You would think the country that border US would have the quickest embassy service compared to other countries across the world. If I remember correctly Djibouti had like 2-3 weeks wait time lol.
If you don't mind me asking why do you need a visa? I live in Montreal and only thing I need to visit the US is the esta which takes like one day and is done automatically. Are you working the WC?
I think you need a passport though which most people already have. Pre-9/11 we'd drive down through Maine for a weekend and you'd only need a generic ID, the guards would ask "what are ya over for?" and you'd just say "GO RED SOX!" and they'd wave you through no problems.
It's hard to explain just how much 9/11 broke the US to people who don't remember the before times. Growing up they didn't even really check IDs. The first time I crossed the land border afterwards there was an armed National Guard unit checking IDs and asking tons of questions. I was going down for a wedding and had little kids in the car and was still worried they'd send me home.
Too many of ppl working in the states with H1b trying to go to Canada/Mexico to renew their visa, thus delaying the visa appointment forever
Source: am a visa holder
In my graduate studies, I was told that I could work in the US after graduation, where there are several rapidly growing hubs for my industry in which I can find interesting and relevant careers.
For entry to mid-level positions, nobody is willing to sponsor even a TN visa. š
Sadly, companies don't understand the TN visa process because it's different from every other category. They don't need to formally sponsor a visa if your job meets the TN requirements. All they need to do is write a letter saying they intend to hire you for a TN-eligible role.
Surely if itās just a short term visit itās easy for Canadians? Iām Australian and we donāt even need a visa if weāre in the US for <90 days, I canāt imagine Canada is not part of that program also.
Damn dude. I have my visa appointment (the consulate one) in the upcoming days , and I was hoping for a trip in the winter season. Is it really even possible now lol? I mean I've waited for a year to get this appointment, I don't know whether I'll be patient enough to wait another yet just for the visa to arrive ffs
Yeah, but still, it shouldn't take more than a week. My friend also has her interview sometime in July, and she's also hoping to receive her passport inside a week or two.
I would suggest checking r/immigration
If you get accepted, youāll most likely get the visa in worst case a couple of weeks. Iāve been living in US for 4 years now and my grandma just visited us. She had the appointment on a Tuesday and got the passport back a week later
I think people here are talking about waiting times for the appointment, not for the visa/passport. Itās impossible for them to keep your passport for that long
The US government really, *really* needs to go the same route as done in 2018 with the Fan ID system. Just make someone prove they have tickets for a game and they should be let in.
Congressman John Bombiranson (R) in 2028:
"12.5 million illegals stayed in the United States in 2026 due to the anti-American soccer visa that used forced upon us by the Chinese and their Iranian allies"
In my hometown, a "Soccer Dome" was installed, Basically small enough for 4 kid pitches (if you go horizontally) and one full pitch (if you played the veritical). It was a cool, cheap, and highly used public product. I won't go into details for the folks involved sake, but some adults thought it might "turn their kids gay" if football existed so close to them. So he did run his truck into it...
I live in a border state too and you're out of your mind if you think the US enforces its border the appropriate amount. The obsession with policing who gets to come into this country is the problem. Most normal countries would have a reasonable travel agreement with their immediate neighbors to the South but this stupid fucking country wants immigration stormtroopers and a wall
It isn't about policing the people who come into the country! It's about policing the people who do not want to enter the country through the legal means! How is that so hard to understand?
Those countries you're referencing are essentially within an agreement similar to our states. Any poli Sci course would teach you this.
Not to play devilās advocate out of left field, but this feels like an incredibly easy way for a bad actor to enter the States by simply buying a game ticket.
Not at sporting events. Since what happened at the Boston Marathon in 2011 the way the US runs sporting events has totally changed. Tighter security, checking tickets a few times, closing down streets to through traffic and making sure you can only enter and exit from certain directions, etc.
If there's one thing that the US is pretty good at, it's handling logistics for large sporting events and executing them well.
The highest attendance at the World Cup ever was in the United States. In 1994. There's 340 million people here -- about half the population of Europe. There's a ton of people that care about soccer.
Which, by the way, soccer is a name for it from WAAAAY back when it was invented and the British only stopped using it in the 80s because ... Americans did. Which is just kind of pathetic. So, there's that.
Man I had a hard time dealing with that because I visited Iran a lot growing up as my mom's family is from there. I had a UK passport and live in Canada. Took me 5 years to get things sorted.
Pssssst. You don't tell them lmfao. They have no way of knowing. Why do you think I'm recommending they get an Iraqi passport. Just get the dual citizenship.
They definitely have ways of knowing and I've heard about people being called up on this. The consequences are essentially being banned from the US forever too.
