I have been reading about the need to get the DRC visa in your home country. I have a problem as I have not been there in the last 10 years.
That said I have also noted some people have got temporary residence in Togo to get their visa.
Has anyone done this recently since I also read about people being turned away if it is not from their home country.
Any recent experience would be appreciated.
Thanks

Sounds interesting ;-) Where you read that?

This guy has to return on the border, because his visa wasnt issued in his homecountry: 4x4tripping: Afrikatrip - nicht "nur" eine Afrika Umrundung

When you search the Hubb you find the Post from indlovu http://indlovu.org/?p=1437 who gets their Visa in Libreville, Gabon for 57`500 CFA and passed the DRC without problems. Other guys at HuBB too named Benin as place to optain the Visa.

If you try the Brazzaville/Kinshasa Ferry i suggest to optain it in your homecountry, or to use the way you wrote about ;-)

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

dont try in brazivill you will wait months and then get turned down....we got ours in togo just after easter time without a problem....just ask if there is a way to become a togo resident in the drc embassy and offer money.....realy just offer money

but yes do not try to take the ferry from brazi to kin they will send u back....take the back road...it takes a good few days and is not a easy road...but it worked for us in may...and when u get to this last important bourder with drc...dont be shy with the cash

I don't like the cash /bribe stuff...

It makes the Situation worse for the next traveller...

If you like that way - do it. But don't promote such shitty stuff

Specially when there was severall other travellers who did similar stuff without spending money there...

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

I have cut and pasted lots of info about visa and borders and unfortunately did not keep source. At the moment I have 2 notes about people getting temporary residence in Togo through the DRC embassy ( most recent is dated 14/3/13), in one case they used it to get another visa. The price is around CFA 10K, which does seem to be a bargain and not a bribe. I was just asking about recent crossings or attempts.
I was intending on using the upstream crossing and not Kinshasha, you have only confirmed my intention.

That was exactly the reason, why i start to write a blog. You can too use it as an private blog just for you visible.. To have a Search-Engine - to add links to a topic - is a easy way to work with
Anyway, thank you for the update!

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Hay....u may not like it but in Africa a dash is part of life, we managed to get across Nigeria ...throw over 95 road block and ocasianal gunfire without paying a red cent....but when it came to the drc bourder..there are a lot less options...that is the last rea lcorupt Africa bourder.....and there is no other option...officaly they can turn you away as you visa was not issued in your home country.....and yes ive herd it happen....and no there is not anouther bourder post to try.....its that bourder or nothing.....and you are faced with 3 days drive back to rep congo...then 3 days to point noire to ship your vehical....or....when the oficer tells you its 10 dollors each or your ****ed....you pay....its easy to say dont do it online.but when you been on the road for 5 months and you know this is the only entrance point then ok........sure you can say wait it out......as ive seen other white guy wait it out in cells, but this bourder is realy remote...but so close to the end of the hard travel

and in case you were wandering...we payed to enther rep congo aswell.....the embasys of congo purpusly make the visas look bad and make lots of mistakes and then rewrite over the mistakes....when the imigration officer finds this...o boy.....he had the stamp out to cancel the visa...he put the ink on the stamp....and he held the stamp over the passport.....PAY or you go back to libraville to get a new visa ( between 7 and 10 days hard drive).....what are the options...we are not talking about europe here, just because you are right and white, does not mean you cant be beaten or shot ( on my other trip years ago in Congo, one European guy in a landy, was shot and killed by the road block cop for arguing......this is Congo not Senegal)

Very very wrong, there is a good alternative for the Brazaville-Kinshasa ferry which is indeed a nightmare from what i heared from other travellers. Met a turkish guy who was imprisoned on the RDC side for having his visa issued outside his homecountry, his embassy had to bail him out.

On the road from Dolisie to Brazaville you will pass the town of Mindoulli. From there its a 10km ride over a horrible piste/mountain pass to a borderpost where there is one immigration officer who lives in his small hut ( it doesnt get more remote than there, seriously ) and had to walk to the next village to get his stamp ! Easiest border on the whole trip, he was very happy about the 2 packs of cigaretts we brought for him ! No temporary import for our bikes, 5 minutes of time. Don´t try if its raining, its going up and down the hills all the time and the "roads" become so slippery that there is a very big chance you´ll get stuck ! ( we did !!! )

Supply until Luozi is very difficult in terms of fuel, spareparts, food, mobile reception and passing traffic to get help in case something goes wrong.

You can camp in the small villages and the people are super nice. That area gets close to no foreigners and if you are looking for genuine adventure and an unspoiled african experience there you go.

About 15km after the borderpost there is a catholic mission in Miyamba on a hill. For that area its a relativly big complex with school, hospital and church ! They have two generators they are fireing on every evening to watch the news and if you need welding or repairs cos the roads broke your vehicle ( which is not too unlikely ) you can find help there as they have a workshop too. The congolese priests are unbelievable nice and welcoming, they gave us a room to stay in and food when the rains made any progress further impossible. Be nice and polite, leave your european attitude at home and contribute what you can cos they do an extrodinary job out there ! Its worth staying there also when not stuck, the that part of my trip was the most memorable. I waited one week there for a passing vehicle to transport my vespa to Luozi ( broken chassis i needed gas welding for ) but not one single truck passed the road. In the end they put my vespa on their landcruiser as they had to go to Luozi anyway to meet a delegation of other african bishops. It broke down after 50km but thats another story ...

