Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Visa requirements for United States citizens

Entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of the United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Visa requirements for United States citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states that are imposed on citizens of the United States.

As of 2025, holders of a United States passport may travel to 182 countries and territories without a travel visa, or with a visa on arrival. The United States passport ranks[Note 1] 10th in terms of travel freedom, according to the Henley Passport Index.[1] It is also ranked 9th by the Global Passport Power Rank.[2]

Remove ads

Visa requirements map

Thumb
Visa requirements for United States citizens holding ordinary passports
  Visa not required / ETA
  Visa available both on arrival or online
  eVisa
  Visa required
  Travel restricted (either by local law or US regulations)

Visa requirements

Summarize
Perspective

General visa requirements of sovereign countries towards United States citizens:

More information Country / Region, Allowed stay ...

Territories or administrative subdivisions with different visa policies

Visa requirements for United States citizens for visits to various territories, disputed areas, partially recognized countries not mentioned in the list above, recognized administrative subdivisions that operate on different visa policies and restricted zones:

More information Visitor to, Allowed stay ...
Remove ads

Pre-approved visas pick-up

Pre-approved visas can be picked up on arrival in the following countries instead of an embassy or consulate.

More information Pre-approvedvisas pick-up on arrival, Conditions ...

Passport card

The United States passport card can be used as an alternative to the passport booklet only when travelling to and from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Caribbean Netherlands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Turks and Caico at maritime ports-of-entry or land border crossings.[631] The card is not valid for international air travel; if traveling by air, the passport book is required.[632]

Remove ads

APEC Business Travel Card

The APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) is meant to facilitate travel for U.S. citizens engaged in verified business in the APEC region.[633]

The U.S. ABTC should enable access to a dedicated fast-track lane for expedited immigration processing at some participating foreign APEC member airports.[634]

U.S. APEC Business Travel Card holders may also use the Global Entry kiosks at participating airports upon their U.S. return.[635]

As the U.S. is a transitional member of the ABTC scheme, however, the U.S. APEC Business Travel Card cannot be used in lieu of a visa to enter an APEC member country.[636] The program was initially set to expire on September 30, 2018, but the November 2017 signing of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Travel Cards Act of 2017 (S. 504) ensured it would permanently remain.[637]

Remove ads

Consular protection of U.S. citizens abroad

Thumb
American diplomatic missions, including embassies (blue), interests sections, and other representations (light blue)

The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world.[citation needed] See also List of diplomatic missions of the United States and List of diplomatic missions in the United States.

The Department of State regularly publishes travel warnings or travel alerts.

Remove ads

Non-visa restrictions

Thumb
A United States passport with a biometric chip

Blank passport pages

Many countries require a minimum number of blank pages to be available in the passport being presented, typically one or two pages.[638] Endorsement pages, which often appear after the visa pages, are not counted as being valid or available.

Vaccination

Thumb
Cover of the new International Certificate of Vaccination issued by the Bureau of Quarantine in the Philippines since 2021

The African countries of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia, require all incoming passengers older than nine months to one year[639] to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, as does the South American territory of French Guiana.[640]

Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area or has visited one recently or has transited for 12 hours in those countries: Algeria, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.[641][642]

Passport validity length

Very few countries, such as Paraguay, just require a valid passport on arrival.

However many countries and groupings now require only an identity card – especially from their neighbours. Other countries may have special bilateral arrangements that depart from the generality of their passport validity length policies to shorten the period of passport validity required for each other's citizens[643][644] or even accept passports that have already expired (but not been cancelled).[645]

Some countries, such as Japan,[646] Ireland and the United Kingdom,[647] require a passport valid throughout the period of the intended stay.

In the absence of specific bilateral agreements, countries requiring passports to be valid for at least 6 more months on arrival include Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Bahrain,[648] Bhutan, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel,[649] Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Peru,[650] Philippines,[651] Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, and Vietnam.[652]

Countries requiring passports valid for at least 4 months on arrival include Micronesia and Zambia.

Countries requiring passports with a validity of at least 3 months beyond the date of intended departure include Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Honduras, Montenegro, Nauru, Moldova and New Zealand. Similarly, the EEA countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, all European Union countries (except Ireland) together with Switzerland also require 3 months validity beyond the date of the bearer's intended departure unless the bearer is an EEA or Swiss national.

Countries requiring passports valid for at least 3 months on arrival include Albania, North Macedonia, Panama, and Senegal.

