PNG Visa in Jayapura

I've spent all day going back and forth to the PNG consulate here in Jayapura. They asked me for the normal photos and application form, but then also asked me for a detailed letter describing my intended trip through PNG and an exit ticket from either Indonesia or PNG. Is this routine? I've never heard of them asking for a letter before...

Also, since my credit card doesnt seem to work on any of the PNG airline sites, has anybody made a fake itinerary and gotten away with it? My initial itinerary showed me exiting to the Solomons, but since I can't book that flight on line, I'm either going to have to forge a flight itinerary or change my itinerary and book a flight to Singapore through Jakarta.

Any advice.help is much appreciated.

Book a 25 USD Tiger Airways flight from Padang to Singapore.
You are lucky that they accept a flight out of Indonesia!

Solomon Airlines now has online booking, and I know they codeshare some flights with Air Niugini.

Just booked a flight to Singapore with Tiger Airways. I tried Air Asia first because they were a little cheaper, but they wouldn't take my credit card for some reason....strange because I've never had trouble with them before.

Anyway, today's a holiday-a very boring holiday-so I'll be dropping off my application at the consulate in the morning then heading off to Sentani for a few days until its processed. Jayapura is doing my head in...

Wish me luck on getting this visa. I'm kind of worried about not getting it.

Wish you good luck indeed.
I have had trouble wth that erratic consulate in the past too, in fact on my first try I was refused altogether for no logical reason.
Are they still asking for a PNG reference, too? Having a good one can help!

First attempt: Denied

They want me to book all my flights within the country. I used Laszlo's blog to make a fake itinerary. They want me to show bookings for a flight from Vanimo to Wewak and then Port Moresby back to Wewak. What a bunch of idiots....

Sadly, this reminds me of an experience with them from several years ago...
It's a real Catch 22, as at least when I was there, you could only book internal flights in Vanimo, within PNG! If there is an Air Niugini agent in Jayapura by now, maybe you could just book (rather than actually buy) an itinerary, and see if that's enough to make them happy?
Alternatively, if you REALLY have to, you could perhaps just buy a RT ticket from Vanimo to Wewak, saying you've changed your mind and will only visit the Sepik.
Try whatever you can - PNG is an amazing country with great people, once you get past these burocrats!

May I ask what your nationality is?
Citizens of less-known countries (including mine) seem to have more trouble.
Once they wanted to refuse me because they thought Hungary was in Sri Lanka!!! But polite persistence may still help. Patience and persistence are the only keys in such cases.

Wish you all the best of luck - I guess it would be very disappointing to have to head back westwards to leave Indo now.

From the US. I already tried to tell them that I was only going to go to the Sepik and then they asked why I needed a 60 day visa just to go there. The girl has been very specific...I need flight confirmations, not itineraries, so I'm going to have to buy the tickets. I will probably use the one to Wewak-I'd prefer to go by boat, but there's no sense in going by boat when I've already purchased a plane ticket. The one back to Vanimo is likely going to be wasted, just like the flight to Singapore. I hate throwing money away like this.....

I also need to get a PNG LP somehow. I was going to try post restante, but I don't know if that would work in Jayapura. The hotel I'm staying at told me I could have it sent to their address, but I'm not sure if it will still be laying around when I come back to Sentani in a couple weeks....

Alright, I just booked the flights. I think the only way for this to work is for me to play along. I've dropped near $400 US just on flights so far. If I don't get this visa, I'm headhunting the staff of the consulate and calling it a cultural experience.

Forget about ordering books to Indo - they took forever to arrive, even to Java.
Mind you, you are not missing much... but if still keen, why don't you just buy the necessary chapters digitally? Then you could just get them printed out cheaply in Jayapura.

So where do you want to go after PNG, anyway?
Solomons overland?
If to AU, buying your OW flight there could have been cheaper, or at least not totally wasted.
At least the one to Wewak is likely to be useful, as I have always found getting there overland from Vanimo a real pain - or adventure! ;-)

I was going to have somebody in the states buy one and send it out....think it would get here in two and a half weeks?
Printing out pages digitally is another option...

