Travisa Visa Service

they don’t require a signature when they Fedex your passport and visa, so it was stolen off of my front porch. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE.

BEWARE OF TRAVISA!!! Like many travelers, my wife and I are well aware that countries like China, India & Russia have unusually complicated and restrictive visa requirements and require in-​person applications. This is a serious inconvenience for tourists (and is intended to be). Naturally, this situation presents a very profitable business opportunity for firms like Travisa. My remarks here simply reflect the reality customers will likely encounter when using this online travel document service.
We needed to apply for 2 ordinary tourist visas for China and Vietnam. Unfortunately, at Travisa, each and every service transaction is an opportunity charge. If one applies directly to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, the visa fee is $ 140 per person. This fee is magically increased to $ 150 going through Travisa. This upcharge appears to be consistent throughout Travisa’s fee structure. Travisa also charges $ 10 above the normal $ 80 visa fee for the Vietnamese Consulate. After our regrettable experience using Travisa, we applied directly for our Vietnam visas without a problem.
Travisa also charges $ 31.95 for their document return service. Getting your passport & visa documents returned is normally $ 8 for a FedEx prepaid envelope… at the most an $ 18 maximum sent anywhere in the USA. In addition, our payment to Travisa using a credit card was greeted with a $ 8.40 «processing fee.» Apparently, the customer is expected to pay for Travisa’s operating costs in addition to the basic service fee of $ 79 (up from $ 72 in December). What’s next, a 5% add-​on fee for Travis’s facility lighting & heating costs?
Wait, there’s more. Our professionally produced standard passport-​size photos presumably had issues, even though these same photos were successfully used for our US passports and several visas for other countries. Curiously, these photo «issues» disappeared as soon as I agreed to pay a $ 14.95 charge for each photo as a processing fee. I transmitted electronically the exact same photos I attached to the visa applications we originally submitted, so Travisa could deliver these «improved» photos to the Chinese Consulate.
In summary, the total expense for our 2 tourist visas to simply enter China came to $ 518.25. The total fees would have been $ 280.00 had we driven to San Francisco to apply in person. Clearly, a $ 238.25 opportunity charge virtually doubled the Chinese Consulate visa fees — this is excessive by any reasonable standard. Shame on Travisa!
Certainly, any firm has an obligation to operate profitably. Sadly, Travisa has pushed their fee structure completely over the cliff. Frankly, I find the fees charged for the services I received to be excessive, exploitive, opportunistic and predatory. Calling this a «travel document management service» is disingenuous by any measure. It’s a money grab, plain and simple.
My wife and I are veteran world travelers and have seen our share of scams during our lifetime of travels — most of which we’ve avoided. Whenever I encounter situations that are over-​the-​top unreasonable, I make a point to push back and provide maximum exposure about the conduct of the wrongdoer. I trust that in this case, the considerable online viewership of Unilocal will have a negative impact that far exceeds the $ 238.25 gotcha fees we were charged by Travisa.

Nightmare! Don’t use Travisa!!! I switched to VisaHQ and got personal attention from one human being who made my whole Visa nightmare go away! I needed expedited VISAs for both Nigeria and Uganda. At Travisa, I followed all the directions on their web site, but their web site for Uganda was out of date! A person on the phone gave me the same out of date information and told me the reason I had trouble was because I was on a Mac. She said use a PC with Firefox and I wouldn’t have the problem. Wrong. The Ugandan Embassy had changed their online form (you couldn’t print it at the end). Not the end of the trouble. I followed their online instructions and filled in the Wash DC Nigerian Embassy form, with online payment. Followed their online instructions and filled in the Wash DC Uganda Embassy form. Then, still as instructed, tried to fill in Travisa’s online form only to have it accept Wash DC as the location to get the Nigerian Visa and list ONLY New York for the Uganda Visa. When I called in the first time, the person told me I could only get my Uganda Visa thru their New York office — but I’d already paid the fee for the Wash DC office for Nigeria. Thought I’d simply skip the Uganda visa and get it at the airport on arrival (used to be allowed), but fortunately I checked again online. As of June 1, 2016, you have to get it in advance. Called Travisa back again, this time the person told me, yes, I could choose Wash DC on their Uganda form — but that was not an option on my screen. Again told it was because I was on a Mac. It would all work on a PC using Firefox. Wrong! Same problem on a PC with Firefox. Never use Travisa — it was much more expensive, on hold quite awhile every time I had to call, never got the same representative, received different stories each time I called, wasted 3 hours and it was very stressful because they made it appear that I would not be able to get my visas in time. Nightmare!