Bermuda requires passports to be valid for at least 45 days upon entry.

Countries that require a passport validity of at least one month beyond the date of intended departure include Eritrea, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Macau, the Maldives[653] and South Africa.

Maximum passport age

Countries of the Schengen area require non-EU passports to be less than 10 years old upon entry.[654] A number of holders of British passports, which until September 2018 could be issued with a validity period of up to 10 years and nine months if the previous passport was not expired, were unable to travel to the EU subsequent to Brexit due to this restriction.[655]

Criminal record

Some countries, including Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand and the United States,[656] routinely deny entry to non-citizens who have a criminal record, while others impose restrictions depending on the type of conviction and the length of the sentence.

Persona non grata

The government of a country can declare a diplomat persona non grata, banning them from entering the country or expelling them if they have already entered. In non-diplomatic use, the authorities of a country may also declare a foreigner persona non grata permanently or temporarily, usually because of unlawful activity.[657]

Israeli stamps

Kuwait,[658] Lebanon,[659] Libya,[660] and Yemen[661] do not allow entry to people with passport stamps from Israel or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa, or where there is evidence of previous travel to Israel such as entry or exit stamps from neighbouring border posts in transit countries such as Jordan and Egypt.

To circumvent this Arab League boycott of Israel, the Israeli immigration services have now mostly ceased to stamp foreign nationals' passports on either entry to or exit from Israel (unless the entry is for some work-related purposes). Since 15 January 2013, Israel no longer stamps foreign passports at Ben Gurion Airport. Passports are still (as of 22 June 2017) stamped at Erez when passing into and out of Gaza.[citation needed]

Iran refuses admission to holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp that is less than 12 months old.

Biometrics

Several countries mandate that all travellers, or all foreign travellers, be fingerprinted on arrival and will refuse admission to or even arrest travellers who refuse to comply. In some countries, such as the United States, this may apply even to transit passengers who merely wish to change planes rather than go landside.[662]

Fingerprinting countries/regions include Afghanistan,[663][664] Argentina,[665] Brunei, Cambodia,[666] China,[667] Ethiopia,[668] Ghana, Guinea,[669] India, Japan,[670][671] Kenya (both fingerprints and a photo are taken),[672] Malaysia upon entry and departure,[673] Mongolia, Saudi Arabia,[674] Singapore, South Korea,[675] Taiwan, Thailand,[676] Uganda,[677] the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Many countries also require a photo be taken of people entering the country. The United States, which does not fully implement exit control formalities at its land frontiers (although long mandated by its own legislation),[678][679][680] intends to implement facial recognition for passengers departing from international airports to identify people who overstay their visa.[681]

Together with fingerprint and face recognition, iris scanning is one of three biometric identification technologies internationally standardised since 2006 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for use in e-passports[682] and the United Arab Emirates conducts iris scanning on visitors who need to apply for a visa.[683][684] The United States Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to greatly increase the biometric data it collects at US borders.[685] In 2018, Singapore began trials of iris scanning at three land and maritime immigration checkpoints.[686][687]

Remove ads

Foreign travel statistics

These are the numbers of visits by U.S. nationals to various countries in 2015 (unless otherwise noted):

More information Destination, Number of visitors ...
  1. The general licenses are:[138]
    • Family visits
    • Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations
    • Journalistic activity
    • Professional research and professional meetings
    • Educational activities
    • Religious activities
    • Public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions
    • Support for the Cuban people
    • Humanitarian projects
    • Activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes
    • Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or informational materials
    • Certain export transactions that may be considered for authorization under existing Department of Commerce regulations and guidelines with respect to Cuba or engaged in by U.S.-owned or -controlled foreign firms
    To use a general license, travelers are required only to attest to one on a form provided by the airline, and only when traveling on a flight directly from the U.S. They are expected to maintain a full-time schedule consistent with the terms of the general license, and to only make transactions related to this purpose. Airlines and travelers are required to maintain records of all Cuba-related transactions for at least five years.[139][140]
  2. Data for 2016
  3. Data for 2017
  4. Data for 2014
  5. Counting only guests in tourist accommodation establishments.
  6. Data for 2013
  7. Data for arrivals by air only.
  8. Data for 2012
  9. Excluding one-day visits
  10. Data for 2010
  11. Data for 2007
  12. Data for 2009
  13. Data for 2005
  14. Data for 2019
  15. Data for arrivals by air only.
  16. Data for 2015
Remove ads

See also

References

Notes

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads