Travel the world if you can afford it!

For an Indian citizen, a UK visa requires you to take a picture of every passport you've ever had, including the blank pages.
US visa requires you to go to stay in a metro City overnight - they take biometrics on day 1 and interview on day 2.
Schengen visa requires you to show hotel bookings for every single day and a six month bank transaction history ( Yes, every single transaction).
All of them require income tax returns for the past three years.

@Theorem_Poem Shocking

I can afford the money, sure, but the humiliation ritual demanded by Western countries just makes me want to plan a vacation in an Asian country. Perhaps I should take my vacation budget to African nations as well.

(This rant was brought to you today because my neighbour, who is literally 81 years old, is filling a visa application - his son lives in the UK - and we uploaded the pictures of every page of his three passports (from past many decades) into the visa website).

@Theorem_Poem China just makes you fill out a form with multiple-choice questions where none of the choices make any sense.

@Theorem_Poem

Absolutely unacceptable!

I'm sorry you and anyone else experience this.

@AmazingMeagen so many countries have my fingerprints. If I don't laugh about it, I'll cry 😅

@Theorem_Poem yup, I lost all interest in traveling to these countries after learning how they treat visitors, none of them are worth the humiliation required to be allowed to visit.

@Theorem_Poem @hiway I am glad that I had a chance to travel to the UK (when I was a child) and EU (when I was a young adult), but despite really wanting to see a bunch of museums in Europe, the visa process is so gross and intrusive that I have zero motivation to go through it.

@amenonsen @Theorem_Poem @hiway I'm British Asian (was born here) but my parents had to go through all sorts of hoops to remain here in spite of having full time jobs in vital industries (healthcare and teaching), my relatives from Malaysia have to do the same and its clearly got /worse/ than 1970s/80s even for short term visits.

And even as someone born in England there are *many* holiday destinations in my own region I'm wary of and don't feel 100% welcome in (as the locals there willingly voted for the racist Reform UK party)

@vfrmedia so sorry your parents had to go through that. :/ @amenonsen @hiway

@Theorem_Poem you may find it is not just the Western countries. More and more restrictions are appearing on most country's visa entries with associated cost and complexity.

@EF yep, it's getting tougher in general. But I could still go to Thailand or Hong Kong or Kenya with a *lot* less paperwork. And with officials who treat me as a tourist, not a potential illegal immigrant.

@Theorem_Poem doesn't it depend on whether someone gets a tourist visa or a longer visa? Also where you are a national?

@Theorem_Poem

As a UK citizen, I can only apologise. I had no idea that this is being done to visitors! It surely must be racist, and I wonder why people visit here, given that the process is so ridiculous.

@Virginicus hehe, never been. Will see if I get the opportunity!

@Theorem_Poem go to Cuba

@burnoutqueen I might.

@Theorem_Poem and this is the best case scenario. it's even more of a hassle for those who've had past rejections, lost old passports, etc.

and now with more ridiculous rules like if you don't disclose any social media accounts because you're not on social media, the VO can decide to reject you based just on that. they can also ask for phone numbers and email IDs used by family members in the last 5 years if you seem suspicious to them

@ownlife if you're "suspicious" in any arbitrary way, they can ask you for the most outta pocket stuff.

@Theorem_Poem and after all that harassment, if you still get rejected, you also get to lose a bunch of money that could've been put to better use

@ownlife not a single paisa back, no reason provided. You keep guessing what went wrong, while you lose a week's wage.

@Theorem_Poem Wait, you're supposed to keep old passports? All this time I thought you just disposed of them when you got a new one

@stveje nope! I still have the passport I had as a minor.

@Theorem_Poem I think I *might* have my previous passport somewhere, but I'm pretty sure anything before that is long gone. No one ever told me to keep them

@stveje if you're European (especially from the Schengen region) it won't matter very much. Those rules don't apply to you.

@Theorem_Poem I hope so. But maybe it's just a matter of time? I certainly wouldn't want to travel to the US right now, even as a European, even if the passport isn't an issue. Pretty fucked up how everything is getting more and more invasive

@stveje 🤷‍♀️ idk man you're asking a brown person whose fingerprints are on file in the visa offices of four countries. I sincerely hope not.

@EF Indian citizen. This is what we do for a TOURIST visa. I don't even know what work visa / long term visa entails.

@Theorem_Poem but don't worry, thanks to Modiji, we've become vishwaguru

@Theorem_Poem Sorry, obviously nowhere near the same situation for you and me.

