With more and more of our lives being lived out digitally, along with all the access the powers that be have to our data (you know it’s true), you would think that applying for a visa to visit a country which requires you to get a visa would have been made that much easier by now. For those of us who come from so-called western countries, for the most part it isn’t too much of a hassle to get a visa to travel to a country which requires one of you, along with the many countries we can visit visa-free.
Still, in most places you kind of get the sense that it’s not fully visa-free, such as having to apply online via the visa waiver programme if you want to visit the United States of America as a citizen of the United Kingdom. I mean yeah, they call it a visa waiver programme, but really all it is is an electronic process of applying for clearance to visit the country. The only real difference between UK citizens and say someone from Brazil in this instance would be that the fellow from Brazil would likely have to attend an in-person interview and perhaps pay a much higher price to get their US visa, whereas UK citizens can essentially fill out a form online.
So anyway, in most countries where a visa is required it’s pretty much just about money really. Seriously, some of the embassies of the countries which require a visa for us to visit confirm that basically everything is just a formality and what they’re really looking to ascertain through the visa application and granting process is that you won’t be a financial burden to the state as a visitor.
Now if you’re someone like a travel blogger who earns you full-time online income through blogging, naturally that can pose some challenges as to what your intentions are to visit a certain country, but again, all you really need to do is produce proof of financial capabilities to support yourself.
Sometimes some creativity is required however, such as in the case of visiting the United States and perhaps even more so its neighbour further up north, Canada.
Here’s a tip – if you have everything else in order by way of providing truthful and complete information as well as demonstrating your ability to support yourself financially, basically if you can highlight that you’re going to spend money or at least benefit your destination country in some or other way financially, you should have no problems getting your visa application approved.
It might not be something everybody can do, but a friend of mine who wanted to visit the United States liaised with a personal injury law firm in the form of Johnston Law Firm, which offers free consultation as well, with the view of referring some potential clients to them on a pro-bono basis. What he was to get out of it are some brimming portfolio items of referring clients to a credible legal institution, which he would then later use to partner up with other companies. To the immigration officials in the USA this is simply a demonstration of contributing positively to their economy, so needless to say, VISA GRANTED!