I haven't decided where to go after PNG. I may try the Solomans overland or AU, but where ever I go, I'd like to try to get there by boat. I don't really know how possible that is, but I guess I'm going to find out:)

LOL, so now you are spending all the money saved by eating for 2 dollars a day! Who sells PNG tickets in JYP, BTW? And for what airlines?
I've never had to fly within PNG! :-)

Solomons are a better bet than AU, but still not totally legal.
There are several posts about this on TT though, plus my experience on my PNG page.

For AU you'd need to be really lucky and hook up with a yachtie, I think.
Do you happen to be a sexy chick, by any chance? Not quite my impression of you, but that could help considerably! ;-)

No, unfortunately I'm not a girl and not that sexy. I guess I could shave my legs and wear a skirt to the yacht clubs in Moresby, but that probably won't work out to well....

I'm going to start signing up on yacht forums to see if I can find anything and maybe get in touch with the port authorities in Moresby (if there are any...) to ask about cargo ships going south. I havent really thought this far ahead though....have to get the visa before I can do anything else. I just hope it comes soon. I still have three weeks on my Indo visa and I want to get up in the hills to hike around...

Jesus, what a pain in the ass that was.

I finally got my visa this morning ater nine days of dealings with the consulate. I would have gotten it yesterday, but the Papua soccer team won a major match and there was a parade/rally/riot all along the highway between Sentani and Jayapura. The desk girl was stuck in the traffic for 8 hours and never made it to work. She is the onyl one who knew where my passport was.... Sat in front of the consulate from 9 am to 4 pm....

The Lonely Planet is way WAY WAY off on this consualte and the PNG visa. They offer two main kinds of visas at this consulate: a tourist visa and a business visa only good for Vanimo. The consulate is trying to milk the business guys so the business visa costs 1,800,000 rupiah (about $180 US). The tourist visa only costs 225,000 rupiah (about $22 US) and they are trying to prevent the business guys from going over on tourist visas. So, to get the tourist visa, you either need a flight leaving PNG or a flight leaving Indonesia, a flight leaving Vanimo, and a flight going back to Vanimo.
Also, if you have a weird passport (not from AUS, US, Canada, Western Europe), be prepared to wait an extra day or two because they have to call Moresby to get confirmation and the phone lines are often down (they've been down two days here now...).

So, to sum up. If you want a tourist visa for PNG, you need these things:

1. Two passport size photos

2. 225,000 Indonesian rupiah

3. One of the following:
   a. A flight leaivng PNG
   b. A flight leaving Indonesia, a flight leaving Vanimo, and a flight returning to Vanimo

4. A letter describing your itinerary and your plans in PNG

5. A big smile

6. Patience

7. Time

8. Money

9. A deck of cards

I have no idea what kind of drugs the LP author was taking when she wrote the Papua section....

Yeah, that Japanese girl "updating" Papua for LP must have been one of their worst authors ever.

I wrote this about about the Papua chapter in my review of the whole book on Amazon :

"Long the weakest, nearly useless part of this guide, one gets the impression that the Japanese lady "updating" it for this edition has never set foot there, and thus simply lifted all content over from the previous guides, updating hotel and transport prices with the aid of her telephone. Her information about how to cross the border with Papua New Guinea is spectacularly wrong, and there is almost nothing in that chapter that hadn't been there in the previous editions."

Enjoy PNG - you sure deserve it by now!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this section is god awful. The Sulawesi section wasn't bad, but the Papua one is total shite. My favorite part is that the Raja Ampat Islands are one of the chapter highlights and then she basically says "you can go there!" without giving any details about it. What a joke. I found out more in ten minutes talking with some random guy on Bunaken then she found out in her supposed hours of in-country research...

