VISA

We have a flight booked to Tonga on the 29th of August. My husband applied for a visa months ago and has sent all the appropriate information via email as requested. Do they normally leave it this late to issue the letter? Does anyone have any experience of this?
We have sent a couple of emails but have had no reply.

Thanks,

I'm sorry to be a bringer of bad news, but 5 years ago when I still needed a visa for Tonga, it took me 8 months not to get one.

Everybody from the Tongan embassy in London through their consulate in Sydney all the way to the issuing office in Tonga itself always kindly assured me it would be "no problem" and then promised to do it "tomorrow", but it was the kind of situation "when tomorrow never comes"... ;-)
I went as far as getting the cell number of the boss in the Immigration Office in the Tongan capital and having friendly chats with him in person, still to no avail.
After 8 months, I gave up the futile struggle and changed my ticket to Niue.
Only visited Tonga last year, once the visa requirement was scrapped.

If your hubby does need a visa and you MUST go to Tonga, your best bet would be trying to get someone in Tonga to push the matter in person on your behalf.
Otherwise, start praying that times (and bureaucrats) have changed ... things change slowly out there though, as your post seems to confirm.

Hi Laszlo,

I did actually go back through all the posts and found your story about the visa. I don't need one but my husband does. I hate leaving things to the last minute like this. Oh,well, start looking at a contingency plan then.

We went to Niue last year and loved it!

Thanks for your reply.

Fiji lets in most nationalities without a visa, too... ;-)
And so do the Cooks and Samoa, I think.

I have the same situation as you - I don't need one but my husband does and I've yet to take him to Tonga because of this (although we haven't looked into it recently). Generally, the passports that are going to be seen with the most suspicion are Indian ones (and maybe Chinese now?). Tonga used to ban all Fijian Indians from entering the country - although if a person had connections they could enter.

We found Vanuatu also was easy about visas.

There may be light at the end of the tunnel! I sent an email to the consulate here and got a reply within minutes asking for all the details. Will keep you posted..

Received the visa today, thanks to the lovely lady in Sydney,