Traveling internationally is such a blast but it can definitely be tricky when entering other countries. Gone are the days when you could travel within North America with just a birth certificate. Now, passports are almost always required when you leave the United States and several countries across the world are requesting Visas in addition. We've compiled a few helpful pointers on visas and passports to get you international.Before we get going, we just want to say that this article is going to pertain heavily to United States citizens. We are both U.S. citizens so we've only had to research the travel laws and rules for the United States. Passports - Obtaining a USA passport is pretty simple. The U.S. department of state has applications online that you print, fill out, and submit to one of the federal or county court options. We both obtained our passports through the clerks office at our county courthouse. The application actually has a list of where you can submit, which makes it easy. Other than the application, you will need proof of US citizenship, some kind of identification, a passport photo (we had ours done at Walgreens), and money for the processing fees. Currently, it costs $135.00 for an adult passport. If your passport is expiring, which happens every 10 years so make sure and check before booking any international trips, the renewal fee is $110. Children are required to have passports as well, they will run you $105. After all the paperwork is filed and the fees are paid, it takes about 4-6 weeks to arrive. There are additional fees to get it expedited from the State department but it only speeds the process to a 3 week waiting period and will cost you an extra $60. If you are crunched for time, there are services that work with the government to get passports expedited in 24-48 hrs. The fees for "same day" or "next day" passports can be up to $250 on top of the government fees. Tip No. 1: check your passport expiration date before you book anything! For more info about passports and international travel, check out the U.S. travel website: Visas - This is where traveling can get a bit more confusing. Not every country requires a visa for US citizens; simply having a passport is good enough. While some countries only require a fee to enter their country, others want you to have a formal visa document approved from their embassy before you arrive. There is no rule of thumb for the whole visa thing, you just have to do some research and we recommend doing that before booking any vacation because the process for a formal visa document is time intensive and not necessarily cheap. Below is a pretty decent world map from wikipedia that highlights exactly what you will need when traveling: We've actually encountered every type of visa during our travels so below is a simple rundown of each one mentioned in the key on the map.
Visa Free Travel - Pretty self explanatory. These countries in the dark green don't require anything other than a passport for you to get in. Places like North America, Europe, Chile, Peru, most of the Caribbean, Thailand, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, South Africa, etc. if you're traveling there, just make sure your passport isn't 6 months from expiring and you are all set. Electronic Clearance or eVisa - So the process for an eVisa is different for every country. All the countries requiring eVisas are highlighted in lime green. When we had to have electronic clearance for Argentina, we submitted everything online and about 6 months prior to arriving. They wanted our names, dates of birth, passport numbers, and an email to send us the eVisa. It cost $160 per passport and once the embassy received the paperwork and the fee, we received an email with approval. The approval was a form with all our information on it and a barcode that was scanned when we arrived. We still had to show our passports as well. Visa Upon Arrival - Shown in chartreuse or yellow/green color, are all the countries that require visa upon arrival which basically means you pay a fee to enter their country. We had to do this when we visited the Dominican Republic. After getting off the plane, we went through the visa line to pay our $10 a person, followed the lines through Customs and then we were off to retrieve our luggage. It's very simple but just remember to have cash with you. Visa required prior to arrival - If you look at your passport you'll see that at the top of every page it says Visas. Majority of us just have the fun, colorful stamps with a country emblem and a date on these pages. If you will, a stamp collection of all the wonderful places you've traveled. This is also were the countries in grey place their "stamp". Except its not a stamp, it's a formal document that looks very similar to what the U.S. issued you on the first page of your passport. Countries like China, Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, most of Africa, etc. require one free page in your passport to issue you a country visa. Visas required prior to arrival take just as much work as a U.S. passport because that's basically what you're receiving, a passport for their country that's generally good for a certain number of years. When we went to Brazil, we had to have a Visa prior to arrival and we obtained that through the closest Brazilian Consulate to us which is located in Houston, TX. There were applications to fill out that required giving information like arrival and departure dates and where we would be staying in Brazil. They wanted a passport photo for each of us and our passports because they placed the Brazilian visa within our U.S. passport book. There was also a fee of $250 per passport... OUCH! It took about 6 weeks to get the visas back to us and the fact that we were sending out passport through the mail was nerve-wracking but so worth it because Brazil was amazing. And our visas are good for 10 years so we might have to make another trip to South America to make up for all the hassle of getting those expensive pieces of paper! Hopefully this has prepared you for your next trip abroad, nothing could be worse than arriving at the airport, luggage in tow, and be denied entry to your destination. Until Next Time, C + D
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