• traveler01@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m confused, didn’t Americans need a VISA to visit European countries? They just jump into a plain and fly here with their passport and no questions asked?

    If it’s like this I had no idea…

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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      1 year ago

      Yep. It’s still the case, the title really isn’t right.

      Americans still get an automatic visa on arrival, they just have to fill out a form online for $8 first

      Europeans do much the same coming to the US with ESTA

      • socsa@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I bet they will still give you the visa if you don’t fill out the form. They might make you fill it out in the airport on your phone or something though.

      • traveler01@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ah so it’s the same already as here. I know I’d have to pay to fill a form online and pay a sum to go to the US. The title is a bit misleading.

    • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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      1 year ago

      Americans can go almost anywhere at moment notice with just their golden passport. Meanwhile people from many country has to submit countless documentations and bank accounts data for US visa only to get denied three months later.

      • Mossy Feathers (They/Them)@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        I’m scratching my head at this comment because I thought EU passports were more powerful at this point. I thought the US has pissed off enough countries that there are many you can’t enter as a US citizen (admittedly mostly in the middle east, to countries I doubt most European citizens want to go either), but an EU passport will get you basically anywhere you want to go. Was I wrong about that?

        • burningmatches@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          The most powerful passports in the world in 2023

          1. Japan (193 destinations)
          2. Singapore, South Korea (192 destinations)
          3. Germany, Spain (190 destinations)
          4. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg (189 destinations)
          5. Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden (188 destinations)
          6. France, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom (187 destinations)
          7. Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United States, Czech Republic (186 destinations)
          8. Australia, Canada, Greece, Malta (185 destinations)
          9. Hungary, Poland (184 destinations)
          10. Lithuania, Slovakia (183 destinations)

          https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/world-s-most-powerful-passports/

        • Ysellian@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          but an EU passport will get you basically anywhere you want to go. Was I wrong about that?

          Depends on the country within the EU. Germans can go hassle free pretty much anywhere . Bulgarians on the other hand are going to struggle a fair bit more than an American.

        • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          German here. I had to go through a 3-month process with multiple, personal visits to the Chinese embassy in Frankfurt to be allowed one-time entry to China for a couple of days. Visa fee was 120€, IIRC.

            • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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              1 year ago

              Yeah. I heard I even got preferential treatment because I got invited by my cousin’s wife’s family to attend the wedding.

              Also the roaming fees were insane. I still have the pricing information message:

              Translation: Welcome to China! Here, you can receive calls for 1.59€ per minute + possibly at least 0.50€ per minute (depending on carrier), send text messages for 0.59€ and receive text for free. Data roaming for 12.29€ PER MEGABYTE (automatically capped at 59.50€ per month) may be possible. Good travels wishes o2.

              • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                This means they estimated that 60€ was the cutoff before people that rack up MBs without thinking about roaming fees start seriously complaining when seeing the bill.

          • Huh, according to another reply, German passports are supposed to be more powerful than a US passport. Maybe that’s not taking into account visa requirements though. No idea if a US passport would have the same issue with China either. Thanks for sharing your experience!

            • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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              1 year ago

              China probably isn’t on the list for visa-on-arrival for any country. Whether the process and the attached fees differ according to where your passport is from, I don’t know. I assume that is the case tho.

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yep. In the last two years, I’ve been to Italy and the UK, and each time, it was quite literally just show up to the airport with my passport, get it scanned upon arrival, and that was that.

      • Punkie@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sweden was the same way, I didn’t need a Visa. I hadn’t traveled in a while (2006), and I was surprised I got stamped to enter the EU in my layover in Iceland (2022) last year. Now I gotta worry about this, because I plan on visiting my folks in Sweden every few years. It doesn’t seem that bad, and I have zero reason to think I’d be rejected, but it’s yet another hassle even if it’s only $8 (but that’s fair if we’re charging Europeans $21, I’d even pay $21 without complaintif it changes to match).

        OMG, though… those poor Brexit bastards traveling through Iceland. Me from the US was just “stand in line, they ask why you’re traveling, stamp the passport and you’re on your way.” Brexit folks had to go down some spiral stairs into some cave next to the elevator shaft and it looked like the passport equivalent of “the cheap stadium seats.”

      • traveler01@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s quite bullshit honestly. As far as I know if I wanted to go to US I’d need a VISA.

    • socsa@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      This is literally how it is. There is no paperwork to fill out, you just show the man in Amsterdam your passport, he asks if you are here for work or pleasure, and then you wink at him and say “plaisir monsieur” and then he rolls his eyes and gives you a stamp which is good for 3 months.