Travel is a huge part of our lives as humans. Meeting new friends, exposing ourselves to different cultures and my personal favorite; experiencing new cuisine, are all fun things that happen when we visit other countries.
Depending on where you’re from you may be familiar with the struggle of applying for a Visa, and if you’ve never needed a Visa to travel between countries then good on you. A visa is a permit given by a country that allows someone of a different nationality to enter that country. It is usually valid for a specified duration of time and carries restriction of what activities you are allowed to take part in while there. Acquire a visa often involves a tedious application process and can take anywhere from a few weeks to half a year.
If you’re from a country like Nigeria, then you know about the different hoops you are required to jump through to vacation for a week in Paris or Amsterdam.
Fortunately, acquiring Visitor visas for some countries will automatically grant you full or limited access to some of their neighbors, think of them as ‘package deal’ Visas. Today we’ll be talking about the 3 visas that grant entry into the greatest number of countries.
The Schengen Visa
As of the time of writing, this visa could allow you to travel between 26 European countries and 18 non-EU countries!That’s a whopping 44 countries! The only caveat is that you have to enter the continent via the country whose consulate granted you the visa.
The European countries that accept the visa are Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain Sweden, and Switzerland. The non-EU countries are Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Antigua and Barbuda, Cyprus, North Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Romania Bosnia and Herzegovina, Gibraltar, Sao Tome and Principe, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, Colombia, Mexico and last but not least, Turkey.US Tourist Visa
The United States of America has one of the strongest passports in the world It is ranked 7th in the Henley’s 2021 Q3 index and 3rd on the Global passport index for 2021– and apparently, one of the strongest visas as well. If you have a valid US Tourist Visa, you can also visit the following countries for short-term stays: Albania, Cuba, Panamá, Costa Rica, Montenegro, Turks and Caicos (British Territory), Mexico, South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bermuda (British Territory), Georgia, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominican Republic and Qatar.
UK Visa
The United Kingdom consists of four countries: England, Scotland, and Wales and Northern Ireland. As such, if you obtain a UK visa, you can visit all four of those countries. However, in addition to them, a UK visa also allows the holder to travel to several other countries not in the UK.
The countries you can visit if you have a valid UK visa are: Albania, Costa Rica, Panama, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Qatar, Aruba, Dominican Republic, Romania, Belize, Georgia, Serbia, Bermuda, Macedonia, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Mexico, The British Virgin Islands, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
I hope you have found this enlightening; it should be noted that the volatile nature of world politics means that the information represented here will most likely be out of date by the time you are reading this. Safe skies to you!