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Comment by sayrer | Hacker News Reader

It's very difficult for Americans to travel there. But I got the visa once, and went to Oran and Algiers.

I had to send my passport via Fedex to the Algerian consulate in NYC and cross my fingers. There are strange rules about whether you have to send it there or to Washington DC, based on which US state you live in (no one in the US cares about this).

Beyond that, it can be difficult for Americans to understand French with any unconventional accent, let alone understand Arabic at all. I know enough words to count and understand what the police say.

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It’s more difficult than countries that America has visa-free travel with but pretty standard for countries that we’re touch and go with. Russia required me to deliver my passport in person to their embassy in Washington DC. I cannot mail it. I needed to pay a handler with a very convenient relationship with the Russian embassy a bunch of money to be the “intermediary”. I’ve paid less for flights than I did to get a Russian visa.

I've never tried to go to Russia, but the process you describe is the way to go if you can spare an extra $100.

For example, it's much easier to get a Chinese visa by paying this company across the street from the Chinese consulate in SF than it is to go there. I think everyone that speaks Chinese knows how to work the system, but I don't speak it at all.

They turned me down for having a bent corner on my passport, lol, after taking my money. I just gave up and used the company across the street for my second try.

When I was applying for a Chinese visa, one of the (allegedly) most reliable sites for this country was some weird site that looked straight out of 1998. Funky colored text randomly placed. Improperly scaled images everywhere. Only one page but so long that printing it out would be like 50 sheets of paper, all just full of weird info about one Chinese guy who did some odd thing decades ago and had banquets and stuff.

People online said they made multiple trips to the embassy and paid loads trying to get it done in person. Some random internet comments said this shady-ass site could do it cheaper, faster, and with no questions. They were right.

Felt like I’d never get my passport back when I sent it off, though.

Completely anecdotal, but doing it in-person in NYC was pretty painless for me. Walk in with paperwork, wait 2 weeks, pick up visa. I’ve heard of others having difficulty though, particularly over mail.

Everything went fine for me too, but it was difficult to figure out what to do from California. Sending my passport to them that way made me nervous, though.

Yeah, plus the consulate in NYC is pretty empty, at least when I’ve been. I once was able to get a two year visa in under an hour in and out, although my father is Algerian and half my family still lives there, so it was likely a special case for them.

Why don't you get an algerian passport?

I've heard the paperwork to get a military service exemption is not worth it unless you're visiting frequently

Yeah, I applied once and was never given an answer, just come back next week.

But I'm a journalist so that's understandable.

The Algerian system is known for its highly notorious and absurd bureaucracy that makes no sense in most of the cases. It's a very sad thing. Even within the country, the level of bureaucracy and administrative burden is astounding. It's on another level that still baffles the mind of every Algerian to our day. A reminiscent of the communist era that largely defined and still defines every aspect in the country.

Nevertheless, Algerians are very welcoming and they are very happy to see other people visit them. We hope that things will change very soon. However, it's hard to have a positive hope with the corrupt, mafioso political system governing the country.

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