There are a lot of countries in the world that US Citizens can travel to, with either a visa on arrival, or without the necessity of a visa. But, there are also a lot of countries in the world that do require a visa. For many, this ends up being a big pain, and believe me, I’ve gone through it myself.
In 2012, I traveled to Brazil (back before the whole “originating in Brazil” was as big a deal, I think), but before I could, I had to get a visa. Now, I live under an hour from Washington, DC, where the Brazilian consulate is, so my first thought was that I could just do this myself. No big deal, right? At the time, I was commuting past the city every day, what’s a quick stop two times, a week apart? Well, that all sounds great in theory, but the experience of driving into downtown DC, and finding that the consulate was really similar to the DMV, if you don’t believe me, here’s a photo I found on Yelp (although this one is the Consulate in Miami, a little more artsy than DC).
But there is an easier way!
You see, I happened upon a post from one of the big guys, probably Gary Leff, about Allied Passport and Visa, a business that does the DMV-like waiting and running for you, so you don’t have to! I’ve used Allied a number of times since, and have been quite pleased each time. In fact, most recently, I had to request a rush on visa’s to Vietnam (more because I’ve got so much travel between now and when I’ll actually go to Vietnam, that I couldn’t be without my passports for too long), and while I was expecting a week or ten day turnaround, Steve and his team turned our passports around in under 4 business days.
Given my numerous positive experiences with Allied Passport, I reached out to to Steve Gempeler and he graciously offered a way for you, our awesome readers, to get a discount should you decide to use their service.
You can go to Allied Passport and Visa, and put in the just write a note on the request form, that you referred by Tagging Miles, and you’ll get a $10 discount on your order. Full disclosure: I don’t get any commission on this, rather, I asked that Steve give you the reader, the full benefit of the discount.
Have you used a service for your passport or visa before? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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