Bolivia visa in 10 minutes from Cusco, Peru

Indian travellers need a visa to enter Bolivia. I had two options to get the visa.

1. Get the visa from India. This was not a simple process for people outside New Delhi as the passport has to be sent to the Bolivian Embassy.
2. Visa on arrival at the border. While the Bolivia visa is free for Indians, a fee of $95 is charged if obtained at the border. My plan was to enter Bolivia on land which is not simple when compared to enter a country from Airport. I would be a pain if they require additional documentation at the border. I was not very comfortable with this option.

With a bit of research, I found that it is possible to get visa in Cusco, Peru easily. Hence I decided to follow that approach. This post explains my experience in getting Bolivia visa from Cusco.

Applying online

First, I had to apply for visa online. This even applies if you are planning to get visa from India. The link is here (http://www.rree.gob.bo/formvisas/). The website is in English and Spanish. It asks for basic details and the following documents need to be uploaded.

• One photo with 3cm x 3cm dimension. The photo requirements are specified in the form.
• Day to day itinerary.
• Hotel reservation – I only had hotel reservation in La Paz. A night was spent in bus and 3 days was spent in Uyuni salt tours. I also uploaded the bus ticket and tour ticket. But that was not needed at all and only hotel reservation was enough.
• Front and back page of the passport.
• Financial statement – I uploaded the 3 month Bank statement.

Note that the size of the photos can be 150kb maximum and it is 500kb for other documents. The max size for documents was challenging and I had to do some trim the pdf files to keep the size under the limit. Post uploading, a receipt was generated which I saved and took a print out. There is no email sent. If you forget to take a copy, a new application has to be made!! The receipt is only valid for 15 days. If you are unable to visit consulate office before 15 days, a new application has to be made.

At Cusco

The consulate address in Cusco is: Oswaldo Baca 105, Cusco. It is open from 8AM to 3PM and closed on Saturday and Sunday.

The place was about 5km from our hotel. I took a taxi which was convinient and cheap (6 soles). When I reached office at 8:30 in the morning, I was welcomed by the person in consulate. There was no other applicant. I gave him all the documents. He took only 1 copy of application receipt, passport original and copy, itinerary, hotel reservation and bank statement. He said that other documents including the photo was not needed. Within few minutes, he was back with the passport with visa stamped on it!! It was so fast.

Last points

• Few posts mentioned about Yellow fever certificate. I had it with me (from my earlier travel to Kenya. My experience to get yellow fever can be found here) but the consulate did not ask for it. It may be needed if you are travelling to amazon area.
• I provided Original Bank statement obtained from Bank. Few people have commented that internet copy would suffice or even a credit card copy.
• Some people had mentioned that I need to carry two copies of the documents and I had done the same. But they took only one copy.
• Many people mentioned about the final Air ticket back to India. I gave it but they returned it back.

Experience at the border

It just took few seconds at Bolivian immigration office to get the stamp on passport at Peru Bolivia border. The officer did not ask any question. The shops nearby had all the provisions to get visa on arrival – photo studio, printers, internet etc. But not all border posts are same. The one between Chile and Bolivia was a rustic building in the middle of nowhere at 4,000 meters in Atacama desert. There was not even a public toilet in that place!! So, it is better to a visa beforehand than struggle at the border.

 

October 2023 update

One of my relatives could not get the visa in Cusco as the consulate ran out of visa stamps (Bizarre, but true!). So, be prepared for any surprises. They obtained it at the Peru-Bolivia border. Also, the price to get a visa on arrival seems to have increased to 120 USD.