Visa requirements for United States citizens and non-citizen nationals are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of the United States.
As of May 2018, holders of a United States passport could travel to 186 countries and territories without a travel visa, or with visa on arrival, ranking the United States passport 4th in terms of travel freedom (tied with Austrian, British, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Norwegian and Portuguese passports) according to the Henley Passport Index.
Video Visa requirements for United States citizens
Visa requirements map
Maps Visa requirements for United States citizens
Visa requirements
General visa requirements of sovereign countries towards United States citizens:
Dependent, Disputed, or Restricted territories
Visa requirements for United States citizens for visits to various territories, disputed areas, partially recognized countries not mentioned in the list above, and restricted zones:
Non-visa restrictions
Passport validity length
Many countries require passports to be valid for at least 6 months upon arrival. Note that some nations have bilateral agreements with other countries to shorten the passport validity cut-off period for each other's citizens.
Countries requiring passports to be valid at least 6 months on arrival include Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Bahrain, Bhutan, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (except when arriving at Basra and Erbil or Sulaimaniyah), Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Somaliland, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 4 months on arrival include Micronesia and Zambia.
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 3 months on arrival include European Union countries (except Denmark, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and always excepting EU/EEA/Swiss nationals), Albania, Belarus, Georgia, Honduras, Iceland, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Nauru, Panama, Saint Barthélemy, San Marino, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Bermuda requires passports to be valid for at least 45 days upon entry.
Countries that require a passport validity of at least 1 month on arrival include Eritrea, Hong Kong, Macao, New Zealand and South Africa.
Other countries require either a passport valid on arrival or a passport valid throughout the period of the intended stay.
Blank passport pages
Many countries require a minimum number of blank pages in the passport being presented, generally one or two pages. Endorsement pages which oftentimes appear after the visa pages are not counted.
Vaccination
Many African countries, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia require all incoming passengers to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination.
Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area.
Israeli stamps
Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen do not allow entry to people with passport stamps from Israel or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa, or where there is evidence of previous travel to Israel such as entry or exit stamps from neighbouring border posts in transit countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
To circumvent this Arab League boycott of Israel, the Israeli immigration services have now mostly ceased to stamp foreign nationals' passports on either entry to or exit from Israel. Since 15 January 2013, Israel no longer stamps foreign passports at Ben Gurion Airport, giving passengers a card instead: "Since January 2013 a pilot scheme has been introduced whereby visitors are given an entry card instead of an entry stamp on arrival. You should keep this card with your passport until you leave. This is evidence of your legal entry into Israel and may be required, particularly at any crossing points into the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Passports are still (as of 22 June 2017) stamped at Erez when travelling into and out of Gaza. Also, passports are still stamped (as of 22 June 2017) at the Jordan Valley/Sheikh Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin/Arava land borders with Jordan.
- Iran: Admission is refused for holders of passports containing an Israeli visa/stamp in the last 12 months
Armenian ethnicity
Due to a state of war existing between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the government of Azerbaijan not only bans entry of citizens from Armenia, but also all citizens and nationals of any other country who are of Armenian descent, to the Republic of Azerbaijan (although there have been exceptions, notably for Armenia's participation at the 2015 European Games held in Azerbaijan).
Azerbaijan also strictly bans any visit by foreign citizens to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh (the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh), its surrounding territories and the Azerbaijani exclaves of Karki, Yuxar? ?skipara, Barxudarl? and Sofulu which are de jure part of Azerbaijan but under control of Armenia, without the prior consent of the government of Azerbaijan. Foreign citizens who enter these occupied territories will be permanently banned from entering the Republic of Azerbaijan and will be included in their "list of personae non gratae". As of late 2017 the list contains 699 persons.
Upon request, the Republic of Artsakh authorities may attach their visa and/or stamps to a separate piece of paper in order to avoid detection of travel to their country.
Persona non grata
The government of a country can declare a diplomat persona non grata, banning their entry into that country. In non-diplomatic use, the authorities of a country may also declare a foreigner persona non grata permanently or temporarily, usually because of unlawful activity. Attempts to enter the Gaza strip by sea may attract a 10-year ban on entering Israel.
Fingerprinting
Several countries including Argentina, Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States demand all travellers, or all foreign travellers, to be fingerprinted on arrival.
Criminal record
Some countries (for example, Canada and the United States) routinely deny entry to non-citizens who have a criminal record.
Passport card
The United States Passport Card can be used as an alternative to the booklet passport when travelling to and from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and many Caribbean islands at sea ports-of-entry or land border crossings.
APEC Travel Business Card
The APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) is meant to facilitate travel for U.S. citizens engaged in verified business in the APEC region.
The U.S. ABTC will enable access to a dedicated fast-track lane for expedited immigration processing at participating foreign some APEC member airports. U.S. APEC Business Travel Card holders may also use the Global Entry kiosks at participating airports upon their U.S. return. But the U.S. APEC Business Travel Card can't be used in lieu of a visa to enter an APEC member country. Other countries' APEC cards can be used in lieu of visas. But the U.S. has decided not to participate in the visa reciprocity part of the program because the government is unwilling to waive visa interviews. Legislation authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to issue U.S. APEC Business Travel Cards only through Sept. 30, 2018, unless the law is amended to extend that date.
Consular protection of U.S. citizens abroad
The United States has the most diplomatic missions out of any country in the world.
See also List of diplomatic missions of the United States.
The Department of State regularly publishes travel warnings or travel alerts.
Foreign travel statistics
These are the numbers of visits by U.S. nationals to various countries in 2015 (unless otherwise noted):
See also
- Visa policy of the United States
- United States passport
- Bureau of Consular Affairs
- United States Passport Card
- List of nationalities forbidden at border
References and Notes
- References
- Notes
External links
- Official U.S. Government database, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Source of article : Wikipedia