In Luozi itself theoretically you have to register with the DGM ( Direction generale de migration ) and pay a fee of 10$. As i was travelling on a big truck I had to but a friend of mine just went past the checkpoint and took the ferry, depends if you are lucky. There is another mission there you can ask to stay at when needed !

I loved the DRC !!!

Hope this post helps some people on the road, added some photos.

Don´t manage to upload any photos so here some links :

http://s7.directupload.net/images/131103/b47u5xp9.jpg ( road to borderpost )

Directupload.net - r3s4bbfl.jpg ( borderpost )

Directupload.net - kmfpdo8u.jpg ( roads )

Directupload.net - y9e7xsmh.jpg ( ferry )



cheers,
Chris

__________________

Thank you much for sharing the pictures - it let me feel like being there again. Near 1 year ago we cross there too. We did wild camp on the top of one of the hills, just we and the nature.

There was a lightning thunderstorm near we could watch - and we know - if we get a bit of rain - we have to winch us down the hill, with our ground anchor. But we just enjoy the evening and the show, and we got just some raindrops during the night.

The drive on the next morning was slippery, but well to handle. On the small village border we just get the stamp for our passports, not the carnet.

If you come to luozi there are some police people at a kind of a hat on the left. To the ferry you had to tun left, to luozi right.

We try to get our carnet stamped in Luozi turned right, but it was sunday and everything was closed, therefore we just drove back, to the ferry.

The same Police guys at the hut asked us if we did our paperwork, we give them a thumb up and head to the ferry.

We don't had clean papers (no tip or carnet stamp) - and progress through the DRC with mixed feelings about.

This is how bribe stuff starts to catch you. This way it catches gazza171, because the visas wasn't really clean (not from the home country):

Yes, i had payed too in your situation! But to be honest, i never would take such a risk when i carry a lot of people behind. Also with a stamped visa (who is issued wrong), you can run into trouble at any checkpoint.

If you had to look for so many people, that was more than stupid. It was well known before that the visa has to be issued in your home country (through other traveller blogs).

But I don't have to throw stones when i`m in a glasshouse, right? We too did some stupid stuff, driving through an high percentage of roadblocks, instead of chatting with the guys, too when they sign us to stop.

Therefore we overdrive the last Congo Police roadblock and we had no exit stamp of congo as we was on the village border of the dr congo. guess what..

But it is different when you just had to take care about yourself, or about a group. But we are all back, and it had worked for us. Maybe this discussions help other travelers a bit - to avoid bribe scenarios, to be less silly.

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

DRC is pretty ****ed up officialdom wise. A tourist being killed there isn't going to be a problem except for the tourist.

I found the Brazza/Kinshasa ferry quite organised and professional apart from the whipping and fake disinfectant cleaning. Things change day to day.

If you don't have a DRC embassy in your home country (i.e. New Zealand) what are you supposed to do?

There is a wikkitravel entry about:

The fun stuff is to tell that to the border guys…

Here a guy has to return at the Brazza/Kinshasa Ferry/Boarder - because his visa was not issued in his home country.

I just want to suggest that we travelers obtain it from home when we are in the planning stage.

That to pay bribes at the is cheaper than to ship the passport for obtaining them at home is another issue. But you can't be shure that it works when you reach the border, and not be shure if the border is the only point you get controlled about (the police officers are happy when they know how to catch you).

Just avoid weak point in your papers when you are able to


Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

First of all information about visa application. We did this in Cotonou, Benin. We read somewhere on the internet it was very easy and straightforward. And it was, no residency needed. They only asked for a letter of introduction but accepted also a copy of one intended for the nigerian embassy. Also the provided us with the name of a Hotel to fill in on the application form. Single entry visa for 1 month is 50.000 CFA.

We crossed to DRC august 2013.
DRC border crossing is something different. We got stuck (mechanical problem) between the borders of Congo Brazaville and DRC (at the Luozi border). Resulting in something you'll only see in movies.. DRC is mental!!!
Don't think we'll ever do the Luozi border again, even though how bad the Brazaville/Kinshasa ferry stories may be.

Thanks for the update!

Happy trails,

Gee

__________________
Travels with Thimba
eBOOK!

Hi Chris...
this was the bourder that we took..the back road...NOT the kinshasa ferry,
the point i was trying to make was that this is the ONLY bourder post that you can cross with a 10 ton truck...no other place, so when they ask for the 10usd registration , then there is very very little chouice....if you are lucky and get to the town straight to the ferry ( 2 or 3 ferrys a day, not continualy) then its possable to get past the DCM , but otherwise you are screwed...you pay...then the DCM take you to the Mission for the night and organise it all and take you to the ferry in the morning to make sure you are out of there duristriction



the visas we had issued were all legal and valid...no short cuts made...but if a imigration officer in a remote part of africa wants to make the visa invalid, for any reason, he can....same as in europe or USA or Australia ....a visa is not gaurenteed permision to entre a country...the final dicision is with the imigration offical on the bourder

and some people say they would not take the risks with tourists in the back in remote parts of africa...well everyone knew exactliy how difficult it was....and if they did not feel happy with the situation then they flew over the countrys in question ( as some people did)

so for my 2 cents, the visa from togo is a legal visa, just if the visa is respected is a diffrent matter...out in DRC the boys in uniform do exactly what they want.....and if you cant deal with corupt officals then DRC is not the place to be