Applying for visas is one of the most stressful but must-do process in order for you to do business, work or study abroad.

If you travel abroad a lot for your business, wasting your time in immigration office is not effective and efficient business practice.

I understand all the difficulties as I occasionally apply for non-tourist visas.

One of my own experiences

Here’s one of my cases in applying for visas – In this case, visa for USA.

I live in a South East region – Jakarta, Indonesia to be exact, and I finally realised that going to the US is not easy.

In my case, going to the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and other European countries are much, much easier in term of immigration complexities and visa law.

To make matters worse, I need to go abroad (to study for Postgraduate Degree in Seattle University) a while after the historical 9/11 – US immigration has becoming paranoid and ultra-strict, especially for visa applicants from where I live. And no, I’m not immigrating to the US (I assume it would be more complex to immigrate to the US.)

I was rejected once for some obscure reasons involving funds supporting my study. In my second visit, my application was accepted after presenting tons of financial evidences to support my study, BUT I had to wait for some undefined time for ‘screening’ – I suspect to screen my background whether I am related to the terrorists or not :D

I considered this a waste of time and could missed me a year off the plan I’ve made. To cut a long story short, I decided to go for UK, studying for MBA in University of Wolverhampton back in 2002.

How to reduce your visas and immigration hassles

My mistake, at that time, is to apply for visas myself. It might appear cost-effective, but with the right help you can save valuable resources.

I recommend you to seek for services that can aid you getting your visas, either for business, work or study needs. There are practically plenty of companies offering similar services, but some do have more credibility than the others.

One of the services I recommend is Global Visas – Global Visas offers two services to acquire Canadian, UK or US visas: Corporate Immigration Services and Individual Fully Assisted Service. Why I recommend it? The company is founded by a former immigration official who witnessed days-in and days-out the difficulties facing individuals and organisations alike during his career.

If you going abroad for business, I think you should use such services in exchange for affordable service fees, as losing business opportunities due to your visa application’s failure is the least thing you would want to happen to your business.

Ivan Widjaya
Applying for business visas
Image by Dr Aek Muldoon.