Volunteers applying for a visa – #2

Applying for a visa to Volunteer in Cameroon

Do the following:

1) Call the Cameroon embassy in Washington DC and

2) Call VisaHQ.com and talk to them about your visa needs to go and serve in Cameroon. VisaHQ.com is a commendable service that helps many people for a fee. They are not required but very highly recommended because many African embassies are hard to deal with. The Cameroon embassy will not give visas that cover an entire year of stay. Visa HQ only does short-term visas ( 3 months or less). If you are planning on remaining in Cameroon for longer than 3 months, you have two options:

1) Apply for a long-term visa (6 months) directly through the Cameroon embassy in Washington DC. You need to read the forms that you download from their website very carefully. Apply early and be patient with them. Check this link >>

2) Get a 3 month visa through VisaHQ (which is easier) or Cameroon embassy and then extend it to 6 months when you get to Cameroon. With this option, you are delaying some of the hard work for later to do it in Cameroon. You’ll need to travel to the capital city, Yaounde, which is about 7 hrs away. We will provide you with a travel guide and you will be responsible for their bus fair to and from Yaounde.  The second option should cost you an extra 80 to 100 dollars.

Note: If you are planning to stay for one year, you will need to apply for residency after you have been in country for 5 months. It will cost about $500 for the residency application alone plus maybe another 100 dollars for travel expenses to and from Yaounde.

Your goal is to talk to the embassy, know their requirements, deadlines etc for the visa.  Also take a quick look at the forms that need to be filled out just to familiarize yourself with them before hand. Then talk with VisaHQ.com (even if you won’t use them in the end) and ask them how they could help.

Note: We will be giving you an invitation letter from Cameroon to use to apply the visa later.

After you have done this, write a short 250 to 300 word report of what you have found and include a plan that you will take to get your visa as your time for traveling approaches.