Jesus Kegg !! My peals of laughter almost sent my coffee spraying onto my monitor! Damn you.
And yeah,** RFGDXM** it’s pretty damn easy to travel between the US and Canada. Am I correct to assume you are Canadian? Have you noticed since 9-11 how it’s just slightly more difficult to get into the US?
As for Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, etc. being considered part of Europe, as I can see this as from a geographical standpoint, I don’t consider them to be part of the commonly known European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, etc.
This is more or less due to the similar economic and political structures of these countries. Just my opinion.
I wouldn’t get too wound up about Australian visa requirements. Because I was born in England and have been too lazy to go through the crap required for citizenship, I have to have a valid visa to re-enter Australia when I travel overseas even though I have lived here since I was 2, have 2 Aussie children, 2 Aussie ex-wifes and a job here.
Japan also has a universal requirement for a visa, although they allow you to “apply” at your point of arrival if you come from a developed country. Everytime I go, they staple a visa into my passport, and then remove it when I leave. IIRC, they also require people to live there 20 years before they can become naturalized citizens.
No, I am a US citizen. Personally I wouldn’t know, given it is obvious when back on the US side that customs realizes I am just coming back from Canada. However, I haven’t heard it is that much more difficult for Canadians to get into the US. I would suspect that the reason why is that huge, largely unguarded land border. Organized terrorists who managed to get into the US from Canada surely wouldn’t try to cross at checkpoints where customs is already present.
Although I do wonder if the US has leaned on Canada to convince them to make it more difficult for potential terrorists to get into Canada? Given the impracticality of building a huge wall along the Canadian border on the US side, it would make more sense to convince the Canadians to tighten up entry requirements for people from the rest of the world.
My bad not noticing he was referring to Asians. However, Australia would have little to worry about the yellow hordes sweeping in by waving visa requirements for anyone with a US passport.
Getting a visa for Oz was, I found, a fairly easy task online (I’m a UK citizen), however, on arrival a couple of years ago you’d think the name in my passport was Osama Bin Laden. I have, over the last 35 years, travelled in many countries - in fact I lived and worked in Oz for seven years in the 70s, and was going there to see my two (Australian born and bred) sons and their children - I can’t remember ever being treated so badly in immigration anywhere in the world. And I wasn’t the only one. An elderly Chinese (I think) couple, obviously wealthy, in front of me said what I was thinking, “This is the last time I come here!” Such a shame, as it’s a great place with lovely people. They really need to get a bit more user- friendly at the airport. All that aggression isn’t necessary.
