Namibia revokes visa free entry to 31 countries

[Sketchy1973]

Lol $85! I took my wife out for her birthday and spent twice that much. Like someone else said, if a Namibian gets charged for a visa to travel to another country, The Namibia government can charge too.

Spend a week in Hawaii and see what your daily resort fees add up to.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

A shuttle/taxi ride/Uber ride to/from the airport and/or long term parking at the airport for your trip will likely cost as much if not more than this Visa fee. Big deal.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Namibia has the second lowest population density of any country in the world. You talk about RSA like it is Africa in its entirety and it is just frustrating to see you do it over and over again.

This is a thread about NAMIBIA and you have gone on about South Africa and posted a picture of a sign from South Africa.

I get everyone can and Should have opinions.
But you constantly blabber none useful information on threads

I see. So if Namibia is such a safe place, why is the UK overrun with its asylum seekers?

RSA has places that are remote enough for me. But no place that I know of where the hunter can be dropped off and DYI for a week or two. As I read it, hunting requirements are no different in Namibia. Nice job taking that out of context.

Lon has in this thread expounded on what's happening with gun regs in Zimbabwe and I know from discussions with my PH it's a mess in RSA too. And it doesn't take a wizard to figure out why it's happening. We all know what Mozambique went through. Namibia may be some isolated African enclave where everyone lives in blissful harmony with an efficient and honest government. If so I haven't read about it. Sure seems to be a lot of folks are trying to leave.

The message seems to be go now if you dream of hunting Africa. It will only get more difficult down the road.

This visa fee does not make sense. It's silly to throw up regulations purely for perceptions of "parity." Canada and US have immigration issues that are entirely different than anything Namibia may be facing ... if it is indeed facing any immigration issues. Namibia needs to look after its own domestic issues, not worry about building some silly notions of international parity that can only hurt the country's tourism economy.

 

[Vintageguy]

Seems fair. Namibia is a country I hope to visit and hunt and that’s because it appears to be a gem from what I can tell. Southern Africa has so many places that need to be seen and hunted that I wish I had begun sooner.

 

[Sideshow]

Guess I’ll dust of that NZ passport

 

[fourfive8]

They can charge whatever they want and travelers can snivel as loud as they like- but 88 USD in ‘24 doesn’t seem much out of line. I think Mugabe was charging around $35 plus a $20 “lubrication” few a few years ago, don’t know now for Zim.

Reminds of Visa entry experience I had a few years ago in Tete, Mozambique. Fill out a little entry card in Portuguese and wait in line outside a tiny office for the officer to call you in. Outside the office, a sign clearly states $75 Visa fee. The lady in charge calls you in when your turn and informs you the fee is now $85. So you put exact change back in your wallet and pull out a $100 bill. She puts it in her purse, recovers $15 change, hands you the change and you get a digital fingerprint. Especially funny when you are missing the finger they need to fingerprint All I could do was laugh as they tried to sort out their dilemma! Like a computer tasked to solve a mathematical paradox…. hehehe

I think there are more important things to worry about on an Africa trip than an $88 Visa charge

 

[Hank2211]

Three things.

First, I don’t see that the fact that Namibia doesn’t have an illegal immigration’s issue, as do Canada and the US, is relevant here. There are lots of reasons countries may impose visa requirements and illegal immigration is only one. In this case, as Namibia is saying, it’s a question of fairness.

Second, the amount is really nothing in the grand scheme of things. About the cost of a box of shells. Less than a day’s tip for a PH. And we charge them, so they charge us. On a tend day hunt, it’s less than $9/day. Again, fair is fair. Oh, and they could use the money way more than we in North America.

Third, Namibia, and Africa in general, are still the greatest places in the world to hunt - the variety of game (including especially dangerous game), the hunting biomes, the cultures one encounters, the number of animals one can take on any given hunt, the value equation, and more, mean that Africa will continue to be the world’s greatest destination for hunters for so long as hunting is allowed.

And for what it’s worth, Africa governments may be (actually generally are) corrupt, but at least the corruption is relatively visible and minor for the average hunter (it’s different for those who live there, I admit). The corruption which exists in North America tends to be generally more hidden. We aren’t any better. We’ve just made a science of it. That’s not to say I’d rather live there than here, but we need to be careful about patting ourselves on the back too often or too hard. Could break an arm.

 

[wesheltonj]

I’ve paid lots of Visa fees. The ones that suck are the ones that you have to obtain in advance - mail your passport to the consulate or their “official visa office”

On the other hand , Visa on arrival not a problem.

Reciprocity, BS it’s a tax. Just another way to raise revenue,.

 

[revturbo9967]

I’ll gladly pay the 85 bucks when I go in 26. Who cares.

 

[revturbo9967]

African politics in general are making hunting there less desirable every year. That should have clarified it for you.

Less desirable for who? Who the heck doesn’t hunt a country because of government policy that has no impact on the hunting itself?

