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[starlagurl]

Wow... very strange behaviour... I'm assuming this extra charge is only for overseas people, not for Canadians?

[laorfamily]

Is this one more annoying tactic? Will it put you off? How many more taxes can they pile on travellers before they just decide to stay at home?

Just another way to collect taxes without pissing off the people who put you in office. The American political class can only tax and spend, cutting is not in their dictionary. Another example of the short sightedness that brought the economy to it's knees (thinking short term benefits regarless of long term harm).

[mmbcross]

I'm assuming this extra charge is only for overseas people, not for Canadians?

Good point. What documents do Canadians need to get into the US? By the way, if Canadians are not "overseas" people, then nor are Mexicans, or anyone south of the border up to Panama for that matter. (Colombians and all those living below Panama cannot easily arrive in the US without going "overseas".)

[starlagurl]

We need our passports now... used to be only a birth certificate.

I thank my lucky stars that they don't ask us to give our fingerprints and photos... er... retina scans every time I go over there.

[littlekate]

O, pals, as for idiocity of security and visa systems Russia is well out of competition. So, here all of you are equally welcome Canadians and Americans and who ever else. I mean normal people, not the authorities, if you manage to dig them out of their normal bitterness and severity.

[carsten.bahrain]

The last time i visited the US was in November 2001 and February 2002. What i saw back then was open Paranoia fueled by the ones in charge (ie. Bush). I swore to myself not to come back to this beautiful country, unless the political climate has, for lack of a better word, changed.

I am giving this country a chance to convince me that things really are changing and Tourists are welcome again. A lot of people i know are thinking exactly the same. Bush made the US unpopular in the world and although most people know that there is a difference between the political establishment and the people, it really put them off. Actually, a lot of my friends went to Canada instead. Canada is perceived in Germany as a friendly and welcoming country, something the USA has to regain.

It would also help to promote other places in the USA for holiday, than California, Florida and NYC.

Just my 2 cents.....

[zijuzijazijana]

now it is the economy,before it was just plain envy

To me alot of it lately ist he economy, also people just do not like Americans from what I gather. WHo knows but I do know the economy has played a huge role in it.

[visor2040]

I don't travel to the US (and Canada now) because of their BS visa policy. I'm a student (poor) so I don't have a bank account with thousands of dollars, insurance, already booked flights and all that jazz. The visa application process (the whole process) costs around 500 USD for each time you try (you have to call a 1-900 number to get an appointment and waste up to 20 minutes waiting and being charged a few dollars per minute, then you have to pay BEFORE they tell you if you get the visa).

I'd travel to Europe but now that one can't land in the US without a tourist visa (even if you don't leave the plane) I have to look for non-stop flights (and those are VERY expensive). Asia and Oceania are out of the question because of this too.

I know a guy in Ensenada that applied for a border-crossing-card-thing (some special kind of visa that allows him to enter border cities only). He had a bank account with 5K USD in it, a job, a house, no criminal record and he got denied because the 5K had been recently deposited and they could have been a loan he took to fool the mighty USA to allow his dirty illegal immigrant self in. Or maybe it was because he is openly gay I don't know .

[zijuzijazijana]

Hi,
I think I'm in the wrong group here.
I'm American of Polish origin who lived and traveled in USA and I was happy with it.USA is such a beautiful country and it has so much to offer to a tourist.If one would like to get to know USA state by state and city by city the life time wouldn't be enough.
Now,when I'm outside of USA I can see from close how much people hate Americans for no reason what so ever.
I like to travel but I also like certain standards and what I have been talking about was that travel in USA is expensive but it meets my standards.I refuse to travel for obuse and for torture,than on the top of it to be overcharged for everything cause I'm American but that's what happens outside of USA.I don't need to travel outside of US,it's still so much I haven't seen there,so why to take obuse in Europe for example and pay for it.
My point is why not to contribute to US economy and travel inside the country !
Zijuzijazijana

[mmbcross]

I totally agree that the United States is a wonderful and diverse country to visit and it's a shame that so many US citizens don't know their country well.

I can't agree that North Americans are hated in other countries. I haven't come across that. On the contrary, I have always felt welcomed. I think a lot depends on your own attitude. The only place I felt animosity recently was at the information office in the railway station at Bratislava. I think the lady there was a left over from Soviet times. She treated everyone badly. Perhaps she had tenure there.