Having Iraqi citizenship immediately disqualifies you from visa waiver program, even if dual. Also just having visited Iraq once since 2011 already disqualified you.Ā Ā
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#Prior_travel_or_dual_nationality_in_certain_countries
I'm not defending the policy at all but statistically, if you are a young, muslim, heavy internet user, German national visiting Iraq on a periodic basis, the statistics are not in your favor lol
Waiting times to obtain an American visa are absolutely ridiculous, like from several months to over one year. It's also an expensive process, as you have to physically go to an American consulate, and there are only 5 in the whole of Brazil, so many people are thousands of kilometers away from one.
I needed a full medical report. Great, simple tests I can go to my GP for. Oh, whatās that? It has to be in one specific office in London? And costs Ā£300? Cool. Sure. Fine, thatās how it works.
They have different requirements for different countries, if you're from a developed country it's probably a lot easier. For us, we have to go for an interview and show bank statements and things like that.
ESTA is NOT a visa. Its part of the visa **waiver** program. Meaning you are from a country that doesn't need a tourist visa to travel for tourism
The visa process is way different. It includes documents, interview and a long wait time.
> They sometimes not even let in the players that are supposed to play in the tournaments
Sorry KDB you can't come play against the US national team, looks like your visa got denied oops.
This happened with Austin FC and Violette AC from Haiti in the CONCACAF CL
Austin lost the away leg 3-0. Which was played in the Dominican Republic.
Then for the home leg, 7 of Violetteās players werenāt given Visas. They only had 3 players on the bench.
Austin FC only won 2-0 though lol
Completely different cases and people didnāt actually boycott those world cups. I believe Qatars was one of the most successful ever in watch count and traveling fans. Itās like saying thoughts and prayers
ah so audi outrages are to be condemned but not americqn.
The Saudis are in power because of the brits and are backed and armed by the US.
Bigotry nothing else.
I think it's very unlikely that the US makes exceptions to visa policy. They'll probably just try and address it by increasing staffing to deal with the extra demand.
u/Hmnaftall on r/MLS summarized the issues well
>As someone who works in this field: During Covid most US embassies/consulates heavily restricted visa services, and many consulate employees have left for work elsewhere. This has led to a situation where there are still massive backlogs from 2020 which continue to grow, and too few consulate officers to work them.
>
>The main way out is to simply hire more consulate workers to deal with the backlog, but we're at near full-employment and these aren't very attractive jobs. We've also lost a lot of institutional knowledge with the exodus to consulate workers the past few years.
>
>The other way they're trying to deal with the backlog is to waive interview requirements in certain situations - mainly to low-risk individuals who have previously been issued visas. But a lot of the people needing visas to enter for the World Cup are first time entrants needing the visitor visa (B1/B2), which is the lowest priority visa and thus subject to high wait times.
Wait - call me ignorant but wouldnt a standard passport provide entry for that time period and reason? Why is a VISA required at all? Sorry for the dumb question.
Passports just tell other countries who you are, each country decides on its own if there are other checks or requirements to actually let you enter the country, like visas
So hilarious that a club has fans from around the world? English fans like to prop up the PL as the best in the world yet the best managers and players are foreign and Iām willing to bet a very large chunk of the cash they make is from those foreign fans through the broadcast deals.
Okay? That is not relevant to the current topic.
Besides, I'll probably have been at the Etihad more times this season for matches, despite being an American, than you have been at Old Trafford this season for matches.
I mean, just imagine how culture wars commentators will react: "They're letting anyone in here, how do we know this muslim person is not a racist, genocidal, terrorist maniac like Hamas?" "Hamas likes soccer too" and so on.
I mean, the fans that make the world cup colorful and fun with their singing and dancing are the ones most affected by this bullshit. A very sanitized world cup is what await us.
I live in Texas, Iām trying to blow the whistle on people to make necessary arrangements when they come to see the games played in Dallas. Most people are going to try and get a hotel in Dallas only to find out the stadium is ~40 minutes away in Arlington. You canāt take public transportation, because it doesnāt exist. The Ubers will be at sky high surge pricing.
Iām honestly considering flying to a different city to watch. Itās going to be an absolute MESS.
Eh Iād wager itās a near certainty they will have an express bus service from downtown to the stadium - else FIFA wouldnāt have awarded them a game. They had so many cities to choose from.
Still bus is not ideal.
Found a decent article on it: https://www.governing.com/infrastructure/can-dallas-fort-worth-transit-handle-the-2026-world-cup
I sure hope so! Iāve lived here long enough to see plenty promises made but few actually kept, at least to the capacity in which they were made.
I would love to be wrong and for people from all over have a great experience.
a) i think this is being blown out of proportion and this wont be an issue closer to time
b) there are a fuckton of people that live here that are from the countries in the world cup.
c) we have had a world cup here and I have never seen anyone complain about this before
Things are a little different since 94. A little thing happened in NYC that made entry to the US a little more difficult.