The Papua chapter of the coming edition will be by one LP's oldest, most experienced authors, and should get better.
Still, Papua is not exactly the type of place you can research in 3-4 weeks meaningfully, but at least the main cities and tourist spots should get better coverage.
And to say "better" is not saying much in this case! :-)

Laszlo, it sounds like she would have been better advised to get her information from your posts on this forum. Maybe you could get them to pay you to do the update?

It's not that simple.
Actually knowledge of a destination is NOT a priority at LP.
I know them! ;-)

I'm inclined to agree, particularly with the latest editions. Back in the 90s, though,, and even in 2004, they were visiting countries and talking to real people.

Yes, their policies have changed - before 2004, I think.
They are still supposed to visit the countries though - even if briefly and superficially.

Agreed...their older books were way better. The last few I've used have been shit. Thinking of switching over to Rough Guides or just going bookless...

I have already switched to RG or Bradt in many countries.
Trouble is, neither has guides to as many countries as LP, which remains the only publisher to cover PNG or the Solomons, for example.

Even Indonesia is only covered by LP currently - RG has dropped the title after 2 editions!
But Bradt has separate guides to many more obscure countries LP doesn't bother with.

Have you seen the new French Polynesia LP, BTW?
I wonder what it's like - better or worse than the Moon Tahiti , which is now on sale?

I'm surprised people aren't making home made guidebooks (like the original LP) and selling them online.
They wouldn't need to cover a whole country, just regions. I would think that there is a great void in the market for a back when LP was good type of guidebook.

Bradt look good, but they have nothing on Oceania except Australia and new Zealand, and they have been lumped in with Asia.

I know.
I think I have suggested you to contact them (if you feel like writing one) a while ago! :-)
Seriously - I KNOW they would be interested. Just see their list, they do care to publish guides to little-visited countries.

A friend of mine actually approached them with the idea of a separate PNG guide and they agreed, only to have the project cancelled when my mate realized how MUCH it would cost him to research PNG properly! :-(

If I get the job I have applied for, I may yet get the chance - watch this space.

Best of luck!
Surely the Solomons would deserve something better than the miserable 30something pages they get in Lp now.
And if Virgin Blue keeps flying there, visitor (=potential buyer) numbers should increase, too.

At least they have recently upgraded the Visitors Bureau website, and started online bookings for Solomon Airlines.

Some independent travel guides are starting to pop up to fill in the gaps. Jens Peters' Philippines Travel Guide is a lot better than the LP. Hopefully more books like this start to pop up.

# 25 - It basically lists tourist office information (you can look inside on Amazon, do a search inside the book). Go with the Moon or for mid-range/upper there is Tahiti & French Polynesia Guide (by Jan Prince, who lives on Moorea).

Merci. :-)

Hello all,
I'm the person who has just updated Papua for the next edition of LP Indonesia. I hope I have improved it! I'm wondering if anyone has any info on WHERE the PNG consulate in Jayapura is now. When I was in J'pura a few months ago, the consulate was still at Jalan Raya Argapura, but there has since been a posting on Thorn Tree saying that the consulate has moved to Jalan Kelapa Dua, Matoa Ruko 6,7, Entrop. Am trying to find out if this is correct and, if so, get a late correction into the new book. Can't get through to the consulate on the phone so far. Any news much appreciated.
Also, there has been at least mention on the Thorn Tree that the border at Wutung is currently closed (possibly ever since there was a reported OPM attack on it at election time in March). Any news on this also much appreciated.

Thanks very much

John Noble

Yes, it is in Entrop. Some of the green bemos go past there, but I don't remember which numbers. You can also walk there from the Entrop Terminal.

I crossed the border a week and a half ago and had no trouble. Also, they do have an exit stamp at the border now on the Indonesian side so you shouldn't have to go to the immigration office in Jayapura.

Sorry to read about all the pain you have to go through. I think things get a bit hard after many illegal crossing to PNG from Jayapura. I have friends and family with US passport who fly into Port Moresby without visa and were given tourist visa by custom official at the airport.