Nevertheless I have to also agree with visor2040. It's incredibly difficult and costly to get into the USA these days. With such a wonderful world out there, one wonders why anyone would want to go to all the bother and expense, but incredibly, hundreds upon thousands do. The most amazing thing is that you have to go through all this visa stuff even if your flight is just a connection in a US city on the way to somewhere else.

[laorfamily]

I don't travel to the US (and Canada now) because of their BS visa policy. I'm a student (poor) so I don't have a bank account with thousands of dollars, insurance, already booked flights and all that jazz. The visa application process (the whole process) costs around 500 USD for each time you try (you have to call a 1-900 number to get an appointment and waste up to 20 minutes waiting and being charged a few dollars per minute, then you have to pay BEFORE they tell you if you get the visa).

Really, that's what you have to do?

Wow, I'm surprised we get any tourists at all with such an idiotic and restrictive policy.

But I'm not surprised, the current crop of US politicians, a well as the crop of the last 20-30 years, have been busy with making people's lives more difficult just to say that they "did" something.

[skylab]

I hate how our government is with the Visa's.. Really is too much.

[travelfreaks]

You guys have not given me any confidence regarding our 90 days travel around the U.S. We are hoping to land, get off the plane with our backpacks, and THEN decide what we are going to do for a week, before visiting friends...Sounds like they wont let us off the plane!

[laorfamily]

You guys have not given me any confidence regarding our 90 days travel around the U.S. We are hoping to land, get off the plane with our backpacks, and THEN decide what we are going to do for a week, before visiting friends...Sounds like they wont let us off the plane!

They'll let you off the plane, but they just want to make sure you don't over stay your welcome (there are around 20 million illegals in the US). Just like anywhere else, you hear the horror stories and not the 1,000 times a day that they're nice to people.

[visor2040]

That new Arizona immigration bill? It's going to keep me away from the state even if I do get a visa. I guess many travelers will feel the same (although I doubt they'd bother any white people not speaking English on the street )

[laorfamily]

That new Arizona immigration bill?

Arizona has a huge - HUGE - issue with drug traffickers and Mexican gangs raking havoc in the border towns.
It's not a bunch of immigrant-hating-red-necks who make laws to keep people out of their back yards.

[visor2040]

Arizona has a huge - HUGE - issue with drug traffickers and Mexican gangs raking havoc in the border towns.
It's not a bunch of immigrant-hating-red-necks who make laws to keep people out of their back yards.

It still opens the door to a cop stopping me just because I'm brown :/. Your HUGE problem is nothing compared to what we go through every day because of your hunger for drugs

[laorfamily]

Before this becomes an all out pissing contest with no winner let me just say that I'm in no way favoring the new Arizona law, it is misguided at best - but I can understand.

When you have Mexican drug traffickers killing your neighbors in their homes (which is how this bill came about) as well as a community that's consistently afraid for their lives as well as the lives of their children, your problem of being stopped by a cop seems trivial.

Since you are Mexican you should know this better than us, given what is happening in the Monterrey area. By the way, I bet that if a white man like me walked in Monterrey I'd be picked up in half a second either by the police for wanting drugs or by the gangs to be ransomed back.

[visor2040]

By the way, I bet that if a white man like me walked in Monterrey I'd be picked up in half a second either by the police for wanting drugs or by the gangs to be ransomed back.

No and no. The police are patient. They would expect you to make a mistake (like drinking in public) and they'd ask you for money to not take you in. The drug dealers USED to kidnap Americans for money but now they'd just kill you for the publicity .

Also in Monterrey there are many white (or white-er) people around. It'd be easier for cops to spot you here in Mexico City .

[zijuzijazijana]

That new Arizona immigration bill?

Arizona has a huge - HUGE - issue with drug traffickers and Mexican gangs raking havoc in the border towns.
It's not a bunch of immigrant-hating-red-necks who make laws to keep people out of their back yards.

That's too bad,that situation is so much out of control.I'm outside of the country for last six years due to similar situation in Florida State.Over there,there is the same problem with Cuban gangs.I was hoping that situation would change for better but it looks like it's changing for the worse.
Greetings from Europe !
Zijuzijazijana