Sadly this company used to be excellent but in recent years they have gone crazy with nickel and dime «a la carte» extra fees, now charging extra for things that the base Visa fee formerly covered.
For example one of the benefits of using them was they would check your application and be sure you hadn’t missed anything… I must have used them several dozen times over the years, and every once in a while I’d get a nice call or email about a missing detail… Well now apparently any review of your application is an extra $ 40. Oh and with a nice disclaimer that if they find a problem and you send in a new application the document check fee doesn’t apply anymore and you would have to pay again to get it re-​checked. Really? For $ 40 on TOP of the base fee I’d think they could at least be nice enough to say «yeah we’ll check your app as well as at least 1 amended application in case it’s necessary».
Another example — used to be you had a good range of shipping options including no charge to provide your own Fedex number. Now they want $ 5 to use your own Fedex number to send your package back. If you don’t like that the next option is $ 32 for them to use their Fedex account to send it to you. Really? $ 5 just to write my number on the label? Which you’d have to do anyway? The base fee isn’t enough to cover writing my number on the label?
This could be OK if the base fee was dirt cheap but its not — $ 80 for a Chinese Visa. When this included good service and no hassles it was one thing, but nickel and diming to add fees and get more cash is bogus unfortunately. That $ 80 should be well enough money to take 2 minutes to write my Fedex account number on the airbill and maybe give me the option to send it 2^nd day instead of overnight.
Unfortunately was a loyal repeat user but now looking for a new service based on their money grubbing «everything costs extra» strategy. Clearly somebody came in and said «lets leave the prices the same, strip out the services and charge extra for everything!»
Amazingly they don’t charge to send you a text when your order is complete — but just stand by, I’m sure that will be a $ 15 upcharge soon…
Giving 2 stars and not 1 because at least they do take care of business when it comes to the Visa processing, have always been 100% reliable on that…

Went through the online process, shipped my documents, and was then told that they could not process a Visa for me within the time frame. This cost me $ 60 in shipping fees. I understand that sometimes they can only do so much, but my agent was not especially helpful and didn’t really go above and beyond to answer my questions or help me through the process.
Luckily, I found another amazing Visa service that was able to get it for me in time! I’ll use them from here on out.

Great service, very helpful and received our visa much faster than expected. We will use them again.

I’ve used these guys twice to get visas for India– they are incredibly helpful and responsive and know their way around the process — I’ll use them again in a second and recommend them highly

A scam company. Avoid unless you want to toss money away.
I purchased the Birth Certificate validation help for a new passport and they sent me an automated email response with the wrong last name (different than the application form). I emailed them asking for a refund for the wrong service and received no responses.
This is definitely the worse passport related company in SF. There are plenty more on Unilocal.They have a low rating for a reason.
Avoid this scam.

came here to get schengen visa for visiting Norway… Waited a while because of the delay. I went in a bit later than my appointment but the person before me still wasn’t done… The receptionist was nice but she was trying to reschedule me because I was late but to be fair, I don’t think I should be rescheduled since even if I did arrive on time, I would have to wait anyway
I insisted on talking to the guy handing the e schengen visa, and he was nice enough to help handle my case after he is done with other people. I waited and noticed how they could not keep up with the appointment and each person got delayed for at least 15 mins…
The guy I believe his name was Garrett was super nice and stayed past 5 pm which is technically the closing time to help me. He was also very nice with answering all my questions. Would love to give him (not the place) 5 stars+ if that is possible

I used them to renew my passport less than a month before my trip after realizing that if I went through the government I would be cutting it way too close.
Printed everything I needed, followed their instructions, overnighted my package to them, they responded the next day with an email for me to clarify something, sent them the paperwork via email and everything was fine. I selected the 3 – 10 day service and my passport was ready in 4 days. Awesome customer service and TOTALLY worth the money I spent to not go through the government process.

