by Rachel Ogbu

Sounds funny but these are real applications from people seeking visas to travel to a new country. We know Nigerians would have some pretty amazing excuses but for some reason they have decided to spare us from the Top 10 list. A visa help website recently revealed its strangest applications of the last year. According to reports, Liam Clifford of GlobalVisas.com said: “We do come across some unusual  reasons for visa applications. “The majority of the time they’re quite straightforward but now and again we  see some applications surface that really take us by surprise. “We’d advise all visa applicants to look at the laws of the countries they’re  trying to move to at the very least before applying. “But for those with unusual, yet legal, reasons we commend them for their  ingenious career choices.” [READ: Nigerians and other ‘high risk’ countries to pay £3,000 before entering the UK ]

The top 10

1)      A South African man applied for a European  visa as he stated that he wanted to go to Romania to ‘hunt vampires’ for a  living. 2)      A Brazilian man applied for a UK visa to  bring ‘flamenco to the streets of Norwich’, claiming to be a teacher of the  dance. 3)      A Russian lady was looking for a European  visa to work ‘her trade’ in the Netherlands. That trade being prostitution. 4)      An embalmer got in touch who wanted to move  his skills preparing dead bodies for burial from Mexico to Spain. It later  emerged that the applicant had an ‘extensive criminal record’ so the visa was  subsequently refused. 5)      A gondolier in Venice – one applicant  reckoned they were a dab hand with a pirogue in their native Mali so wanted to  transfer their skills with a punt to the Venetian waterways after ‘seeing it on  television’. 6)      A dog food taster – somebody had allegedly  applied for the position and been given the nod based on ‘previous experience’  and they were now applying for the relevant visa to move to the US from the  UK. 7)      A man openly claimed during his application  process that he was ‘evading the local authorities’ in his native Philippines  and wanted to join his family in Australia. 8)      A ‘foot model’ applied for a visa to move  from France to the US where their feet were apparently in ‘high demand’. 9)      A woman applied for a UK visa after  apparently securing ‘seasonal work as a zombie’ after going for an interview  whilst on holiday. 10)   A Peruvian man applied for a European visa to work as an  ‘alpaca shearer’ during ‘shearing season’.