Self-employed journalist applying for Syrian visa in UK

Does anyone have experience of applying for a Syrian visa as a self-employed journalist in the UK?

The visa form asks for a letter from your employer - do you know if they require any different document if you are self-employed? I am a business journalist and am going to Syria on holiday, not to write about the country - have any journalists had problems applying for a tourist visa? I am a UK citizen and will be applying for the visa in person in London.

Would be grateful for any assistance. Have had a look back through all the visa topics on this forum but couldn't find anything on this aspect. Also tried phoning the consular service without much luck.

Many thanks.

Hmmm. My wife and I are both media monitors, and we once had trouble explaining what we do to the Syrian embassy in London. They were convinced that we were journalists, and we had trouble convincing them otherwise. They told us that they would definitely give us visas, but that we had to go through a different channel and apply for journalist visas. Eventually, after about ten phone calls, they actually let us into the embassy proper, where we met with their press attache - who knew exactly what a media monitor was, apologised profusely and ordered the consular staff to issue our visas on the spot.

But I digress. The point is that the staff of the London embassy are generally a pretty helpful and friendly bunch, but it will probably involve an awful lot of extra faffing about for you if you call yourself a journalist. Although the staff are generally keen to help, the embassy as a whole is about as efficient as might be expected of any embassy which is run by a bureaucratic Mediterranean state - which is to say, not very. It might be best to write yourself a letter stating that you're a self-employed business analyst, and provide your past three bank statements - that should probably do the trick. The Syrian government is actually quite keen to encourage tourism to the country, and I think the 'letter from employer' thing is basically just to prove that you have enough funds to support your trip and that you'll be going back home at the end of it.

You could also take your chances getting a visa on arrival - officially, this is a big no-no, but almost everyone who arrives at a land border or airport without one reports being issued with one after a few forms are filled out and phone calls made.

Oh, and for the past three trips we've made to Syria, we put 'office manager' and 'office clerk' as our job titles ;-)

Hi ..
I agree with the above post. Its better if you avoid mentioning that you are a journalist because this will take you through a long process of why and where and what ???
you can write any other titel for your work and everything will be better as I think. Its better if you apply for your visa in the Syrian embassy in London than to take the risk of applying for it on arrival. Offecially speaking, you have to apply for you visa in the SE in your homeland unles there is no embassy there then you can get it on the boarder.
Syria is a nice country and I am sure that you will like it there...
dont hesitate to private me if you have any further inquiries ...
Enjoy Syria

I met a women who put journalist down as her occupation on the Syrian visa form. They initially turned her application down but she eventually convinced someone to issue the visa on the day before her flight but only after lots of visits to the embassy and phone calls etc.

I'm a photographer and I got a phone call form the Syrian Ambassador in Australia when I applied for my Syrian visa. He gave me a stern lecture & I had to explain in great lengths I was a landscape photographer visiting friends and was not a press photographer.

If I wasnt traveling with so much camera gear I would have put on my visa "consultant" as my occupation. You cant got wrong with "consultant"

Try to be a "teacher". Always managed to get through.