We do need one, but Americans, as well as many other friendly countries, have what is called “Visa on Arrival” which means that you are automatically afforded a Tourist visa just for the asking and you can get it when you arrive at the country. It’s easy for Americans, who hold one of the strongest passports in the world, to forget that that visa process for many people can be a long and expensive one, even for something as seemingly mundane as tourism.
This basically adds a “pre-authorization” step once every 3 years to make sure you’re not an axe murderer or fall into any other ne’er-do-well category so they don’t have to watch you pitch a fit at immigration when you get denied entry.
Edit: I’ll add that I pay $100 every five years (Global Entry) so that I can get back into the US on my return flight with as little friction as possible.
It’s easy for Americans, who hold one of the strongest passports in the world
And you are currently only on #7 with 25 countries in front of you. But yeah, I agree, I have a German passport, and Visa’s are usually something I receive when the plane lands. My wife is South African, and it’s very different. While I was able to stay in SA for up to half a year (90 days on arrival, informal extension for an extra 90 days), for her, it required a letter of obligation I had to sign (with fun stuff like “you are responsible to get her body back to SA if she dies here!”), and it required quite a few documents, weeks of waiting, etc.
I looked it up and I think we dropped to 9th this year, 8th last, but then Japan dropped by 4 putting Singapore in the top slot all by itself. I was chatting with a Senegalese poster on reddit a while back and the hoops he would have to jump through to enter the EU as a tourist are crazy, and it takes months to accomplish. I get the reasons for visas, but three’s a part of me that is baffled at how humans drew imaginary lines on dirt and then spend a non-trivial fraction of our waking time making sure people don’t go on the wrong side of them.
I looked it up and I think we dropped to 9th this year, 8th last, but then Japan dropped by 4 putting Singapore in the top slot all by itself.
I linked to the wiki page for the Henley Passport Index which has the USA on #7 for 2023, other reports use different measurements sometimes. Singapore is still first with 2 more points than us in Germany ;)
Yeah, it’s kind of a pissing contest in the top ten. I saw another list with us one below Canada and I assumed it was probably our (now useless, decades long) tiff with Cuba that put them ahead. Several of the places on my bucket list are on the difficult list for USA, but I also don’t really feel safe enough to travel there, nor do I expect them to become (politically) friendly in my traveling lifetime. It’s okay, though - I probably don’t have enough money to see everywhere I’d like to go anyway.
We ended up having to cancel a Christmas trip to Portugal because apparently it takes more than 3.5m to get a Schengen visa with a Chinese passport that time of year. Not even with the $500 VFS Global line jumping fee.
I never had an issue getting back into the US. I remember on my first trip I was waiting at customs and the guy was grilling the lady in front of me for a while. When I walked up he just glanced at my passport, said “welcome home,” and I was good to go. Is that not typical?
Global entry means not waiting in that line at all. It’s fucking magical. I’ll definitely renew mine. Basically you just breeze through all this shit like it’s the 90s again.
Is that only for entry back into the US or also entry into destinations?
The only really bad experience I had was in Sweden. That was goat rodeo. Some British dude almost threw down over a guy trying to skip the line.
For the 1-2 times a year I may fly internationally, a 20 minute wait isn’t a huge deal. Of course I’m one of those psychos that’s shows up 3-4 hours early for a domestic flight.
Same. I keep seeing this posted like it’s some.huge thing but I’m just like “OH NO! Things are now like I thought they already were, only cheaper than I would have assumed.”
Wait, this wasnt the case yet?!
That’s what I was thinking. I never knew that we didn’t need a visa. Lol
We do need one, but Americans, as well as many other friendly countries, have what is called “Visa on Arrival” which means that you are automatically afforded a Tourist visa just for the asking and you can get it when you arrive at the country. It’s easy for Americans, who hold one of the strongest passports in the world, to forget that that visa process for many people can be a long and expensive one, even for something as seemingly mundane as tourism.
This basically adds a “pre-authorization” step once every 3 years to make sure you’re not an axe murderer or fall into any other ne’er-do-well category so they don’t have to watch you pitch a fit at immigration when you get denied entry.
Edit: I’ll add that I pay $100 every five years (Global Entry) so that I can get back into the US on my return flight with as little friction as possible.
And you are currently only on #7 with 25 countries in front of you. But yeah, I agree, I have a German passport, and Visa’s are usually something I receive when the plane lands. My wife is South African, and it’s very different. While I was able to stay in SA for up to half a year (90 days on arrival, informal extension for an extra 90 days), for her, it required a letter of obligation I had to sign (with fun stuff like “you are responsible to get her body back to SA if she dies here!”), and it required quite a few documents, weeks of waiting, etc.
I looked it up and I think we dropped to 9th this year, 8th last, but then Japan dropped by 4 putting Singapore in the top slot all by itself. I was chatting with a Senegalese poster on reddit a while back and the hoops he would have to jump through to enter the EU as a tourist are crazy, and it takes months to accomplish. I get the reasons for visas, but three’s a part of me that is baffled at how humans drew imaginary lines on dirt and then spend a non-trivial fraction of our waking time making sure people don’t go on the wrong side of them.
I linked to the wiki page for the Henley Passport Index which has the USA on #7 for 2023, other reports use different measurements sometimes. Singapore is still first with 2 more points than us in Germany ;)
Yeah, it’s kind of a pissing contest in the top ten. I saw another list with us one below Canada and I assumed it was probably our (now useless, decades long) tiff with Cuba that put them ahead. Several of the places on my bucket list are on the difficult list for USA, but I also don’t really feel safe enough to travel there, nor do I expect them to become (politically) friendly in my traveling lifetime. It’s okay, though - I probably don’t have enough money to see everywhere I’d like to go anyway.
Nice, my country is on the 5th place/rank/whatever. I expected top 20 or maybe top 10, but top 5 is definitely great.
We ended up having to cancel a Christmas trip to Portugal because apparently it takes more than 3.5m to get a Schengen visa with a Chinese passport that time of year. Not even with the $500 VFS Global line jumping fee.
I never had an issue getting back into the US. I remember on my first trip I was waiting at customs and the guy was grilling the lady in front of me for a while. When I walked up he just glanced at my passport, said “welcome home,” and I was good to go. Is that not typical?
Global entry means not waiting in that line at all. It’s fucking magical. I’ll definitely renew mine. Basically you just breeze through all this shit like it’s the 90s again.
Is that only for entry back into the US or also entry into destinations?
The only really bad experience I had was in Sweden. That was goat rodeo. Some British dude almost threw down over a guy trying to skip the line.
For the 1-2 times a year I may fly internationally, a 20 minute wait isn’t a huge deal. Of course I’m one of those psychos that’s shows up 3-4 hours early for a domestic flight.
US only
Same. I keep seeing this posted like it’s some.huge thing but I’m just like “OH NO! Things are now like I thought they already were, only cheaper than I would have assumed.”