I'm Irish. What countires do I need a visa for?

Civilian_Target

Is there a good list of countries that Irish people need visas for, like a wiki?
I am an Irish citizen living in France, and all the countries I need to go to have embassies in France, so I can just call if need be.

But I have been looking online, and can't find very solid, consistent information on this. Note that I will be arriving and leaving by car.

Here's the best guesses, based on what I found online:

Morocco - Not required
Mauritania - Maybe
Senegal - Not required
Guinea - Not required
Mali - Probably, $80
Côte d'Ivoire - Not required, if proof of residence in France is provided
Burkina Faso - Probably, $25, available at border
Ghana - Probably, $30, probably available at border
Togo - Unknown, probably
Benin - Maybe. Proof of French residency may dodge visa requirement
Nigeria - Probably required, $100
Cameroon - Required

But, it's all a bit up in the air. Anyone know some good comprehensive sources?

Civilian_Target

Just to clarify, we are talking tourist visas, single entry, with a stay of less than 3 weeks

RATM

I dont know of any website where you'd get all that information in one go. But even if there is one there is a good chance some info could be out of date. Visa requirements can change on the whim of the Dept of Foreign Affairs in each country and they don't really go to any trouble to advertise changes, they just tend to happen.
Id say your best bet is to email all the countries embassies in Paris and ask. Also if you plan on driving your car through those countries you'll need something called a carnet, kind of like a passport for cars. Even with that documentation you can expect a lot of border officials to be suspect of you bringing the car into the country for sale rather than for transport.

Civilian_Target

Yes. All French vehicles come supplied with a carnet and carte grise.

The car will be for sale in Cameroon, and we will be supplying documentation in French to show this.

unreggd

Magical map Here

Boo-ya

RATM

Handy map that alright. But as I said in the previous post Id be reluctant to rely on them as there is a chance they might be out of date. Case in point -Bangladesh-the map says you don't need a visa before arrival but I would tend to question that.
They give out transit visas on arrival but you now have to have a visa organised in advance if you intend staying there. At least that was the case in September 2008 when I passed through Dhaka for a night.

Another case- Syria- its well known that the official rules states members of the EU are entitled to a visa on arrival at its borders. Whilst this is generally no problems if flying into Damascus it can be a problem if you are travelling overland from Turkey/Leb/Iraq or Jordan. Syrian border officials make up their own rules so there's no way Id show up at the border without having one in advance.

And finally Egypt is visa free but if you arrive onto the Sinai penisula by ferry from Jordan or overland through Israel you are give a special Sinai visa that will not permit you onward travel to Cairo. To do so you'd have to go all the way back to the Egyptian embassy in Aqaba, Jordan and wait 5 days to get a proper Egyptian visa.

Gaz

Sorry to correct you RATM but I got a Syrian visa at the border for a fairly steep $50 , was a very straight forward process and for Egypt I got a visa for $15 (Sinai only was free) Only problem I had with dodgy border guards was when leaving Egypt to enter Sudan.

Mike...

unreggd wrote: »

Magical map Here

Boo-ya

where ya get the map its brilliant.

RATM

Gaz wrote: »

Sorry to correct you RATM but I got a Syrian visa at the border for a fairly steep $50 , was a very straight forward process and for Egypt I got a visa for $15 (Sinai only was free) Only problem I had with dodgy border guards was when leaving Egypt to enter Sudan.

Well the Kiwi girl I was travelling with only got entrance after nearly 2 hours of explaining herself, they probably only let her in because she was flirting with the border guards like mad
And your right it was $50 for her at the Turkish/Syrian border. I also met some Aussies who got through with no hassles whatsoever and I met a French guy in Damascus who got refused and had to go all the way back to Ankara to get a Syrian visa. That was all in the space of a week so Im just saying that although you can show up at a Syrian border with no visa it is unwise to do so- especially if you want to be sure of not having to back track all the way to Ankara to get one. Syrian border officials pay no attention to policy coming out of Damascus and whether you get in or not can be down to the whim of the immigration official in charge on the day.

But the point Im making is maps that tell you what countries do and do not require a visa in advance can be unreliable and the best way the OP can go about checking to to email each embassy in Paris rather than relying on a map that doesn't update itself when changes are made.

Civilian_Target

Thanks for the map, very helpful.
Most of the things I knew before are confirmed. A couple are still up in the air (suggestions that I can get more visas at the border than the map marks), do you have the page that references the map?

Gaz

Actually I just remembered, regarding Syrian visas, you can only get one at the border if your country has no Syrian embassy. If it does, you will be refused entry. So for us Irish just arriving at the border is fine.