We’re heading to Bolivia soon to visit the Uyuni salt flats. As a U.S. citizen, you need a valid tourist visa to travel there. This post covers my most recent experience applying for one in person at the Bolivian Consulate in Washington, DC. I already had a visa from a previous trip, but this time I went to help Mr. Nacho get his.
I’ve actually been through this process twice now. First in 2019 for my own trip, and again recently to assist Mr. Nacho. It can be a bit tedious, mostly because of the number of documents you need to gather and double-check. So I’m sharing everything I learned here in case it helps make your visit to the consulate a little smoother.
How long is a tourist visa good for in Bolivia?
A tourist visa to Bolivia allows for 30 days per trip, not to exceed 90 days per year. The visa itself is good for 10 years.
Can I get a visa on arrival in Bolivia?
Yes, it is possible to get a tourist visa on arrival in Bolivia (with the same sort of document requirements and method for payment). I prefer to have peace of mind, so I wanted to have everything handled ahead of time. This is why I chose to get the visa ahead of time in person. This prevents the risk of being unprepared with documents or interacting with unreasonable immigration officers hoping for a bribe.
With that said, getting a visa at the border is faster than driving to DC, then waiting a few weeks to pick up the visa. Visas will cost $160 USD.
If paying at the border, make sure you have all your documents, and a credit card (or cash). If paying in cash, make sure the bills are clean and new without rips or tears. I read stories that certain bills will be rejected if not in pristine condition. You might also be asked for proof of yellow fever vaccination, but it seems like whether someone is asked can vary. When I traveled in 2019, immigration asked for my vaccination card. I replied that I was only traveling to Uyuni, and they let it pass.
Getting a tourist visa at the Bolivian Consulate in DC
Who does the DC location serve?
This location serves states in the immediate Washington, D.C. area, including Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia. It’s possible that this location could serve additional states, but I am not sure. There are other consulates throughout the rest of the U.S. that can probably issue tourist visas. It looks like there are consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami (but worth confirming online).
How long does it take to get a visa through the consulate?
All in all, at least a few weeks with each visit taking as much as one to a few hours. There will be two visits: the initial one and the visa pickup one.
The visits themselves can take an hour, if not longer. Then waiting for the visa to be ready could take a few weeks. For us, it took about a month. Going back to pick up the visa also took time because you still have to wait in the queue to pick up the visa.
It used to be in 2019 that you could get your visa the same day. It’s possible this timeframe could be expedited based on the date of your trip, but I am not sure how that works.
Preparing for the appointment
In addition to other core documents that you likely already have, you’re essentially ready to apply for your Bolivian tourist visa if you have a passport valid for at least six months beyond the duration of the trip, a passport photo, proof of your flights, general itinerary, and accommodations in Bolivia.
Gather your documents for the application
Gather the following documents (per boliviawdc.org) and and have scanned/saved/ready as PDFs. Most of these documents are needed for both the online application and the visit to the consulate.
- A 2” x 2” passport size photograph
- Hotel reservation confirmation (or invitation letter, or letter from person/place you are staying with)
- Airline tickets into and out of the country
- Travel itinerary
- Any relevant tour confirmations
- Bank Statement (the last 3) – this shows economic solvency demonstrating that you have sufficient financial resources to support yourself, ensuring you won’t become a burden on the host country
- You can redact/blacken out any sensitive account numbers
- Copy of your passport (for the online application only)
- TBD residency docs in your name (last 3 months)
Complete the online application
Fill out the application online, which can be found at boliviawdc.org. You can translate the page into English if you don’t speak Spanish. Note that the form is valid for 30 days from your registration date. So once you fill it out you have 30 days to get to the consulate.
It will ask you for a “Place of Expedition” (Lugar de expedicion). This I think means the place of issue of your passport. I put Estados Unidos and we had no issues.
You will need to upload your supplementary documents like your flight, itinerary, passport, etc. They have guidelines for accepted file types and sizes (e.g., PDF). I had to resize/remove pages for some of my flight/itinerary documents because the file sizes were too large so be aware of this possible limitation.
Make sure that the name on the application matches what is on the passport document, including middle names. We ran into this and during our appointment, we had to log back into the application from our phones and edit it.
Print everything you’ll need to bring
- Bring copies of the documents above (you don’t need to bring a copy of the passport)
- Also print the application (and don’t forget to sign it)
- Note: If you are traveling with a family member, documents proving your relationship, such as a birth certificate or marriage certificate, may be required (but we did not experience the need for this)
Arriving at the Bolivian Consulate in DC
We arrived about 15-20 minutes before the office opened. We found there generally is ample street parking on weekday mornings, and I believe street parking in this area is free for the first two hours.
