Upon receipt of passports it was realised at a late stage through discussions with the British Embassy in Kabul that the latter did not issue visas and the musicians would have to submit their applications through the British Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, the closest option. Frequent share taxis travel this route, although there is still intermittent fighting along the road. Flights via Pakistan International Airlines or the Afghan airline Ariana go once a week, weather permitting. The alternative was to apply to the British Embassy in Dubai; Emirates fly to Dubai daily and a pass can be issued to Afghan nationals for a 72-hour layover, which is apparently enough time to get a visa if the paperwork is in order. As the musicians did not speak Urdu or English, the translator (or `fixer’) Zia Mohammad accompanied the musicians to Islamabad. The website http://www.britainonline.org.pk was used to obtain the address of Gerry’s International Licensee of FedEx, the agency which accepts visas applications on behalf of the British Embassy. Zia expedited travel visas to Pakistan for free and they set off by hired car at 4am on Monday in order to get to Islamabad in time to deliver their passports and visa applications on the same day. His field logistics co-ordination was exemplary, and once in Islamabad he assisted the musicians in submitting their documents and applications to Gerry’s FedEx. They were then asked to wait for the applications to be processed. One evening the musicians were even stopped, arrested and fined by the police in Islamabad while out for a walk. Through the support of Ambassador Rowan Laxton and Ceris Bailes of the British Embassy in Kabul, who faxed the documents to the British Embassy in Islamabad, the visa process - normally as long as two months - was reduced to 72 hours.

The musicians had originally been issued tickets to fly from Peshawar to London via Islamabad, due to lack of information about flights from Afghanistan. With a slight change to their departure location, the scheduled flights on 10 May 2003 were on time arriving from Islamabad - and thankfully, with visas in hand, so were the musicians, who arrived in London without any further problems. The London-based Afghan members of the group and representatives of the Asian Music Circuit met the artists at London’s Heathrow airport.