Need visas to enter European countries?

[person 0]

Hi,

I now have a 10 year permanent resident green card. I am curious if it is of any help for traveling purposes. Does it authorize me to enter European counties like a U.S. citizen, meaning without a visa? Or does this green card only work for entering the U.S.?

Thanks!

[jkelly07 120]

with a permanent resident card LPR. you can travel international,

[oncolor 0]

From my understanding, Green-card holders need a visa to enter European countries, the green-card only gives you access to U.S. I know of someone with a green-card who got the wrong information and traveled without a visa to Europe only to be sent back.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

The Green Card has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Europe in any way, form shape, or anything.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

You will still be traveling on your foreign passport, and the visa rules for that country apply. I believe Mexico and Canada make exceptions for greencard holders, but Europe definitely does not.

[Luckywife2007 6]

I have traveled to and from Europe several times and YES you do need and a Tourist Visa to enter many countries ( I am a US Citizen) for instance, when I travel to Turkey, they require that I have a Tourist Visa which is obtained at Passport Control and is $20.00 and is good for 90 days. However, since I planned on being there with my Spouse, I was required to obtain a Resident Permit which is good for a year and is a bit more costly and has to be renewed prior to expiration of course BUT if you overstay your Tourist Visa then you are then fined and then banned from re-entry for whatever time that they impose (I believe that it depends on the amount of time that you overstayed) Just because one is a US Citizen doesn't allow us any "special" privileges. I would suggest that you research the country that you will be traveling to and plan accordingly!

Good Luck in your travels!

[person 0]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. I am now curious, so do Mexico and Canada for real make exceptions? It would be fun to go some time without going through the visa process.

[Krikit 1,164]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. I am now curious, so do Mexico and Canada for real make exceptions? It would be fun to go some time without going through the visa process.

I don't have the link for Mexico but I know it comes under the same WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) agreement as Canada. Here is the link for Canada:

Entering Canada - Visitor Visa Exemptions

[SophWeb 25]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. I am now curious, so do Mexico and Canada for real make exceptions? It would be fun to go some time without going through the visa process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Ukrainian_citizens

This list details the visa requirements for a Ukraine citizen to travel to other countries. Always double check with the country's immigration website. Generally temporary visas to Europe are not that difficult to get. I would do some more research before writing it off as too difficult.

[Myopia 93]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. I am now curious, so do Mexico and Canada for real make exceptions? It would be fun to go some time without going through the visa process.

For real. For real.

My link

[HeatDeath 430]

If you have your foreign passport, and have GC on you, you can enter Canada, Mexico, and most of the Caribbean countries without needing to get a visa from those countries. As far as I know, these are the only countries that make special allowances because you have a GC. For pretty much any other country, and this includes Europe, your status hasn't changed as far as they are concerned; if you, as a citizen of Ukraine [or wherever] needed a visa to enter before you got your GC, you still need a visa.

Now for many of these countries, having a GC makes it much easier to get a tourist visa. But whether or not you need one is still the same, and doesn't change based on whether you have a GC or not.

Concrete example: last July my office went to a trade show in Japan. The vast majority of my co-workers are US citizens, and did not need visas to visit Japan for work purposes. I had to check with the Japanese embassy, but it turns out that Canadian citizens do not need a visa to enter Japan for work purposes either. One of my co-workers, however, is a GC-holder with Albanian citizenship. Albanians do need a visa to enter Japan, and it makes no difference to Japan whether they have a US GC or not. So he needed to do some extra paperwork with the Japanese embassy to get a visa so he could go on this trip.

[person 0]

Thanks for your responses, very helpful.