 

[BryceM]

I've been to Namibia 7 times. Entry is generally easy for US citizens. Rifle import is an absolute joy compared to the nonsense in Johannesburg. When my PH wanted to come visit the US with his family, it required a 4-hour drive to the capital several weeks in advance to meet with a US diplomat to process their visitation visa. Of course, the USA charged a hefty fee too.

I understand the rationale of the Namibian government, but this is probably the wrong way to go about it. In the end I think it will have none of the desired effect (to be treated fairly by the US and Eurozone countries) and ultimately it will hurt tourism.

This point was really driven home to me during a recent SNAFU while returning from my last trip. The JNB-ATL flight was cancelled at the last minute, leaving a couple hundred of us scrambling for options. Delta ultimately put me on a LATAM flight through Sao Paulo the next day, but many SA and other African citizens had to wait 4 or 5 days for available space on Delta. I naively asked many of them, "Why don't they just send you through Europe or South America?" Of course, the answer was SA citizens couldn't transit those countries without a visa. Not a visa issued on entry. A visa requiring an application many weeks in advance.

Those of us in the US are sometimes ignorant of the comparative ease with which we move around the world.

 

[ActionBob]

Especially funny when you are missing the finger they need to fingerprint All I could do was laugh as they tried to sort out their dilemma! Like a computer tasked to solve a mathematical paradox…. hehehe

Did you offer the stump to be printed,) LMAO

 

[C.W. Richter]

Caribou is the attraction now. I have three kudu and two buffalo on the wall. Alaska has dangerous game too, though I'm not much interested in shooting bears. I'm becoming more concerned that hunting in Africa may result in having to shoot the two legged dangerous game. Not interested in killing someone's kid even if he deserves it. Been on the receiving end of that grief.
View attachment 626672
I'm not ready to call it quits in Africa yet, but the way things are going the future is not looking promising. Bird hunting here is, fortunately, still accessible and affordable. Won't get me a big set of horns for the wall but I filled that unnecessary necessity fifty years ago. A drop off DYI caribou hunt in remote Alaska is sounding better all the time. I did live up there for a bit. Being remote would be a welcome change from this rat race. No one to wash my clothes every day or blow smoke up my arse when I make (or miss) a shot, but I have done without that hunting before.

Caribou are excellent eating my son and his two friends bagged three of them with a bow on the North slope last year.

 

[C.W. Richter]

But fear not Harris is in your blood LOL that number will be inflated further next time 'round!!! "Don't be stupid you moron!" -Ben Stern

 

[C.W. Richter]

Sorry I should clarify for those that have taken new math lol by having dopey presidents that understand nothing about our economy because they are in essence puppets they even called Joe the placeholder president and look who they're trying to replace him with... The tremendous additional expense to the average American prohibits them from going on Safaris! A frugal person could have possibly done their Big five on that budget. And good old Sudwest Afrika (Namibia) is a wonderful place to go on Safari! So many options the ocean hunting on horseback where there are no roads hunting DG up in the caprivi along the mighty Zambezi, the chobe, and the beginnings of the okavango delta. Where else can you take off to visit Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana and the continued Kalahari in the RSA??? It is literally a diamond. Been there twice son thrice and we'll definitely be back. Great friends great place. And although they have great PG hunting including wild red lechwe and sitatunga off the top of my head you can do five of the dangerous seven there!! And then it's just a short drive or flight complete the drill in Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana or RSA!

 

[C.W. Richter]

A shuttle/taxi ride/Uber ride to/from the airport and/or long term parking at the airport for your trip will likely cost as much if not more than this Visa fee. Big deal.

$250 One Way by me LOL apparently it's the fee to escape NYC!

 

[J.Ogilvie]

Honestly, considering the cost of a safari in Namibia (especially for dangerous game), a 90 USD visa really isn't that bad.

 

[revturbo9967]

Honestly, considering the cost of a safari in Namibia (especially for dangerous game), a 90 USD visa really isn't that bad.

It’s 35 for Zimbabwe, but the cost of a safari in Zim is much, much more. All we need to do is stop drinking super double lattes with whipped cream for 2 weeks and we will be able to afford it.

 

[Tra3]

This seems pretty normal to me.
If you look at airline fees, many airports also charge a “tax” that is included in your ticket price. That includes national airports!

An additional $85 has no impact whatsoever on the cost of a hunt. But it is good to know in advance so I can have the $$ ready upon arrival.
Most of us spend 10x that just on ammo for practice before going on a safari.

 

[fourfive8]

Did you offer the stump to be printed,) LMAO

Yes I did. Both she and her uniformed assistant had the “deer in headlights” look. I didn’t want to insult them by laughing out loud. I just smiled and kept shrugging my shoulders as they spent several minutes and many repetitions, picking up both my hands trying to solve the unsolvable conundrum of taking a digital print from a finger that didn’t exist… with the instructions stating, “Right Index Finger”.

I did feel some empathy for them and can’t remember exactly how it was resolved… I think they used either my left index or right middle finger ??