Hmm, South Africa is not exempt, because they are not part of the Visa Waver program. (No country in Africa is part of that program, according to [1].)
OT but as an European who wanted to come visit the US again (been an exchange student in Ohio State in 2010 and been in US two times aside of that) I keep finding more reasons not to than to do so.
The two biggest off putting things are immigration (had few friends blocked half a day required to give access to all their devices just recently, treated very brutally out of nothing) and the insane inflation that happened in the last years.
Traveling to the US used to be cheap for Europeans, but the prices are nowadays insane for anything. Used to have a hard time spending 150$ per day in Manhattan, it's twice the amount just for a budget hotel. Went to see the Knicks vs Bucks for 40$, it's like 10 times the amount for the same seat.
Attractions like Disneyworld and such as well have skyrocketed to the point it's really off putting.
If at least immigration wasn't so obnoxious and I didn't hear horror stories from IRL friends I could swallow the pricing pillow, but not both.
Still about the same price as being smuggled in by a coyote. Maybe a slight premium. Only slight effect on illegal immigration. I see this as USA basically trying to get the same 'cut' the coyote does.
was trying to plan a casual trip with friends and learned about this because the wife of one of our friends is Algerian, now he has to pocket 15k just so they can join us for a music festival.
Man, US immigration has been dysfunctional my entire life and it's only gotten worse during the last 10 years. I can't imagine being trusting enough to fork over a $15k bond to the US government. What are you going to do when you're safely back home in the EU and they refuse your refund? What authority would stand any chance of recovering your money?
I'm not American or live in the US, and haven't visited since before covid, but those who are or have been, can you give someone looking in some insight? Does it all just feel so much more explicitly like a state sponsored grift daily or is that just the vibes giving off by my selective media consumption?
I don't find this that weird, maybe 15k$ is a lot, but being from south america some european countries require you to prove that you have money before traveling if I remember correctly, I think maybe 5k euros?
I've been telling anyone I know who's planning on visiting or coming to the US not to do so for their own safety. It's no longer worth risking the potential abuse and invasion of privacy.
Reminds me of that moving quote on the Statue of Liberty:
"Give us your rested, your rich, your single individuals earning high incomes with special skills, yearning to stay for one year only, the people who don't need asylum from their high-GDP developed democratic nation and own property overseas."
Even the fiance visa program (K-1), which I went through 19 years ago. is affected by similar requirements.
It's set up with a number of safeguards:
The USC has to apply for it on behalf of the immigrant, while the USC is physically in the country, and the immigrant must not be (to prevent coercion).
But the visa is set up to expect the USC to be the primary breadwinner. I get that part of this is to dissuade "buying a visa" (but these days, hah).
But my USC fiance was a student while I was an Australian IT professional. The government wanted us to demonstrate that we could support ourselves for months while I found a job, but literally didn't care what finances I contributed to that.
Ended up that her mother had to sponsor my visa using her house as surety. For which I am entirely grateful, but bleh.
They didn't expect her to pay for our lives, but meant that if I used any government resource such as Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security in my first ten years as a resident, that the IRS (I think) could be asked to effectively bill her for reimbursement of every dollar.
There's a lot of tourism dollars/euros/yuan/rupees sloshing around looking for a place to go. Looks like Asia will ultimately be the winner, and I mean from east to west - Abu Dhabi is building a Disneyland and Bangkok is the #1 visited city in the world. India's tourism industry (think outside the big cities) seems to be improving very rapidly - every post I see from postcard hotels on instagram gives me wanderlust.
Being a European and former US admirer, I thought about it almost a year and decided it doesn't worth to visit any more. The couple of times I had in the past I observed the US life is exactly like depicted in US movies (barring the violent scenes). So instead of paying a visit, pay attention to some movie (pun intended).
It is almost impossible to get international people to come to the US anymore, the few people who are willing to visit can't get visa appointments at the consulate.
Wouldn't be surprised if the World Cup sees half empty stadiums this year and tourism related places like Vegas continue to draw down.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 40.3 ms ] thread[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#:~:text=As...
The two biggest off putting things are immigration (had few friends blocked half a day required to give access to all their devices just recently, treated very brutally out of nothing) and the insane inflation that happened in the last years.
Traveling to the US used to be cheap for Europeans, but the prices are nowadays insane for anything. Used to have a hard time spending 150$ per day in Manhattan, it's twice the amount just for a budget hotel. Went to see the Knicks vs Bucks for 40$, it's like 10 times the amount for the same seat.
Attractions like Disneyworld and such as well have skyrocketed to the point it's really off putting.
If at least immigration wasn't so obnoxious and I didn't hear horror stories from IRL friends I could swallow the pricing pillow, but not both.
Had the best time.
"Give us your rested, your rich, your single individuals earning high incomes with special skills, yearning to stay for one year only, the people who don't need asylum from their high-GDP developed democratic nation and own property overseas."
It's set up with a number of safeguards:
The USC has to apply for it on behalf of the immigrant, while the USC is physically in the country, and the immigrant must not be (to prevent coercion).
But the visa is set up to expect the USC to be the primary breadwinner. I get that part of this is to dissuade "buying a visa" (but these days, hah).
But my USC fiance was a student while I was an Australian IT professional. The government wanted us to demonstrate that we could support ourselves for months while I found a job, but literally didn't care what finances I contributed to that.
Ended up that her mother had to sponsor my visa using her house as surety. For which I am entirely grateful, but bleh.
They didn't expect her to pay for our lives, but meant that if I used any government resource such as Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security in my first ten years as a resident, that the IRS (I think) could be asked to effectively bill her for reimbursement of every dollar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Abu_Dhabi https://www.travelandleisure.com/most-visited-city-in-the-wo... https://www.instagram.com/thepostcardhotel/
Wouldn't be surprised if the World Cup sees half empty stadiums this year and tourism related places like Vegas continue to draw down.