The paperwork is not a funny part when organising a Round the World Trip, but you gotta do it. If you give it a though well in advance, the easier it will look. Information and documents are available everywhere, the hard is to find the ones which suit us. The paperwork can be divided into three parts: visa, insurance and credit card. The first being the most tiring and expensive bit. We want to show you a preview of the paperwork needed. You can read more on the articles related.
Visa:
The procedures for a visa application are differents for each country. Not only differents but they can change very often, it’s important to be on the loop of 
exigences and delays. To apply for a visa, we can pick one of these two ways: you can either hire an agence which will deal with the consulates for you – charging up to twice the price of the visa -, or if you have the time and the patience, you can do it yourself. The embassies and consulates have very restrict opening hours, normally, Monday to Friday from 9h to 12h. The queueing time depends on the country’s popularity. To get to know the documents needed, have a look on the website of the embassies. Pay attention to special requests for certain countries – for instance, the invitation letter issued by an official travel agency for those applying for a russian tourist visa. A hint, try to build up a calendar for your applications, as far as we need quite a lot for a Round the World Trip: match the delivery dates with the dates and time for the next demand. Have a look at the box below.
The price of the visas represents 5% of the trip’s total budget – some numbers for a french passport: 23 euros for Syria, 70 euros for Uzbekistan, 35 euros for Russia, no needed for US or Japan or Brazil.
Credit Card:
The choice of a credit card is very important, it’s surely the most straighforward mode of payment. Of course, you gotta keep some cash on you for the emergencies, but if we think about its security and facilities, a credit card is a must have for a Round the World trip. Sometimes forgotten when budgeting, the fees of a credit card are always high. The majority of banks charge – when travelling abroad – a comission to withdraw money or to make payments. If we add it up all these little pennies
we arrive easily to a couple of hundreds euros. It’s very important to choose a reliable and profitable credit card. We can find credit cards offering extra services like insurance or travel assistance. Take that on board when you sign up for a credit card. Normally banks work in one of these two ways: high monthly fees but very low or inexistant comission for withdraws abroad, or the opposite, low monthly rates but high comission. Pick the more profitable for your trip.
Insurance:
We will never use it, but we can’t go without having it. For long trips, the risk of having some trouble increases, getting an insurance is the wise option. There’s all sorts of travel insurance, but also travel insurance which are included in your house or vehicule insurance. Before buying an expensive – or dodgy – policy on the internet, contact your traditional insurer and you may found out you have already paid for it. Don’t forget the insurances offered by your credit card, they can be a very good deal.
