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Russian visas are now $160 for US citizens whereas EU members pay much less. Brits have to pay a lot more than most for Indian visas. I'm planning a trip to West Africa soon, and countries like Senegal, Guinea, Ghana, and Nigeria all price their visas according to nationality (strangely enough, Equatorial Guinea allows US citizens visa-free access but other nations have to pay for visas). Is it all just politics (I hate your government, so I'm going to charge your citizens a lot more to get into my country), or are there other factors involved?
The USA has fairly high visa costs for citizens of many countries. So those countries who aren't part of the visa waiver system tend to turn around and say that if America charges $160 for a visa application, than any Americans who want to visit our country also have to pay a $130-$160 visa application or 'reciprocity fee' (see Brazil) in order for it to seem fair.
Yep, it's usually reciprocal or related to the relationship of both countries politically. If it's hard for the nationality to visit your country in reverse, it's probably going to be equally as difficult/expensive for you.
Post # 2 and post #3 are correct. We had that same situation in countries in So. America plus in some cases we had to pay cash, US dollars and crisp new bills.
@wit-nit when I visited Argentina they charged me a reciprocity fee of $160, the amount it costs to obtain a US visa. And Brazil requires you to get a visa, that was a real headache for me. That's just about it in South America though, because every other country is visa-free and fee-free for US citizens.
But yeah, in response to all you guys, I forgot that there are several countries pointing their fingers back at us. Yes, Americans are tied for first in the amount of countries we can visit without a visa, but the visas we do need are quite expensive, so compared to the Canadians we're a lot worse off.
But why the high US visa cost? I read something about taxpayers and the fact your US visa is valid for a long time, but that didn't completely make sense to me. I thought ETSA was only valid for 2 years. I don't know enough about my own country!
Last edited by IAmARandomAnonymousUser; 08-25-2014 at 10:07 PM..
Yep, it's usually reciprocal or related to the relationship of both countries politically. If it's hard for the nationality to visit your country in reverse, it's probably going to be equally as difficult/expensive for you.
That is usually the case!
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