Originally Posted by senorc

Hey Fraser - sorry, I meant to reply to you on facebook when I had my visa and knew rough timings of the trip from then...but forgot Sorry!!"

Yes I got my visa but it was an unneccessary ordeal really. They ask for a lot of paper work for any visa and even more if you're going by motorcycle. In the end, I had to give them:

1. passport and photocopy
2. copy of driver's licence
3. itinerary of my whole trip from UK to Oz (I made up a rough itinerary for this)
4. Letter from my employer, which I wrote myself on some headed paper
5. covering letter explaining the trip
6. copy of MOT
7. copy of V5 for bike
8. they wanted a copy of the carnet but I explained I was waiting for the visa before i got the carnet
9. detailed itinerary of where I would be entering and leaving Pakistan and where I would be staying when there
10. copy of last 3 months of bank statements

Having handed all this over I was told 'we'll call you'

Long story short, they didn't call me and it took 3 visits to the embassy in London, virtually camping there, to actually get the visa. The first two times they told me it had been sent off to be reviewed but the third time the guy came out with my passport and application, which had been untouched by the embassy since I lodged them. He said there was no rush on my visa as I wasn't entering Pakistan until about mid September. As you can imagine I was more than a little irate but you have to stay calm and polite - this visa was holding up my entire trip and I'd explained to this guy the exact nature of the ride when I first made the application. When I explained it again he went away, had a word with someone and then told me to pick my visa up in the afternoon.

Overall a painful experience so I would suggest you apply early, have all the above documentation ready so they don't send you away to get it. Turn up to submit your application early, if doing it in person, and keep on top of them so you don't have the pain outlined above. Alternatively, if I was doing it again I would probably just use an agent and have them do all the queuing etc for you - I met loads of them when I was there each time and think it could be money well spent.

Hope the above pseudo-rant helps