Hi folks,

My friend and I are going to do the Pan American highway in the summer of 2019. We will be shipping our bikes to Fairbanks, Alsaka before starting down south. We are in the planning stage for this ride now and one of the first questions that we need to solve is the requirement for Visas (especially for South America).

We are both from India originally. I stay in India, and my friend is in Detroit. With respect to visas, we are both sorted out for the Central America and North America. Our questions start with the visas for SA.

From what I have seen, all South American countries require a visa (regardless of what passport we have). A quick look at the visa requirements for countries in SA tell me the usual things: Flight tickets (round trip), a complete travel plan, etc. The second bit is not a problem, but the first one is. Our entry to all these countries will be overland. The only flight we would take is one that flies back from Argentina to somewhere in the USA.

Can you guide us to know how to go about the visa process for overland entry? One of the searches I did on the internet spoke about a separate form for overland entry (this was for Brazil). I have put the link below:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...lling-overland

https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowTopic...ps-Brazil.html

Can anyone shed more information on this process, and what to specifically do in this case?

• Also, as we will be starting our roadtrip in May 2019, when would be a good time to start applying for the visas? I was considering september/october to be the right time to start.
  
• What kind of planning should I do for the visas? I think a 20 day overlap between visa dates for different countries in SA should be fine. Anything else?

Thanks for your suggestions, and we will post more information on the routes, places, purpose of the roadtrip, bikes and about us as we progress on planning.

Thanks!

Also, if you are from any of these countries in SA, let's keep in touch!

Cheers!