Most of us (Nigerian) from the third world fund it very difficult travelling to most places. We often have to process a visa, which can sometimes take up to a year to even get an interview, we pay for lawyers and have to submit our bank statements. Just wondering if there are countries where Americans face hurdles before traveling to.
22 comments
Yes the process is similar for Americans depending on the country you are trying to get a visa for. It can take a long time and you have to provide a lot of documentation like bank statements too.
I’m a solo male traveler who travels light (typical refugee profile) so sometimes Euro countries will stop me entering but it usually only takes a minute or two for them to go through all my shit and look at my ID. Most recently happened in Germany 2022.
But i’ve never been anywhere that i needed a visa or any sort of sponsorship. Typically these are places that most Americans wouldn’t go, ie. North Korea, Iran, Russia
I needed a visa for India. Like 80% of the questions were related to Pakistan (“have you visited Pakistan? Were you born in Pakistan? Were any of your parents from Pakistan?”, etc) so I wasn’t the kind of person they were trying to screen out.
They did manage to lose my original payment though (which *had* to be done by money order), and made me re-send it, causing a bunch of delays.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_United_States_citizens
Most countries I’ve traveled to just gave me a visa on arrival at the airport. A handful required me to apply for one online and submit my itinerary beforehand. Then I’d print something to show at the airport to get my visa there. Some countries have pretty crappy websites for this though which can make the experience kind of sucky. I had a hard time getting my bank to allow me to pay the online fee for my Kenyan visa because they thought it was suspicious or something.
China was probably the most difficult as I had to physically mail my passport to a place in DC but never had to do interviews and received a 10 year visa.
I’ve never had to go into an embassy or provide bank statements.
I don’t reckon the average American is trying to go to many of the countries that would require us to get a visa in advance or have a difficult process. [We’re good in 186/227 countries.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_United_States_citizens)
I haven’t ever struggled to get a visa aside from Russia and Belarus. That was quite some time ago, so I wonder what it’s like now.
I believe their that visa requirements have changed in recent years, but Brazil would make it as difficult for Americans to get a visa to their country as the US made it for them, or other nations. So getting my student visa was a giant pain in the ass and I had to drive down to the embassy three different times over the course of about ten days, to wait in line at a window that they’d only open for about 45 minutes, 3 days out of the week. While Brazilians are some of the friendliest people in the world, they can become vindictive and evil in an administrative position, and they can frivolously deny your visa for arbitrary reasons at any time. It was all worth it in the end, but the process was a chore that I wouldn’t want to repeat.
I’ve never had issues, and I’ve never had to actually go to an embassy. I’ve never traveled to any place that’s particularly difficult, though, athough I’ve been to many countries. I have to apply for an electronic visa every time I go to Australia, and it’s just a few minutes online and paying a modest fee. Most countries that I want to visit have visa waivers for Americans, so I can just show up.
Nope. I’ve had some negative experiences with Canadian border control, but no issue with any country I’ve been to that requires a visa.
The Chinese consulate made me leave 5 times to reprint things because they stopped any time they found and error and wouldn’t read further.
They also gave me a 60 day visa, but only gave my non-US citizen then-girlfriend a 30 day visa because they said she would try to immigrate illegally.
But we both got our visas, so no big deal.
China was probably the hardest one for me but even that wasn’t too difficult. For my dad getting the Russian visa was very difficult because he served in the army during the cold war
No. I’ve always gotten through customs with little to no hassle. Ironically, the country that gave me the most shit was the UK. But I’ve also never traveled outside of what you would probably refer to as “Western” countries.
My American passport is all I need. If a country wants something else then that’s a shithole I don’t need to visit.
I have traveled to a few countries that required either a visa or another travel document (other than my passport) but never had any difficulties obtaining them.
The places I have been that required a visa:
Australia
China
Cuba
Maldives
Turkey
Vietnam
I think the above, plus India, Russia, and Seychelles, are probably the most common places for Americans to visit where they would need a visa or something similar.
Well, I once had my passport water-damaged in Vienna and had to get an emergency passport.
Embassy staff were total dicks about it. Years ago, UPS lost my passport in the mail when I had to send it to an embassy for a visa. I told the embassy staff this, because you need to disclose previously “lost” passports when you file for a new one. The staff just gave me an eye roll like *I* was the problem.
You’d think that life must be so hard living in a wealthy, neutral albeit US-aligned country on the US taxpayers’ dollar with that kind of attitude.
While nothing in comparison to what most Asian and Africa passports have to go through for a US visa, there was definitely bureaucracy and money involved in getting a Brazilian visa back before 2018 (and there will be again after October)
One other thing that has surprised some foreign friends of mine is the fact that US citizens are also routinely questioned at the border upon returning to the country, which is apparently not the case with a lot of Latin American and European countries nowadays. From the way I’ve heard it described, just being a citizen of the country you’re returning to is enough to merit the Global Entry level efficiency that we pay for and wait months to get. So in some ways US citizens are now also paying for and waiting on certification to facilitate entry to their own country in a way that is not dissimilar to a visa.
I’ve only needed a visa for one place so far, India. As someone else said, there were a bunch of questions about my relationship to Pakistan (of which I have none), a few about my parents, and a few about me. It took me about half an hour to fill out and pay for (all online) and I got a formal approval the next day.
Only 35% of Americans even have a passport. Most will never have attempted to get a visa for any reason.
Work visas sometimes prove difficulties for Americans. I worked in Colombia and made many trips there with no problem. Then I was in the country when the US did something which annoyed Colombia, and so Colombia invalidated many work visas for Americans. I was getting ready to fly home and so figured it wasn’t a problem for me, but I got stopped and was told I could not pay the exit tax without having a visa (and no airline will let you board if you don’t have proof of payment of the exit tax). What we call a “catch-22” in America.
The next week I spent all day in Colombian government offices trying to get a new work visa — with the Colombian government finding ways to not give me one. Four or five days sitting around just to get called up to a window to be asked some random question and then told to sit down again.
The Americans and Colombians made up, and then I got my visa, paid my tax, and took the first flight to America I could find even though it wasn’t to my home city.
No, it’s easy. Everyone wants our money.
No, most countries I’ve been to have some sort of visa agreement which allows us to be there a period of time without applying for a visa, or that give you a visa in the airport.
Now, I did need to apply for a visa before I went to Russia. But I had zero difficulties with this and even received my visa quicker than expected.
You don’t need a visa except for a handful of countries. I think there are like almost 200 countries that Americans can travel to visa free or get one on arrival.