Sunday, October 6, 2013

Planning for any travel? You might need a visa!

by Cindy

After several months of technical difficulty, the blog is back.  Many thanks to those of you who asked about it.  Our issue was that all of our pictures disappeared and that "took the wind out of my sails."  Especially since "a picture is worth a 1000 words" - who wants to read a blog that is all text?

I wanted to make our re-entry into the blog world a big splash but alas, I couldn't think of anything really good.  So instead, you get a trivia question (I'll make it really easy).

Q: If you have an American passport, how many countries can you enter without a visa?

A) All 195 recognized by the US State Department?
B) About 90% (approx. 175)
C) About 80% (approx. 156)
D) About 70% (approx. 137)

The answer is 172.  I'll leave it to you to research the 23 that you must have a visa. I'll also give you a hint, the UAE is not one of the 23!

While you might be surprised to know that the US was not on the top of the list, the bottom of the list probably isn't too surprising.  You can find the data here.

Just to add a personal touch to this, Jeff and I have, on several occasions, been thankful for the blue passport that we carry.  We have had students unable to travel to conferences because of their passport, or lack thereof in the case of Palestine.

Also, we were on the plane, in the air, headed to Egypt when it dawned on us that we might need a visa to enter the country [insert ignorant American joke here]. Fortunately, you can buy a visa on arrival in Egypt so we were good.  Thankfully we have not made that mistake again!

No comments:

Post a Comment