Whoever said ‘All men are created equal’ hasn’t lived in the real world. I am saying this because I have seen it time and time again that there is so such things as – we all are equal and we definitely are not treated equally. If you have different skin colour, you are treated differently, if you have different accent, you are treated differently and definitely you are treated differently if you have different passport colour.
I am planning a holiday with my husband. The problem is he holds a green passport so he is required to apply for visa while I hold a blue passport so I don’t need visa for the places we are going.
It is fair that you can ask someone to apply for visa to travel but the worst part is that they really make it difficult. Me and my husband have the same financial circumstance but while nothing is checked for me, he is required to provide a long list of documents to prove that he is cable of travelling to these countries just because he holds a passport from a country which is considered third world.
The list consists
- Flight ticket
- Property paper or tenancy certificate
- 3 months of you financial statements from your saving account
- Letter form your employer
- Utilities bill
- Pay slips
- Tax return paper
- Proof establishing the purpose of your trip, for example a letter of invitation.
- Copy of marriage certificate if you are married
- Proof of accommodation, i.e. hotel reservation. If you are staying with family or friends you should submit a letter of invitation
And the list keeps on growing. Then you have to fill out a visa form which is so complicated. Seriously, there are some questions there for which I have no idea what they really mean.
I know they want to make sure only genuine people get tourist visas but if anyone gets a few weeks off and decided to go away for a vacation, they can’t as it takes a while for these visas to be processed. In most of the embassies, we need to make appointments months in advance so if you hold a passport that requires a visa, you are forced to plan months in advance just to make sure you get all the paperwork and visas ready before you travel.
In some countries, the information you require to apply for visa is hidden somewhere and you will be frustrated searching for it. Then you call the agents and every person you get on the other side of the phone will give you different ideas on what they think you should do. Seriously, if I don’t have a relative/friend in this country and I still want to visit, there should be an easy solution. I shouldn’t be forced to find people or pay ridicules amount of money to visit the place.
Thankfully all visas for my husband have been sorted out and we are looking forward to our holiday but the period when he applied for visas and the time they took to make decision, I was going through nightmares thinking the worst. Because, you need to show your tickets, accommodations and tours which are non refundable so for any reason if you don’t get a visa, all your dream holiday is gone down the drain along with all the money you spent for the holiday.
I know there are lots of problem in every county including Australia due to illegal immigrants but that is really making it difficult for a genuine traveller to get away and have some relaxing time.
I know my good friend Tash from Life through Kaleidoscope had a prolonged wait for her visa and she was just going for her graduation. Fortunately, everything has been sorted out and she is enjoying a great break in the UK along with her graduation ceremony.
One of my cousin’s parents applied for a tourist visa to come and visit their son here in Australia but it was rejected. They are in their 60’s but the rejection letter claimed that they believed, they won’t return to Nepal so the visa was rejected.
The funny thing is, they are making it so hard for all genuine people to enter the country while there are lots of illegal immigrants enjoying their time freely. I hope there will be a time when one has to just scan the passport and pay for visa fee to enter another country no matter which country’s passport you hold.
nepaliaustralian 
It’s true what you wrote here. My aunt, who carries a Philippine passport, has to get visas for all the countries we’re going to visit. US passport holders on the other hand, are free to go anywhere.
Aww Im so glad everything worked out for you and AS! Looking forward to seeing you! Also, thank you for mentioning me, very sweet of you M. I felt happy when I saw the uae stamp up there, hehe, familiarities! 😀 Hope you have a safe journey here 🙂
I am glad you had a great time in UK and now back to Dubai. I am looking forward to seeing you girl. Not long to go now 🙂
I agree it is crazy. It makes no sense whatsoever. Great post and hopefully everything is resolved.
Thanks 🙂
All men are created equal, but men created borders & the regions confined within various borders are not at same parity. People/Countries do not want the parity to even out. A European county will love Afghani Carpets, but they would not like Afghanis come in their country and weave the carpet for them. On the flip side there are countries that encourage legal immigration to increase diversity. The whole process is complex & is still evolving. Hopefully the world one day will be truly “global” and we’ll have borderless countries, until than keep renewing your passport.
Anyways, Men are created equal might be a debatable though, but I must say Husbands are created (and treated) equal. At the end of the day, it’s always Husband who’s blamed for the added complexity, home, travel and almost anything. It’s always husband’s fault.
Yatin you are so good in analysis 🙂 . You expressed exactly what I was feeling.
Sorry “It’s always husband’s fault.” is kind of true with mine as well . I think we , women , always need someone who loved us to take some blame for things when plans don’t go well 🙂
I totally sympathise. Of course, I’d face great restrictions on any travel, but it’s my fault, and for very different reasons. Your husband should not face this scrutiny.
I really hope it is not very bad for you to travel just because you chose to make difference in your life. Everyone is free to do what they please and that should not reflect when you travel.
Most (if not all) governments have that weird tendency to make traveling abroad as difficult as possible…..
100% agree. They need to live in real world before making these rules….
I can understand you so much.
For me as a german it’s no problem to get visa for all countrys the world. I m apply, I pay and I get a visa.
But for B. my better half..!
He also a nepali you know and I think a little bit you know our situation now, its so hard to get a visa, specelly for western countrys.
The problem is, the western countrys thinking allways them all want to stay allways here, or want to stay in illegality. Everybody will for the first moment perceived same.
There coming a lot of questions, really privat questions too.
When ever we applyed a visa for B. I was at the embassy in KTM togehther with him. I can say you, sometimes I was to be embarrassed, my own compatriots made so intimate questions to him.
We had a luck we got the visa for traveling B to Germany, I mean the tourist visa.
But now, you know we fight for the married visa since 14 months. We have to fight separate about 7000Km from one another, he in Nepal and me in germany. At the moment we have a lot of troubles. The topic is to complex and so I cant writing about all.
here in Germany or europe we have many peoples from poor countrys, partly illegal and partly to surreptitious……..and that me make ungry. The honest peoples havent a real chance, because there are dishonest peoples.
I have resigned to hope the world is one world any time and thats make me sad……….
But for you I m happy and I hope you will enjoy you travel
Thank you so much Basundhara.. I really hope to hear a good news from you soon…All the best. I am sure things will work out. Till then hope for the best…
I especially agree with the last paragraph. It’s a pity that people like me who go through the Visa process –even as a USA citizen to live in a prolonged period of time in EU — seems belittled when I know the numerous illegal immigrants who did not follow the procedures and rules.
I really hope things will change for better soon…