I may have a problem...

I picked up my passport from the Viet Nam embassy this morning after checking out the new stamp, came the quick realization that I may have a problem.

No, not with getting into (or out of) Viet Nam; that's all set.

My problem is that most of these countries like to use two visa pages for a single entry visa (or at least for the first single entry visa). You see, one page is used for the actual visa and then at the port of entry, the immigration officials like to use the page immediately adjacent to the visa => two pages. Well, because of their practices, I'm down to three pairs of available adjacent pages.

The first, and more obvious, problem is that depending on how finicky these countries want to get, I could potentially be in a situation where I may only be able to get three more visas before having to renew my passport - much earlier than its expiry date in 2012. The second, and potentially much bigger, problem is that if I have to renew my passport, this means I also need to get a new US student visa which in turn could screw up my future work authorization. The period of time between the granting of my new student visa and law school graduation may end up being too short to qualify for the oh-so-important OPT. Argh!!

Well, I'm going to see if I can try to convince the immigration officials to only stamp my passport on pages that already have stamps but still have space on the pages... hopefully that won't piss them off too much and they'll still let me in the country despite my high maintenance requests. That or I'll be forced to only visit places where I won't require a visa... problem is those places are few and far in between thanks to the nonexistent efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Bahamas.

Brownie Points for Cambodia

I never thought I'd find myself saying this but, many a country - including the "developed" ones - could do to take a page out of Cambodia's book.

As a citizen of a nation where our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is quite possibly one of the most useless ones out there, I have to obtain tourist (and/or transit) visas for practically everywhere. I'm sure you can imagine the aggravation and hassle this involves for anyone who might want to actually leave the country now and again to visit someplace other than a fellow commonwealth nation.

Usually, it involves at least two trips to the embassy of a the desired destination country (and if you know anything about any government office anywhere, that means lots of waiting, both times), shelling out some cash, and scrambling to find additional passport photos. All for a single entry visa... too bad if you're planning on making multiple trips. You'll need to return to the beginning and repeat the entire process (unless you are lucky enough to be visiting one of the few countries that grant multiple-entry tourist visas).

So, you can only imagine my surprise to discover that Cambodia, in it's technological advancement, gives tourists the option of applying for their visa online. They evidently want to make it as easy as possible for tourists to visit their country and I have to commend them on the entire process. Three things in particular won me over (not that I needed much extra beyond an online application):
(1) the entire application process took about 5 minutes to complete
(2) you don't need a standard passport photo... as long as the picture is only of you, comprised mostly of your head & shoulders, and your head is facing forward, you're all set and
(3) very fast response time... I submitted my application online at 12:30 am and when I woke up this morning at 8:30 am there was my approval notice.

Now, if only places, like France, would follow suit I'd really be happy.