Travel Visas for American Citizens

[jordanianprincess 0]

The travel agency we use is required to ask if we have a valid passport/visa to travel before booking the ticket. It's not thier responsibility to help you get one, but they should ask if you have it. Most trvael agencies are partnered with a visa agency that they will refer you to in you need a visa.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Yeah -- if I was travelling for business (totally different planning than travelling for pleasure), I always pawn such planning on someone else (tell me what I need to do! I have a meeting to present to prepare for, etc).

The chinese visa is kind of confusing, though -- for example, you can get one at the land border crossings near hong kong and macau for some parts of guangdong, but they're very limited on where you can go -- I know a few people who screwed up on that (and they weren't americans).

[Kajikit 65]

Since when is it the TRAVEL AGENT's responsibility to inform the customer about visa requirements of destination country?

That's one of the things they're paid for! Not that they know much... when we were coming here to visit the travel agent told us he thought we needed to get a visa for the US/Canada and we had to trek into the Embassy and wait half an hour for them to tell us that no, we could use the VWP.

[Ladylethal 12]

No offense to the americans here but true, they always expect to be able to do anything they want. I get nervous if I don´t need a visa.

[Fandango 1,440]

Since when is it the TRAVEL AGENT's responsibility to inform the customer about visa requirements of destination country?

Well..... I think if you're working with a travel agent and he's helping you and informing you about your trip and destinations, he should tell you what documents you'll need. I thought that was obvious.

Of course, it's the customer's job to make sure everything is in order too.....

Anytime Dave and I booked a trip through a hol agent, they always said 'we are not responsible for finding out if you need any special visas' I assume cos I was American & they didn't deal with us too much, they were uninformed...but they at least went thru the motions...

[Sinergy 3]

Ive never experienced needing a visa going INTO a country, though once arriving into their customs i was given a temp visa stamp. Then again ive never been to china

The only thing my travel agent wasnt aware of is when i went back to Romania in 2004 with my daughter, and we had one way tickets, the US airport wouldnt let us leave without ROUNDTRIP. Saying it was a danger to us not having a way back to the US if needed. I did inform him that was my decision to by a roundtrip, and if i got stuck there i have family who could get me another ticket. He said hed have to see a residents card for Romania before he could let me leave Orlando. Ofcorse i didnt have one, i had a copy of my apartment contract, my job contract and a few paystubs from work, but he said that wasnt good enough. Finally after 2 hours of fighting with the Airport manager, he let me get on the plane (with 5 minutes to takeoff) saying "we will go ahead and let you go into amsterdam, but if they refuse you to leave from there to Romania, there is nothing we can do and you will have to find away home" I was so scared the whole way to Amsterdam, and they didnt even care there if i had a oneway or a roundtrip. anyway, my travel agent felt horrible not knowing any of this, offered to pay for my tickets back to the US when i was ready to return, OR if Amsterdam refused me departure to Romania.

I still dont blame my agent, and is this even a rule really enforced?

Edited April 18, 2006 by Ionescu

[iceyspots 0]

Hey.. there's a lot of places where you need a visa if you want to go there, if Americans charge other countries for visas, then they should charge us... Just an exchange... Cost me $100 (+$40 expediting service, +$20 x 2 fed ex overnight) just to step foot in Algeria. I investigated before I went!

[*Robert* 2]

I'm actually kind of amazed the travel agent didn't offer a visa, since they can probably charge a nice fee to arrange one/get it expedited, as getting one directly from the chinese embassy is a fairly painful process

While it's not their responsibility to inform the person buying the tickets, some travle agents will at least ask.

[dalegg 143]

I had no idea you needed a visa to go to Vietam until my travel agent- who deals mostly with Korea- informed me.