Okay, so before we start, we‘re not talking about Visa credit cards, we‘re talking about
travel visas. What are travel visas? Well, a travel visa is a special permission given
by… wait hang on, let‘s at least get the intro out of the way first.
There we go, that‘s better. So, a travel visa is basically a special permission given
by a country for a foreign national to enter their country. They often have restrictions
on the traveler, such as when they may enter, how long they may stay, whether or not they
are permitted to work, and often even how much of the country they can explore (though
this isn’t as common of a regulation). However, there are numerous types of visas for all
different kinds of uses, countries and nationalities. Let‘s take this guy here as an example.
He is an East German citizen, which means… he can‘t enter any countries anymore because
the DDR stopped existing 29 years ago. Okay, let‘s take this guy, who is an American
citizen. He, for some reason, has only just now gotten around to watching Kung Fu Panda--
“Just imagine I‘m a panda, it‘ll make the issue of copyright a hell of a lot easier!”--
and he is hooked, so he decides he‘d like to go to China. He then discovers that, in
order to visit the People‘s Republic of China, he needs to get a visa in advance.
This involves filling out a form, going to the nearest embassy/consulate, paying some
money, letting the staff look over his passport, and getting a special sticker in the mail
to put into his passport. Only then can he go begin his tour of China. Yeah, this guy
looks different when he travels. However, most countries around the world do
allow nationals of some other countries to visit for a short time without any of that
fuss. In fact, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan all have separate visa policies to both each
other and to the mainland. So the guy from earlier visits the Wikipedia page “Visa
requirements for United States citizens” and goes down to the territories section,
and finds out that all three of these places allow Americans in for a certain amount of
time without a visa. Macau for 30 days, Hong Kong for 3 months, and Taiwan for 90 days.
(By the way, I will quickly iterate that, while Hong Kong and Macau are not separate
countries, and Taiwan isn’t always recognized as a separate country, all three of these
areas have a separate immigration and visa policy from mainland China. This is actually
not unique to China, Guam has a separate visa policy from the mainland US, and Kish Island
has a separate visa policy from mainland Iran. So don’t be put off by how I treat Taiwan
as a separate country for these intents and purposes. Please don’t kill me).
Many countries around the world will let citizens of certain other countries in with just a
passport, but only for a limited time. An American can also visit Canada for up 180
days, the Schengen Area for up to 90 days in a 180-day period, Japan for up to 90 days,
etc. However, some countries will only let foreigners in without a visa if they get a
special kind of “light” visa either online or at the border. For Americans, some countries,
like Turkey or Australia, require you to get the visa online (which is actually very easy,
especially through websites like iVisa.com, which I have an affiliate link for in the
description below), whereas others, like the United Arab Emirates, will grant the visa
upon arrival. These visas, often known as electronic visas or evisas, are not the same
as regular visas, as they don’t require any visits to the embassy/consulate, and generally
aren’t used in the form of special stickers they send you to put in your passport, but
they are also subject to the visa-free limit. Even with the right evisa or on-arrival visa,
Americans can only stay in Turkey or Australia for 90 days, and in the UAE for 30 days.
That’s because they’re just for tourists (or business travelers, whatever floats your
boat), but if you want to live somewhere long term, that’s where long-stay and immigrant
visas come in. Long-stay visas are visas granted for those who don’t plan to live in the
country forever, but are still going to be there for longer than the time normally allowed
for tourists. These are used for things like studying (as is the case with exchange students),
temporary work, asylum, or residence permits. For those who do want to actually immigrate
to the country however, there are of course immigrant visas. These too come in different
types, such as the spouse/partner visa allowing married couples of different nationalities
to stay in one of their countries, or the marriage or fiancée visa for those couples
who are about to get married. As well as plenty others. Visas like these, while often still
temporary, offer a path to citizenship, as well as the right to live and work in the
country in the meantime. Going slightly further down the system, the
United States operates their Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) and Canada
their Electronic Travel Authority (eTA) for citizens of certain countries who don’t
need a visa in advance. ESTA and eTA are not visas, but are basically security clearances
for citizens-- generally from Europe, east Asia and Australasia-- to enter either country
without a visa. ESTA is required by every US visa-waiver country (not including Canada,
Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau, which don’t need a visa at all), and eTA is required
by every Canadian visa-free country except the US and for French citizens living in St.
Pierre and Miquelon, due to their proximity to Canada.
Of course, there are also various treaties between different countries that make everything
easier for those looking to live and work in another country. Probably the most famous
example is the European Union, where a citizen of any of its member nations can move to another
country, no questions asked. However, some other examples include things like the Trans-Tasman
Travel Arrangement between Australia and New Zealand-- The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement
allows Australians and New Zealanders to live, work and study in the other country, but there
are some restrictions. For example, Kiwis coming to Australia to study wouldn’t be
automatically eligible to get a student loan, and they wouldn’t be eligible to work in
the Australian public service-- Oh okay, thanks Tibees (personally, I’d have called it the
Trans-Tasman Travel Treaty, just to keep the pattern going, but still). The United States
also has something called “Compact of Free Association” between itself and Palau, the
Marshall Islands and Micronesia, where citizens of any of the four countries can freely live
and work in any of the others (though it’s restricted to 1 year in Palau). Numerous other
countries, like India and Nepal, or the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, have also
organized these such freedom of travel permits between their countries, often requiring citizens
to only use their national ID cards when crossing the border. Obviously though, this isn’t
the case with foreigners, who may still need a visa.
So, at the end of the day, why do citizens of some countries need visas to visit a country,
whereas citizens of others are basically treated as residents automatically? Well, visas are
basically the host country granting permission for the applicant to enter the country, and
the visa-free requirements are really the exceptions to the rule, especially since they’re
only allowed in for a limited time and with limited privileges. They can be pretty inconvenient
a lot of the time, however the World Tourism Organization announced in 2015 that that year
had the lowest level of tourists needing to get a visa before travel on record, so there
is hope. Thank you as always for watching this video.
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