know how complicated it was or how much it cost. Unfortunately, it has expired.

[SargassoPirate]

Thanks to all for sharing your answers.  A relative of mine went to India just before the pandemic and said the online process was an absolute mess.

 

I think I'll pony up and use the service rather than deal with the China and India bureaucracies.

[whogo]

2 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

I think I'll pony up and use the service rather than deal with the China and India bureaucracies.

You will still have to provide the visa service with all the required info (maternal grandmother's maiden name or whatever), but the visa service will ask you the questions in coherent American English and they will be the ones to deal with any wonky foreign websites.

[SargassoPirate]

22 hours ago, whogo said:

You will still have to provide the visa service with all the required info (maternal grandmother's maiden name or whatever), but the visa service will ask you the questions in coherent American English and they will be the ones to deal with any wonky foreign websites.

 

Thanks.  With China and India it looks like the service will be the way to go.  I usually handle the visa requirements myself, especially when the country accepts the ETA-type of visa.

 

Any idea how long the visa service takes?  I don't want to pay for the service until after I've made my final payment and everything looks like a go.

[whogo]

SargassoPirate, I believe that India now offers an electronic visa. The US Department of State website mentions it: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/India.html and offers this link: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html