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visa requirement

Will I need a visa to travel from Cairo Egypt to Vienna this summer?

Posted by
1875 posts

As a US citizen and tourist you don't need a visa for entering Austria no matter where you travel from.
There might be some restrictions regarding COVID, but I don't know the current rules as they tend to change quickly.

Posted by
4324 posts

Are visas even a thing anymore, outside perhaps of China? I remember needing them 30 years ago for an African trip.

Posted by
5362 posts

Are visas even a thing anymore, outside perhaps of China? I remember
needing them 30 years ago for an African trip.

Pretty much the entire world, outside of North America, Europe and Japan, need visas to go just about anywhere.

Posted by
4324 posts

Really? What is the purpose of a visa, is it just a revenue generating device? Who issues it, and who keeps the dinero?

Posted by
4324 posts

There's no privilege involved, it's a real question from a real traveler. Why are there visas?

Posted by
11034 posts

Passport = Identity document

Visa = permission to enter

Posted by
3948 posts

Actually, you asked If visas are even a thing anymore and who gets the money.

Holders of a U.S. passport can access many countries visa free right now - for many countries, but not all, we don’t have to plan far ahead, apply for a visa, or make a trek somewhere to get it. All we have to basically do is hold a valid passport and buy a plane ticket.

The same can’t be said of the interplay between other countries. And most travelers coming to the U.S. have to apply for a visa or for the ESTA program (similar to the ETIAS program that will come into effect at some point for us to travel to the Schengen zone).

There are a number of countries we need a visa for right now: Egypt, Turkey, UAE, Jordan, Bolivia, India, Vietnam, much of Africa, and Australia to name a few. Most of these are easy to get but they ARE required. But for citizens of some countries, the list is FAR longer and far more complicated.

We are fortunate and it is good to realize that and appreciate it. As for who gets the money? Who knows - hopefully it pays the salary of whoever has to monitor and process. I figure visas are more for some control over and knowledge about who enters the country.

Posted by
32521 posts

there has been a lot of discussion from Americans about their unhappiness with visas but 5 days later we have never had a reply from gpaskell2, our one time poster who is likely off elsewhere trying to get an answer to their question.

What it boils down to is who (which country) issued the passport and what their country's relationship is with Egypt and Austria.

In the absence of that information we can guess or we can wait.