The Welcoming Comity

Every country has different ways of clearing customs and how they manage visas for different countries.

As a Canadian (or any country really) getting into Tanzania is a very interesting process!

Local weather in Tanzania on my week of arrival.

My experience started with coming down the stairs of the Terminal 2 arrival gates into the customs area. From there I was to fill two papers. A small blue 10cm by 10cm customs card as well as an A4 visa application. From there on I went to a custom agent on the right who you hand the Visa application too and he then asks for the set price for the wanted visa. Since I had requested a 90 day holiday visa the cost would be 50$ US. I didn’t have any local or USD since I had just gotten off my flight. The one thing you learn quick once you arrive here is that things work in a very odd way here. You walk past the customs agent WITHOUT having cleared customs yet and walk out of the airport to the closest money exchange. Only problem is they didn’t accept the Australian currency I had so I had to do a quick trip to the airport ATM (the only ATM I’ve seen since arriving here). The ATM dispenses the local Tanzanian Shilling. I then went back to the visa/custom agent who was holding my passport and asked how much it would cost in local Shillings. He informed me that they don’t accept Shillings and that I had to go exchange the shillings into USD.

Once paid, I had to wait for my visa to get processed. This took about 25 minutes. One thing weird about Tanzania is once you’ve gotten your visa you pretty are cleared to enter the country. The custom agents don’t care about speaking to you if they’ve seen you speak to the visa agents.

I proceeded to the local Qatar Airways lady to fill out a report about my lost luggage. This took another hour or so due to everything here operating on the VERY slow speed that the locals are so accustomed too.

From there I took a taxi from the main terminal 2 to the domestic terminal 1. Terminal one is about a 2 minute drive away and actually won’t let you enter it unless you have a boarding pass or a good reason to enter. Most companies offices are inside terminal 1 and without any kind of ID it is VERY hard to get in.

After convincing the security lady and trading my passport for a visitor ID I was scanned and let in. 

I proceeded to meet my new boss. I was told I had the wrong visa and should go back to terminal 2 immigration and ask for the temporary 2 months work visa. 40 minutes and 200$USD later (which I was happy to learn that my company paid) I was now legal to work in Tanzania.