two visas

[silentq]

Oh boy. I feel stupid now. I just realised last night that I, as a Canadian, need to have a tourist visa to visit the Czech Republic. Okay, I can do that, I've got just enough time to get it in to the consulate and get it processed before leaving. But, there's a snag, they (probably) need a copy of my work visa for the US. Which has to be valid for

Comments

Canadians in Eastern Europe

[inulro]

Hi Nicole! Didn't realize you hung around these parts

Re: Canadians in Eastern Europe

[silentq]

Yup, this is a great place to find others who will understand when I'm freaking out about visas and the renewal or obtaining thereof. :)
I'm also going to Budapest, but made sure to check the visa situation there, and it's not needed. Lesson learned: new country to visit means check visa requirements. The Czech Republic won't sell you a visa at the border, which is why I'm a bit panicky about this.
The Montreal Czech consulate has nice clear documentation here, and it implies that you could apply by mail there as well - it's for Canadian citizens not in Ontario (if I'm correct in assuming you've still got a CDN passport). If I were to go up and do it in person, they'd check my passport and give it back to me, but I'd have to go back in 5 days to get the visa stamp, and that's not going to work with the business trip that I have to go on, not to mention the 9-noon weekday hours. *shakes head*

Re: Canadians in Eastern Europe

[heuteistmeintag]

from what i understand, the reason the Canadian gov't imposed a visa requirement for Czechs is because of all the Gypsies coming to Canada. the Czechs imposted on on Canada basically, like you said, in the spirit of diplomatic reciprocity

apparently a while back there was an documentary on TV Nova in CR about a Gypsy family who moved to Toronto or something, and after that episode aired, a lot of Gypsies got the idea to go to Canada, many staying illegally.

Maiden name

[nellwyn]

A note about name changing. My sister-in-law has yet to change her name on her passport (she was married over a year ago), and she always travels with it. I was wondering if there was some sort of a law about getting it changed.. or some policy.. but there isn't. Both the US and the UK passport offices (I phoned both just to be sure) indicate you don't need to change your name on your passport as long as all of your travel documents match (IE, get all the relevant travel tickets (plane, train, magic broom, whatever) in the name on the passport

Re: Maiden name

[inulro]

You under-estimate the difficulty of getting anything changed or renewed when it comes to Canadian passports.

I was once told that this is because Canadian passports are worth more on the black market than any country in the world, including Swiss.

Ironically, it's less difficult for me to get my new passport issued by the consulate in London than it ever was when I lived in Canada.

As to the maiden name thing, I simplified all that by keeping my name.

Re: Maiden name

[silentq]

She's a US citizen, and got all the reservations and plane tickets in her maiden name, so we should be okay. Then she can go through the process of updating her passport once we get back.
I'll keep a good hold of my passport while I'm away, I didn't realise they were so in demand! And hopefully there won't be any hassle with a US and a Canadian citizen traveling together (I always get stopped and interviewed at US-Canadian land border crossings when I go over with US friends, *especially* if I've rented a car for the trip).

[skinglist]

re: the border patrols between vienna and prague
the train doesn't (or didn't in January) actually stop between the border cities, rather the appropriate immigration guards enter on one side and depart on the other.
they don't speak any english and I reallly wasn't sure who they were or what they were asking til one of the compartment-mates told me what they asked. They ask to see the passport and then they stamp it.
Will you take the train from Sudbanhof in Vienna?

[silentq]

Europe seems to have a much more sensible way of dealing with border crossings by train than the US-Canada border. We were stopped for upwards of an hour on the track while the two customs/immigration agents worked their way through the train.
Thanks for the poke, I haven't checked where the trains leave from in Vienna and Prague, I'd just assumed that there was one main train station. Will double check it.

[skinglist]

in prague there is, in vienna there are several
sudbanhof I think was the more central of them
I have oodles of information if you need/want it on both cities

[heuteistmeintag]

same thing for me. canadian in california, applied for a czech entry visa in the beginning of the year. my plan was to fly into munich and train it to prague.

for the part on the app asking for fly info, just write arrving and departing by train, and attaching a separate decument to explain in more detail