The world can be a strange place. Nothing makes that clearer than some of the outlandish questions which make it to visa application forms. 

The world of international immigration and diplomacy is not always curt nods and well-drilled processes. When seen in breadth and range, the practice of immigration check and visa approval yields some strange quirks from around the world.

Here are some of the strangest questions you might have to answer on a visa application:

Australia wants to know if you’ve been on a farm recently

 It’s true. When applying for an Australian visa, one of the questions apparently is if the applicant has been on a farm in the previous 6 months. One can only assume that it stems from Australia’s famously finicky protectiveness, when it comes to their natural environment and possible antigens being added to it.

Staying out of farm’s way

Describe your moustache for a Mexican visa

 Mexico never came across as a wildly selective country, considering it regularly hosts the worst of North American drunks on its pristine beaches. But apparently, the one thing that concerns them about potential visitors – the male, at least – is their moustaches. On the form, the traveller must reveal whether his facial decoration is scanty, bushy or clipped.

Describe that headdress first

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What is Mandarin for ‘obvious’?

 The Chinese visa application reveals some sort of human automation within the country. Revealed by multiple travellers, the visa application form apparently has a question ‘Purpose of visit’, under which ‘Visit’ is listed as an option. It is an answer choice which defeats the purpose of the question in the first place.

Not the brightest lot

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Middle Easterners’ query about wives

 Businessmen revealed to a travellers poll recently that many Middle Eastern countries’ visa application explicitly requires a passenger to list the number of wives they plan on getting along. It makes sense culturally, since most of the Gulf kingdoms allow polygamy. But it can still be a little jarring question to be asking a foreigner.

The sheikh’s carry-on harem

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There are always newer instances of immigration buffoonery, from typos on forms to even weirder personal interviews. Luckily for us, there is always an army of travellers worldwide willing to be grab and share such moments of inanity.