The answer is “maybe.”

Anything is possible in Africa, or so everyone says. The same is true for acquiring a Gambian visa at the land borders between Senegal and The Gambia.

Throughout the trip-planning process, we were receiving conflicting information.

The U.S. State Department website states the fee for a five-year visa is $100, acquired in advance of a visit.

The Gambian Embassy in Washington D.C. indicates that it’s possible to get a visa at the border, but visitors must check in officially at the embassy in Banjul within threre days of arrival. However, when you call them for more information about the procedure, they say the website information is wrong and a visa is required in advance of arrival.

We didn’t have time to get one in advance, so Jennifer went to the Gambian embassy in Dakar when she arrived in West Africa. “Can we get a visa at the border?” she asked.

The official response: “Maybe.”

Needless to say, there’s a lot of confusion regarding visa requirements, but based on other travelers’ advice, we took our chances and just showed up at the border.

Sure enough, we were able to obtain a visa. AND we witnessed first hand why the embassies encourage visitors to get one ahead of time — blatant skimming of government funds. It looked official enough until the man writing our visas switched to a pen with no ink and wrote an invisible amount in the receipt booklet. Then he slipped a piece of cardboard in between the top copy and the carbon sheet underneath, switching to the functioning pen in the process.

He handed me a receipt with just my name on it, for an amount of 600 dalasis ($24). He said it was for both of us. Plus, he tacked on 50 dalasis each for the visa application form.

In the end, we paid 700 dalasis ($28) between Jennifer and I, and the government got 300 of it, based on what we saw him write with the inkless pen.

Shhhhhhhh!!!!!