Knowing On Visa Requirements Before Traveling To A Country

March 17, 2021

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By Ankur Shah. Originally published at ValueWalk.

Within the last few decades, the world got much more connected than what it was before, thereby making travel experience more affordable and easier for several citizens. Still, the citizens of those nations with the highest powerful passports need to apply for visas ahead of time for some countries. While you plan to visit a country, you need to be aware of the visa requirements of that place so that you don’t fall into trouble during the journey.

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While there is a reliable visa requirements checker list from which you can get a clear picture of the requirements of various countries, we will still guide you on the same. Read on to understand how to know if you need a visa, what you’ll require to get one and how to apply for one.

A Visa – What Is It?

An official document that gives you the permission to enter a foreign nation legally is called a visa. The visa is generally glued or stamped on to your passport and there are also some visas that are offered electronically and don’t have to be attached to your passport.

While there are various types of visas that could allow you permission into a country like temporary travel visa, student visa, permanent immigrant visa or business visa, here we’ll mainly focus on travel visas.

How To Know When You Require A Visa To Visit A Country?

Now that you’re a globetrotter, you have to know the details on visa requirements for different countries. The decision taken by the authority of a country to demand a visa from a traveler will be based on the nationality of the traveler or the applicant in question.

As things were in 2020, it has been claimed that the Japanese passport holders have the best passport in the whole world. This is because they have easy access to 191 countries either without a visa or with a (VOA) or visa-on-arrival. On the contrary, citizens of Afghanistan only get access to 26 countries without a visa or with a visa-on-arrival.

Both the UK and the US rank at #8 as they provide access to 184 nations.

There are numerous ways of checking whether or not you require a visa for your trip. The most ideal and also the easiest is utilizing the search feature on websites that give you all details on visa requirements once you input your citizenship and the destination you choose to visit.

One more option is to do a quick search on Wikipedia. Do a Wikipedia or Google search by typing ‘visa requirements for (the name of the country) passport’ and you’ll get the details on whether you need to apply for one with your passport.

Thirdly, you can directly search with the Department of State travel website of the country. Citizens of America can check all the exit and entry requirements for each country in the travel page of the US Department of State. The United Kingdom also has a Foreign Travel Advice page and so does Australia.

Applying For A Visa

Well, as there are multiple ways of applying for a visa, let’s explain from the easiest process to the most complicated one.

Visa-On-Arrival

This is probably the easiest method where you arrive at the airport, complete a form, pay the fee and you’re done! For instance, the visa-on-arrival process of Egypt is just queuing up at the booth and paying $25 and heading towards the immigration to get a stamp. The visa-on-arrival process of Cambodia is also similar.

Travel Permits

While traveling to a country, if everything that you need is just a travel permit like an ETA, ESTA or ETIAS, you have to just visit an official website, fill out the firm, make payment and receive the confirmation receipt in few minutes. Here are the few official websites of:

E-Visas

The procedure of getting an online visa is much similar to that of getting an online travel permit but the only difference is that the former could take some time to process. Officials recommend applying at the e-visa website of the official government as they are more secure.

How would you know that the website you’ve visited is the official government’s website?

Go to the US Department of State travel website and check on the ‘Entry and Exit Requirements’ of the place you’re traveling it. In case the destination country has an official application website, it will be listed there. For instance, if you check the page for Uzbekistan, you could see the listing of the official e-visa page of Uzbek. Once you’re aware of the official page, you will end up paying the right fee and get an e-visa.

Therefore, now that you’re aware of all details of visa requirements of various destinations, what are you waiting for? Take the necessary steps and get your visa done to fulfill your travel goals on time.