When we got to the door, 15 people were already in line for the elevator. The consulate is on the 2nd floor, if I remember correctly. Someone has to badge in to be able to get to the floor before the consulate opens.
Once it was time for the consulate to open, folks got into the elevator to head up. When we got through the doors to the consulate, there was a woman at the entrance standing by a kiosk. She asked what each visitor was there for and then proceeded to give them a ticket. When we got to the front of the line, I shared that we were applying for a tourist visa and she asked if we had completed the application online. I responded yes.
It’s much easier if you speak Spanish to let her know that you’re there, and you can show her the copy of the application as well. You can also pre-write or print what you’re there for in Spanish to show them.
Waiting to be seen
The center of the room had rows of 4-5 seats for folks to sit and wait until they were ready to be seen. The seats faced a large TV at the end of the room which played Bolivian dance and musical performances, with different ticket numbers being called underneath. One side of the room had desks for staff to meet with people, and on the other side was just a wall with two Bolivian flag stands.
Once you get your ticket, you can take a seat and wait for your ticket number to be called and/or watch the TV for your number to be called. However, there was an individual who walked around calling for “visa turistica” or something like that. If you hear that, you can raise your hand and he will ask to see him at his desk. This was how we were first seen.
During the appointment
After we sat down at the staff member’s desk, he asked (in Spanish) what the purpose of our trip was and the dates. I presented him with all our documents, which he looked over.
It turned out that the application I submitted did not have Mr. Nacho’s middle name, so I had to log in from my phone to try and edit the application again. It took a little while to get the site to load, but we did it.
Once we updated the application, he took our documents and Mr. Nacho’s passport. He said it should take about 2-3 weeks for the visa to be ready, maximum 4 weeks. And that we would get a phone call and/or email to notify us that it was ready for pickup. He stamped the first page of our application and dated it, and asked that we bring that sheet back with us when we pick up Mr. Nacho’s passport.
The whole process of getting there and waiting probably took about an hour and a half. It would’ve taken much longer if we hadn’t gotten there so early.
Getting notified that the visa is ready (didn’t happen)
After 4 weeks, neither of us received a phone call or email from the consulate. I emailed the email on their website (infoboliviawdc@gmail.com) to ask if Mr. Nacho’s passport and visa were ready, and received no response. This seemed common from the reviews I was reading. When I called, no one picked up.
I tried messaging them on their Facebook page, and found some success there. When you send the first message, an automated message replies. You have to send your original message again, and someone will reply. There was some back and forth and eventually they said “wait for our reply” and again no response for some time. All of the communications were in Spanish, so I would recommend trying to converse in Spanish as opposed to English.
Picking up the passport and visa
At some point I decided to not wait any longer and would take a chance to see if I could pick up the passport regardless. I headed back to the consulate on a Monday and brought the first page of the application that was stamped from our first visit, along with my credit card and $160 in cash just in case.
I visited on a Monday a little before 9am, and a woman in the lobby let me up to the 2nd floor ahead of time. There was a line on the 2nd floor already. They let people in early to sit in the main waiting area to wait. Then, at 9am they asked people to line up for the kiosk. I asked if I still had to wait to be called for passport pickup, and they confirmed that yes I would still need to wait.
Like the first time, someone walked around asking who was there for a tourist visa, and I let them know that I was there for passport pickup. He sat me down along with another gentleman picking up a passport, looked at my confirmation page and asked for payment by credit card. After I submitted payment, he asked me to take a seat and wait while he would go and grab the passport. It took probably about 20 minutes for him to return with Mr. Nacho’s passport.
I checked that the name and passport number on the visa matched the number on the passport itself, and then signed a form. He presented me with a tourist pamphlet about Bolivia, wished me well on our trip, and I was free to go!
Total time for this next visit took about 40 minutes.
General notes and tips
- Converse in Spanish if you can. It’s much easier if you speak some Spanish. The staff does not seem to know as much English
- Plan for at least 1.5 hours for your appointment as a lot of that time may be spent waiting to be seen
- Get there early: I would recommend getting there early before they open so you can get seen faster
- The reviews of the consulate are mixed online, but everyone i interacted with was very nice
- Save your PDFs into a folder: It helped to organize all the documents we needed to print into a folder because we’ll need to print many of the same documents again for our actual trip to Bolivia. It makes it easy to reference this folder again in the future
