Always wondered how it would feel to travel across borders on a single visa? Well, you can get a sense of it in some of the more organized parts of the world.
Everybody loves vacations abroad, but this doesn’t include having to get visa after visa, being held up at customs, or the other red tape that often makes going from country to country a hassle. To that end, what we have here are 3 of the best single visa travel zones in the world.
The Schengen Zone
In 1985, 26 European countries mutually agreed to loosen the restrictions at their internal borders in order to allow the free flow of people, goods, and currency – so long as they also agreed to monitor their external borders and have their law enforcement agencies work closely together to fight crime and illegal immigration. This was the Schengen agreement, and the countries involved were Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
Schengen a new tune
The territories of these countries together form what is known as the Schengen zone, and nationals of each of the member countries are able to travel freely through the Schengen zone without having to get a visa for each country. Tourists can do the same, but they need a Schengen visa. Applications for this visa can be made at the embassies/consulates of any member country.
ACMECs Visa
Citizens from 35 different countries are able to apply for the ACMECS visa that allows them to travel freely between Cambodia and Thailand.
Welcome to South Feast Asia
Photo Credit
Recently there has been a push among the tourism boards and the unions of tourism related industries in Association of Southeast Asian countries to have a single visa that would allow for travel through all 10 of the ASEAN countries.
East Africa Visitor’s Visa
For those more adventurous travellers who are looking for a more exotic destination for their next holiday, a trip to Africa is definitely something worth considering. East Africa is especially interesting, and once you’re in Rwanda, Kenya, or Uganda you can apply for a visa that lets you travel between these three countries without having to get a separate visa.
An African safari beckons
As the world globalizes further, we wouldn’t bet on more single visa travel zones cropping up across the world. The only thing standing in the way in certain cases, are just vested interests.