Every year, millions of people travel out of the country for business, study or leisure. Preparation for a successful trip is as important an activity as embarking on the trip itself. Having properly issued travel documents rank amongst the most important aspect of travel preparation. Besides travel tickets, it is essential to have a valid passport and visa, if the country you are traveling to requires that you present a valid visa for entry into that country.

While countries in general accept passports which still have a valid period of six months or more, visas on the other hand can be tricky, because visa rules vary from country to country. Furthermore, these rules can be changed.

It is advisable for travelers who have doubts to contact the relevant embassies, to find out which travel documents are needed for entry into a country as well as to return to the country where the journey commenced. The following are useful websites that provide embassy information worldwide to assist the traveler to seek the required information:

VisaHQ.com (http://www.visahq.com/) Visa HQ has the most comprehensive database in the world of visa or passport requirements, and can be used by citizens of all countries. The site is professionally designed, easy to navigate, and contains very comprehensive instructions and processes for visa application as well as passport application and renewal.

EmbassyWorld.com (http://www.embassyworld.com/) This website contains a directory of the world's embassies and consulates, listed by alphabetical order. As you drill down to a particular country, you can obtain information about that country's embassies in other parts of the world as well as other countries' embassies which are located in the country you are viewing. The site also has a search engine which allows you to search for any embassy by location.

Projectvisa.com (http://projectvisa.com/) This website does not have the design appeal that VisaHQ has, and the Google advertisements on its pages make it less attractive. Do not be mistaken nevertheless, because as you click a country's link and navigate the pages, a wealth of information relating to a country's embassies and foreign embassies sited in that country can be unearthed. There is also information detailing virtually everything one needs to know about visa applications.

EmbassyInformation.com (http://embassyinformation.com/) If you are only researching for basic information about embassies around the world such as location, address, telephone, fax, website, etc., this site lets you source the information easily as it is set up primarily for this purpose. If you wish to learn about visa and passport applications, then this site is not that useful because you will have to go into the embassy's website through the web address given to find out more.

EscapeArtist.com Inc. (http://www.escapeartist.com/embassy1/embassy1.htm) This website appears to be a sister site of EmbassyWorld.com. Apart from a difference in name and banner on its main page, other features bear a familiar resemblance to EmbassyWorld.com. Click on any country link in this site, and sure enough, you will be transported to the same website as that for EmbassyWorld.com.

Learn more about this author, Hee Toon Cheong.
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