Double Check the Country Travel Requirements Before Taking Your Summer Trip
When I went to the counter at the airport last year to drop off my suitcase for a flight to Australia, I was in for an unexpected surprise: I needed a visa and I didn’t have one.
Luckily for me, Australian visas are easy to obtain, and after I gave more cash than I would have liked, my bag was checked and within minutes I was heading to the gate.
While the Australian visa shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, it was definitely my oversight, now, thanks to the strengthening of airport security and the problems of child trafficking, more and more countries are requiring additional documents to enter them, according to The Wall Street Journal .
Despite the fact that I was not expecting a visa to Australia, a visa is needed quite often. When a country does not require a visa, most people assume that all they need is a passport to enter. It is not always so.
Many countries have begun to require birth certificates, vaccination records, and even paperwork for prescription drugs that you carry in your bag, especially if you are traveling with children.
In 2021, visitors to the European Union with US passports will also have to apply for a “country travel permit”.
The magazine told the story of a family who came to South Africa last summer. They were able to fly from the US to Dubai, but when they got to Dubai, they were not allowed to continue the journey because they did not have the birth certificates of their children.
While their story is certainly unique to the scene, it is also a good warning for everyone. If you’re traveling to a new place, it’s always a good idea to dive deeply into what you might need while you’re there. You can find this information on the International Air Transport Association website as well as at the embassy of the country you are traveling to.
It’s also a good idea to keep copies of things like immunization records and the like in the cloud so you can access them on the fly while traveling. Even if you don’t need them to enter, you will never know when a health problem occurs and you will need access to that information.