I just used Travisa’s SF office to obtain a tourist visa for Kazakhstan. The front desk staff, Victoria, was very helpful and friendly. I was told that the visa would be returned in 13 days, but to my surprise, it was returned in just 11 days. Additionally, I really appreciated the online status check which allowed me to follow the application process through each step. By dropping off and picking up at Travisa’s SF office, I also saved $ 60 in overnight shipping costs (recommend others to do the same). Overall, I had a very positive experience with Travisa, and I would use them again.

What a terriable experience I had with them this week. My trip is June 9^th. In between, I have another short trip to LA. So, I can not apply visa myself like before. I decided to use Travisa service and mailed my application in May 26. May 27 I got a confirmation email that my application is received. May 28 I got email stating my application was reviewed and needed one more doc. and ⁶⁄₄ my visa should be arrived. I turned in the doc. and started my short trip by thinking all doc. are ready. May 29 noon, the time my application should be turned in to SF China embassy, I got another email stating «Travisa did ANOTHER review» that more doc. are needed. I was on the road and had no access to computer. I sent some questions and request back, the reply came three hours later. It is Fri. and there is no way my application could be turned in the same day anymore. With their service, there is no promise I would get my visa on time. So, I canceled the order with Travisa and postponed my China ticket. I canceled my short trip by turning back after driving 100 miles. I am planning to do the visa on Mon. myself. When I found Travisa on Unilocal and thought leave my feedback, I found out I was not alone on the bad experience. Speechless!

Terrible experience.
I was constantly asked to pay more throughout the process, given wrong information multiple times leading to a missed plane ticket without my India Visa. Still have not received my passport back after 2 months and am being told I cannot have it until I pa. I cannot afford, nor do I want to pay for the terrible service they have given me, but I have to if I want my own passport back!
Any other route to get a visa is probably a better one.

* I fast-​tracked an application for an Indian visa
* Rhonda F was my consultant, and helped me get great service, with good communication.
* My only complaint is the «website description» of the application process. Please hire me (or somebody) to clean that up, and make it a Modern Checklist, or some very, very clear list of the things needed.
* Specifically, too many things you need to photocopy or send, are buried deep within English, «and», «or», «else», «if then», clauses.
* Please, break that out. Flatten it. Make it more like a checklist.
*I do this for a living, so I know what I’m talking about. Please clean that up.
* That said, the service is good, and they communicate back to you if you have missed a document you need, etc.
* I got my Visa, early … ahead of schedule ! Thanks for the good work.

No other way is better for a complete visa service!

I am giving 3 stars to Travisa, because I have used their services for Visas to Russia for the last several years without problem. In fact in 2012 they were incredibly helpful. This year however, instead of getting a common tourist visa, we were trying to get a humanitarian visa. Each person I spoke with gave me a different answer. Yesterday, I e-​mailed someone and they took 8 hours to reply. In that time I contacted a different agency and was able to get my visa application completed correctly. They were comfortable answering my requests, unlike Travisa.
If you are getting a tourist visa, Travisa will be fine to use. Anything less common, I’d suggest using a different service.

Excellent service, I received my indian visa on time, Karina Favian is a excellent and polite person.
I highly recommend travisa

I had used Travisa for an Indian tourist visa back in 2011 and at that time they were efficient. However, since 2014 things have dramatically changed.
Note that all visas now go through CKGS who goes through the consulate directly and Travisa is a third party. This means that it will take even MORE time to process your visa than before. For me, this meant waiting for almost ONE MONTH.
I would recommend using another service that is more efficient. I will no longer use Travisa.

Worst visa service– the customer reps send you an email when they receive your documents, don’t guide you along with any specific (tricky) requirements or questions in acquiring your visa and make it a difficult process for you to send you back to do corrections. They only offered to reimburse my order, not my multiple Fed-​Ex fees. Will neither recommend nor use in the future, will go with Visa Express or elsewhere.

We were kicked off the transyberian railroad, detained overnight by the Russian government, fined, and deported into Mongolia because Travisa thought (and told us after we asked repeatedly with doubt) our train tickets (and visa dates) into Russia «arrive» when the train stops at the last stop (like a flight), not when it actually enters the country.
We send Travisa our tickets before hand for them to prepare everything for too. When we told them what happened, they refused to reimburse any of our expenses.