Where African Congo beats the US

MOLE'S EYE VIEW

My curiosity about the Democratic Republic of Congo "" a mineral-rich poor country in central Africa "" was aroused when I came to know that the visa fee for a first-time visitor could be as high as Rs 18,750 (multiple entry, one year).

The lowest entry fee for a first time visitor to this violence-ridden country, once a Belgian colony, is Rs 12,250. That is about the same you would have to pay to get a business visa for Colombia.

In contrast, you could get entry into the haloed land of the US for just about Rs 7,000 while Britain would let you in for Rs 4,000 only. I decided to check out some other countries and was surprised by what I found.

Some countries like UAE do not issue visas locally. Business travellers would need a sponsor in UAE (that is a requirement common to many countries) who would also manage all the requisite permissions.

If you are a tourist, you are nudged to their national airline Emirates. "It is better to fly Emirates if going to UAE. Things (read visa formalities) are then easy," a frequent traveller tells me.

Even the embassy directed me to the website/help-line which is managed by Emirates. The airline is currently running a campaign to promote the 4-day-Rs 1,600-visa, boldly stating the advantage of a visa application routed through Emirates: "Passengers do not require to locate a sponsor in UAE." I wonder why Air-India never thought of that.

You could get into Venezuela for almost the same price as UAE (Rs 1,350- Rs 2,700) while Singapore would welcome you for a mere Rs 500. Move across to dragon country China and the charges range from Rs 1,300 to Rs 3,900. The visa fee for American visitiors, probably because they are richer, are higher.

An entry into Mexico is possible for just for Rs 1,500 but you would have to wait for a few weeks for the approvals which have to come from Mexico itself. Time is also a factor for all the CIS countries, and with Russia too, which requires a green signal from Moscow for most visas.

And if you are planning to stay in Russia for more than three months, then you need to carry HIV results to get the visa, though the correlation between time and HIV beats me.

I have my doubts about how welcoming we are with visitors to India "" I do recall our former ambassador to US Naresh Chandra saying that he planned to write a book on "How to survive help from Indian missions overseas."

I am also given to understand that visa-related complaints from businessmen in China and Pakistan routinely pour into the offices of industry organisations like FICCI.

The industry body is however more concerned with problems faced by the Indian business community travelling overseas. It has been pushing the MEA mandarins to ensure easier and faster visa availability of visas.

"We want the local offices here to be empowered to issue visas," says FICCI's deputy secretary general Rajan Kohli.

The focus countries for this exercise are Russia, CIS and Middle Eastern countries. Sadly, the Democratic Republic of Congo does not figure in its list of priority countries.