Don’t leave the country without your visa

True story: An American flew down to Brazil and got off the plane, but was soon on the next flight back to the United States, having never even sipped a caipirinha.

What happened? No visa. Serious whoops.

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(istock, bigstock/twp)

While the passport serves as an ID card and proof of citizenship, the tourist visa is your permission slip to enter a country. Without it, the door to that country stays closed. You can knock all you want, but you’re not getting in.

As a State Department official puts it: “No one is allowed to enter a country that they’re not a citizen of” without permission from that country. “It’s a privilege.”

Visas, stamps or stickers placed in a passport, allow countries to control the parade of incoming guests as well as weed out any safety threats, such as terrorists or potential disease-carriers. The background checks work as preemptive defenses: Governments can catch potential scofflaws before they enter their nations’ borders.

For most U.S. citizens, however, the visa process is a mere formality, like getting your car inspection sticker. “Americans can travel to a lot of countries without a visa,” the State Department official told me, “mainly because they aren’t a risk for illegal immigration.”

In dozens of foreign destinations, it’s good to be an American. Numerous countries waive the visa requirement as part of a reciprocal agreement or because of our trusted standing in the world.

For example, we don’t need visas for the 36 countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program (nor do their citizens need visas to visit the United States). Many Western, Central and Eastern European countries appear on the list, including the United Kingdom, Greece, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Latvia, to name a few. Some Asian nations (Japan, South Korea, Brunei) and lands Down Under (New Zealand, Australia) are also part of the arrangement. And the club is still growing: The State Department has nominated Taiwan (which already exempts Americans from visa requirements) for inclusion; the nomination is under review by the Department of Homeland Security.

A batch of countries not affiliated with the VWP also waive the requirement, with restrictions — mainly limiting the time you can spend in the country, for instance, to 30, 90 or 120 days. Among these are Ukraine; Canada, the Caribbean and most of Central and South America (minus Brazil and Paraguay); the South Pacific islands of Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu; and a trickle of African countries, including Botswana, South Africa, Senegal and Namibia.

If you disdain extra paperwork and additional fees (from double to triple digits), you can easily spend a lifetime toodling around visa-free countries. But that plan means no pushpin for China, Russia, Nepal, Indonesia or Jordan, among others.

Visa how-tos

To determine whether you need a visa, start with the State Department's Country Specific Information, found online at www.travel.state.gov/travel. The fact-packed descriptions include entry and exit details. For example, the section on Cambodia reads, “You will need a valid passport and a Cambodian visa to travel to Cambodia. Tourist and business visas are valid for one month beginning with the date of entry into Cambodia. Cambodia offers online visa processing. You may also apply in person at the Cambodian Embassy . . . Tourists and business travelers may also obtain a Cambodian visa at the airports in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and at all major border crossings.”