In Karimibad, met a British guy who came from Sost 2 days ago and he said he and the group he was with had difficulty getting a VOA - apparently VOA is finished... Anyone coming through since National Week finished know more about this?
1
thirdeye3
I pass the sost border on September 30th and I had no problems.
the other 10 foreigners with me were also fine
2
thirdeye3
I mean everybody of these 10 foreigners(from europe, usa and japan) got the visa at the Sost border in Pakistan without any problem....
3
talk2u
ellief,
If the news regarding finishing VOA at Sust is true then it is very bad and certainly abig loss for tourism in the country.
4
emmeff
OP -
About six weeks ago, the immigration office at Sost was unable it offer VOAs because it had run out of visa stickers. But that was a temporary problem. Do you think this is what those travellers you met may have meant? Ot is it possible the office has run out of visa stickers again?
5
pakguy
I think , they may stopped issuing visa due to the reason as said in above post. If Pakistan govt bring any chang , they must announce officially in their website or foriegn office press conference. But i did not found any news about this new dramatic chang in visa policy.
6
Huubsc
I guess the British guy was part of our group. On the 10th of October, after the border had been closed for 9 days because of Chinese holidays we (a group of 13 individual travelers) crossed the Khunjerab border. In Sost at the immigration office we were told to wait. After a while a travel agent who was busy arranging visa on arrival for his Thai travel group mentioned that the Immigration officer had told him that the rules regarding VOA had been changed. Only travelers travelling with a Pakistani travel agent could be issued a visa....
However he could fix the problem for us for a 'meager' fee of US $ 50,- p.p.
We collectively refused his offer and demanded to talk to the Immigration Officer in charge. The officer was confirming that rules had been changed and mentioned that all of us would be deported back to China. After that our passports were confiscated and we were told to come back the next day…
Through some contacts we managed to have some influential person from the area to talk with the officer in charge. The next morning when we came back to the immigration office the problem was solved and within no time we had a visa in our passport.
However the officer mentioned that an exception had been made for us and that indeed the rules had been changed. On a computer screen in the office we saw that a letter was being prepared for the Chinese immigration authorities informing them that no visas on arrival would be provided anymore......
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(However the next day through a contact in Gilgit, who had informed with the immigration office over there I was told that no changes had been made in the visa regulations….)
Edited by: Huubsc
8
pakguy
Here is the email adress, where you can get information direct from the ministry of interior regarding any kind of problem.
info@dgip.gov.pk
You need to provide the following information about yourself , while doing contact through email
information on the Passport ( full name, country name, passport no etc)
present Contact Address
9
ellief
#1 & 2 I'm not sure what you mean by "no problems" because #6 has described the problems encountered and they appear pretty extensive.
No other travelers have passed through the border since the group on the day the border reopened. So when the next travelers pass through/are turned back I'm sure we will know more.
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