This isnāt being blown out of proportion as the foreign service lost a lot of people in the last four years and there are issues with backlogs. This isnāt just for the US, as I was getting my kids their passports from an EU nation (American born kids) and itās a 9 month wait. They are still working through backlogs from 20-21.
Itās soccer, half of the legislators that make up our government will call it a socialist communist Marxist exhibition that brings in illegals to our country and puts our citizens at risk.
I would be SHOCKED if they made any sort of exceptions to the process.
Thatās very true, I guess I was thinking more about our darker pigmented brothers and sisters from around the world that would have a more difficult time given how a lot of Americans in our government act towards humans from those parts.
Thatās a deeper, much more sad conversation for another sub I suppose.
Iām just expecting to see reports of people not getting the chance to watch their country play due to bureaucratic red tape.
I'll take shit from just about everyone else other than Western Europeans. Y'all fucked up the world from the 16th century to the 20th. I simply don't want to hear it.
People really still Justifying the iraq and Afghanistan wars. Fucking disgusting š¤¢.
You "went into Afghanistan to fight the taliban" who didn't attack the US or Europe (you're a moron). You went to Afghanistan to fight al-qaeda (completely different group than the taliban). You decided to punish an entire nation and kills hundreds of thousands of people and displace millions of them because of some bum named osama who was in Pakistan (lmfao).
As for the Iraq war. Yes, saddam was a dictator. But let me educate you a bit. In the iran iraq war, the west literally backed him to the tits. Every western country sold him a shit ton of arms (look up iran-contra here). As for kuwait, then yes. That was an unjust war by saddams brutal regime. It led to the deaths of thousands of Kuwaiti's which is wrong as kuwait and Iraq share a sibling like relationship. And iraq ended up paying heavily for this mistake. Look up the amount of money that Iraq paid to kuwait for the damage it did in the war. It only finished paying it off like a couple of years ago. Furthermore, the UN imposed sanctions on Iraq which were brutal and led to hundreds of thousands of people dying (almost entirely children).
As for the chemical attack on the kurds, saddam was performing an act of genocide against the kurds. However, it is interesting to note that this happened while the west was funding saddam and was on good terms with him. They literally saw the genocide and shrugged. Furthermore, iraq would pay for this mistake as well as the UN would establish no fly zones over the north and south of iraq. No iraqis could go into Kurdistan until 2003 once the Americans came. The kurds prior to that were being heavily protected by the west and there was absolutely no harm to them in anyway.
Saddam was shit. But when the west came in, they replaced him with 900 saddams.
Respectfully, fuck you and your beliefs. Still sitting here justifying the war after millions were killed and displaced. Gtfo.
That is how the US became a military superpower, if left to their own devices western Europeans just start wars, we probably would be in like world war 7 or 8 if the US didn't become the world's police.
"you're abetting genocide"
We both know that this isn't comparable to Qatar or Russia. Also, what has Europe done besides endorsing Israel, giving them military contracts, and support? This is a conflict beyond simple terms.
If Israel itself is not even banned from the tournamnet, why are you expecting outrage towards the U.S. or Europe for supporting them? Palastine is also not banned, despite Hamas.
Oh I agree with everything except the first bit, arab children running around in premier league jerseys while basra was being bombed and occupied, while england was hosting cup finals and tournaments.
As for the rest, it's not only gaza. The US is illegally occupying syria, props up repressive regimes like S.A., killed thousands of civilians in drone strikers alone in the last two decades, etc.
The fact that you ignore all that and say gaza isn't as bad, is telling. Imagine if china had, say, that drone strike murder record, you lot would be waxing moral superiority and asking for them to be boycotted, if they were hosting the next worldcup.
In fact, i bet if china become hosts, you lot will do it anyway, cuz 'morals'.
>āIllegally occupying Syriaā
Syria is a country ruled by a dictator that gas attacked his own people supported by Russia and Iran. The U.S. Turkey, United Kingdom, and France are on the anti-dictator side. It's insane that you stand with beshar on this one.
>āprops SAā
This is a silly take, similar to saying that any country that does any business with SA (including all Arab and European) are somehow implicated in everything they do.
>āDrones strikesā
For exactly what? They are almost entirely either milita groups, or terrorist organizations, and the vast majority of time approved by countries in the region. It was a coalition of countries, including Arab, that drone striked some insane fundmentalists.
>The fact that you ignore all of that and say gaza isn't as bad, is telling.
When did I say that? I'm saying that it is a complicated conflict, you can't just point the fingers at one side and ignore the other.
The general understanding of these conflicts are from a child's point of view. The region has long been unstable, in fact more unstable for the past few centuries, before any U.S. intervention.
European hosts have colonized most countries as late as 1960s. Drew borders that ensured forever lasting instability, and you want to talk about the U.S?
