Noorah101

Hi All,

A thought occurred to me just now. My husband is here (after entering on a K1), and is waiting for his AOS interview which will probably happen in summer of 2006. He has EAD and AP in hand. He's an Iranian citizen.

If we want to travel outside the USA, in addition to his AP, he will also need a visa for the country we're traveling to, am I correct? Does his impending AOS or his current AP affect his need for obtaining a visa? Since he'll be traveling on an Iranian passport, I'm assuming he will need (or not need) whatever visas are necessary as if he were traveling directly from Iran, right? I realize the AP only comes into play when re-entering the USA.

For example, if we go back to Turkey, I will need a visa (as the USC) but he would not, since an Iranian citizen doesn't need a visa to enter Turkey, he just needs a valid passport.

How can I tell what the requirements would be for an Iranian citizen traveling to different countries? I'd like to find out if there are any countries he can't get a visa to visit.

Thanks!
Rene

USA & Pakistan

A travel agent should be able to tell you or maybe the airlines, or many airports have websites with that kind of information.

Good Luck!
Marnee

janadeen

Noorah - try Googling the embassy for the country you're interested in.

This year we traveled to England and Canada - me the USC didn't need a visa for either one but for hubby ...

ENGLAND
Went to the website for the NY Embassy and we completed the app for his Visa. When we went to the embassy to pick it up, we weren’t even allowed to go into the building because we applied to far in advance. At that time (don’t know if its changed) it was required that we apply for the visa specifically, 5 days before travel, no more no less. We applied 10 days before traveling.


CANADA
We flew to Toronto and they could have turned us away (don’t know WHAT ON EARTH I WAS THINKING ON THIS ONE – we totally blanked on applying for a visa for Canada for him) at the border because he had no visa, but instead, they verified where we were going & staying & with whom & that he had a job & school to come back to here in the US, and they let him thru.

Best of luck!

Bluegrass Lass

Yep, I would do this Noorah. I know when I was researching whether I could travel to South Africa without a visa, I just looked up the SA Embassy online. They had all the info I needed.

Each Embassy should state if certain nationalities need a visa to enter & tour around.

Have fun traveling! Know where you're going yet?

Noorah101

Thanks, you guys! I don't know why this didn't occur to me sooner, I just assumed we could hop over to Canada or Mexico and get back with his AP in hand. Never occurred to me till today that HE would need a visa!

I've asked around a little bit, and it seems it's very difficult for Iranians to get visas for most places...Canada and Mexico included. No hurry, really, we can wait till 2006 for his PR to travel, but we were just thinking it would be easier now that he's here (dumb, I know). I thought if they saw he was coming from the USA instead of directly from Iran, it might make a difference, but it seems not.

He's got relatives and friends in England and the Netherlands...we were hoping to see them next year on the way if we made a trip back to Turkey. And just the novelty of living so close to Canada and Mexico (especially Mexico, for us here in Arizona), we thought it would be fun for a spontaneous weekend trip to Nogales or Rocky Point. Guess THAT isn't going to happen!

There are, of course, plenty of wonderful places to visit in the USA! Just asking for future reference in case we did want to travel abroad.

Rene

Gigiola

Rene, I don't think that anything less than citizenship will solve this problem. As a PR he is still travelling on an Iranian passport.

Noorah101

Yes, I thought of that, too. Crud.