@vfrmedia Gosh. That's terrible, both things. 😔

@Theorem_Poem @hiway

@stveje do mail your passport issuing authority though. They can probably guide you to a solution.

@Theorem_Poem Well shit, that's just horrible. I know the UK has always been institutionally racist but there was a time not too long ago when there was at least pushback against that. Not so much any more :(

@noisytoot go to the passport authority and go through a very tedious process of either having those reissued or obtaining a "passport lost" certificate. Or show a police report indicating theft.
However if the passport expired like 20 years ago or something, you can probably get away with not reporting that.

@stveje @Theorem_Poem The same western countries ask their own citizens to destroy their old passports when they get new ones.

At least US etc. at least used to quite easily give 5 year visas. No chance with the EU. Even family members of EU citizens have to apply again for e-v-e-r-y s-i-n-g-l-e f-u-c-k-i-n-g t-r-i-p. Through some three-letter corruption agency that takes more money, and does not have appointments, making you go through tramitadores to get one.

@Theorem_Poem @AmazingMeagen also, there are "levels" of this. Based on who knows what. I "just" had to scan latest passport and it became suspicious cause it was a new one... had to carry the previous one. Along with a very long form of questions in the online form.

And in the usa they have this biometric validation when you are boarding, even in international transit. It's not just fingerprints anymore :(

I feel you

@stveje @Theorem_Poem

And don't get me started on the clusterfuck that the #EU is, not even having a unified presentation for its own citizens to get passports easily, when they have been forced to exile due to lack of opportunities in the EU.

No, if you're from a small EU country like #Finland, you have to travel far to a different country to get one, and it costs so much that it's better to just fly intercontinentally to Finland… if your passport is still valid and not lost/stolen.

@nerdbear @stveje yikes.

@nerdbear @stveje what really??!!! Destroying a passport is an alien concept to us.

@Theorem_Poem

This is all because you’re an Indian citizen? 😤

@Susan60 I am sure there are countries who have it worse 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Theorem_Poem As an EU citizen I find this utterly appalling. We have completely lost our collective mind here over fear of so-called illegal immigrants when our real problems have not the slightest bit to do with them. And current politicians run after right-wing extremists, shouting, 'Look how tough we can be on immigration!' in the hopes of clawing lost voters back. It's disgusting.
I fully sympathise with your choosing Asian countries to visit. If Western countries think humiliating tourists is a good idea they don't deserve to be visited. In the long run it will be their (our) loss.

@cuboci Hoping for a better world :)

@Theorem_Poem This take is so wrong it lighted me up so hard if I answer fully I won't just be banned from Mastodon but from Paradise itself with no Purgatory for me either. Straight to hell.

@vfrmedia @amenonsen @Theorem_Poem@mstdn.social @hiway British Asian doesn't mean anything. My children aren't Italian-asian. My children are italian-chinese. Nothing to share with Asians, nothing to share with Westerner.

@juristi @nerdbear @stveje 🫪🫪

@EF @Theorem_Poem Hahahaha... oh, wait, you're serious.

You have to jump through hoops for a _tourist_ visa. Then you get grilled by immigration officials who seem to think you're desperate to sneak into their country... and if you make it clear you don't want to they get _really_ tetchy about it.

@ersatzmaus exact. @EF

@Theorem_Poem the more I learn about EU visa / immigration policies the more disgusted I am, all the talk about basic rights and pride about shit like GDPR goes out of the window as soon as someone was born outside of a line on the map, it’s vile and this system needs to burn.

@Theorem_Poem @EF These days, even as a coconut with a UK passport, I still get singled out.

Last time I traveled to the US (before the current… regime) I got asked weird questions:

"Why had I arrived from the UK"
"Why did my forms say my employer was a UK company"

It took a _heroic_ effort not to be snarky about it.

"I just got out of a queue full of passengers from a UK flight and handed you a UK passport. Can you smell toast? Should I call the bondulance?"

@ersatzmaus lol. Sorry 'bout it. It can get ridiculous.
@EF

@Theorem_Poem @EF It has been interesting to watch white people get caught in the UK government's efforts to Make Racism Great Again.

On the one hand, I have every sympathy with people caught in the brutal, unfeeling rules meant to make anyone with the temerity to have links to more than one country unwelcome (kids with dual nationalities being trapped abroad by sudden rule changes was a spicy one)…

… on the other - welcome to our world, this is how we've always lived.