When you travel, your American or Canadian or European passports allow you to set foot almost anywhere. You can really just travel on a whim. Oh, I got a great price on a ticket to
Sigh. Not me.
I have to make sure that I have a stamp on my passport that says, yes, this person has filled out forms, waited in line for a few hours, paid the right amount of money, taken the correct-size photos, so we will let her come in the country and spend a few bucks of her hard-earned money on food and hand-crafted trinkets.
I've come across more resistance in trying to enter Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua . I won't mention which country does which, but here's a sampling of the roadblocks I ran into:
- I need to have a valid US visa to enter. I said, excuse me? But I'm leaving the US, so technically I don't need a US visa, right? No, it doesn't matter.
- I need to have a sponsor, an invitation from someone who resides in the country and can vouch for my reputation. It's not like I'm applying for knighthood or anything.
- I need to have a deposit - thousands of dollars (yeah, seriously) - that will then be refunded after 30 days of my departure from the country (and oh, minus 2% for administration fees) - that is, if I don't break any laws while I'm there.
- I can't come in the country unless I apply for a visa from my home country (since I don't have the previously required US visa). Unfortunately that would put me on a ridiculous detour halfway around the world.
3 comments:
The world is still your oyster! Praying for you!
hmmm, yeah, got to say we USA people have some extreme benefits. If it makes you feel better I have tons of people everyday tell me how much they hate my country. Then they go back to eating their KFC. :-)
Selamat Jelan, teman saya!!
This means you're not going to S.America? Or just delayed? Or you are going to journey through the U.S.?
But anyways, I think our hassle-free life as Americans has serious drawbacks - namely because "suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope." But I'm an American, and am entitled to a hassle-free existence. Right?
But the upside is that we can do missions anywhere, anytime, and not get too much grief (unless we're caught red-handed in a place like China or a muslim nation). But the downside is that we love comfort so much we never go and rarely give so that others can (figures I saw had 2% of all church money in the U.S. going to missions. Give me a big-screen TV in my kids' nursery!).
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