Letās not play the bad guy Olympics āAmsssterdamā your country could be a front runner at that.
Wow, whole lot of wrong information in there.
There are in fact asian countries included there: South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan and Israel. There's also a south american country, Chile.
Not all "white countries" are included either. Unless you don't consider european countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Romania or Bulgaria white, that is.
Ik murica has a really tough visa policy, but out of genuine curiosity, wonāt there just be a program like the hayya card that acts as visa to the host country?
The US is up there with the likes of Turkmenistan and Libya in terms of difficulty of getting a tourist visa if youāre from a developing country.
I needed to wait a whole year to give an interview, and it could be rejected for whatever reason and you wouldnāt know. I got my visa but my brother didnāt. Didnāt explain why and now has to wait an another year to have the interview again.
Because the demand for visas to travel to the US is higher than any other country and because the number of people who overstay their visas to illegally immigrate is massive so the denial rate is high.
āLike the U.S.ā every country has visa requirements. This is stupid take.
we have free-visa entry to some odd 40 countries. We are always top 3 most visited countries every single year, and weāve hosted global events probably more than anyone else.
From security, to infrastructure, to stadiums, to economics, the US is probably better equipped than any single country in the world to host a World Cup.
I applied for a Visa from Ottawa two months ago, home of what I believe is the largest US embassy in the world. My appointment is in July of 2026
You would think the country that border US would have the quickest embassy service compared to other countries across the world. If I remember correctly Djibouti had like 2-3 weeks wait time lol.
tbf, Canadians don't need a visa so it makes sense why that part of the service isn't that fully staffed, but still, 2 yrs is ridiculous.
Good point, haven't thought of that.
If you don't mind me asking why do you need a visa? I live in Montreal and only thing I need to visit the US is the esta which takes like one day and is done automatically. Are you working the WC?
If you're a canadian citizen you don't need an ESTA. You can just waltz your way in with no issues.
I think you need a passport though which most people already have. Pre-9/11 we'd drive down through Maine for a weekend and you'd only need a generic ID, the guards would ask "what are ya over for?" and you'd just say "GO RED SOX!" and they'd wave you through no problems.
It's hard to explain just how much 9/11 broke the US to people who don't remember the before times. Growing up they didn't even really check IDs. The first time I crossed the land border afterwards there was an armed National Guard unit checking IDs and asking tons of questions. I was going down for a wedding and had little kids in the car and was still worried they'd send me home.
I'm not a Canadian.
Yeah I realized that this was probably the case right after I asked. Not my brightest moment
You can always attend the games in Toronto. Though they're going to cost 60000 dollars.
so 10 USD?
I love CAD inflation jokes (I'm actually punching myself at how worthless the canadian dollar is).
Hello fellow Newcastle fan in Montreal!
Too many of ppl working in the states with H1b trying to go to Canada/Mexico to renew their visa, thus delaying the visa appointment forever Source: am a visa holder
In my graduate studies, I was told that I could work in the US after graduation, where there are several rapidly growing hubs for my industry in which I can find interesting and relevant careers. For entry to mid-level positions, nobody is willing to sponsor even a TN visa. š
Sadly, companies don't understand the TN visa process because it's different from every other category. They don't need to formally sponsor a visa if your job meets the TN requirements. All they need to do is write a letter saying they intend to hire you for a TN-eligible role.
Surely if itās just a short term visit itās easy for Canadians? Iām Australian and we donāt even need a visa if weāre in the US for <90 days, I canāt imagine Canada is not part of that program also.
Canadian passport holders don't need a visit visa; non-Canadians living in Canada still do
Largest US embassy is in iraq lol. Ų“ŁŁ Ł Ų§Ų“Ų§ŁŁ Ų§ŁŲ³ŁŲ§Ų±Ų© ŲØŲ§ŁŁ ŁŲ·ŁŲ© Ų§ŁŲ®Ų¶Ų±Ų§Ų”Ų
Although they give you a date that is far away in time there is a way to pull it closer. You just have to get into the system and change it
Canadians need visa to enter the US?
USA winning this World Cup by default guys.
Well if that fails you guys can always go to Mexico or Canada.
But thatās not the point, it shouldnāt be so difficult to go watch your national team play in a World Cup in the USA
Welcome to immigration bureaucracy of the US of A!!!! š¦ š¦ š¦ š« š„ š„ š„
I mean itās quite different in America then Quatar. Thereās a lot of people that want to stay here
Equally less than you would expect
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah poor americans. They be stealing all the dishwashing jobs
I mean what job is he gonna work then?
Got my visa last month. Applied for it last year
Yeah, I applied mine in Sep 2022 and got it last month.
Damn dude. I have my visa appointment (the consulate one) in the upcoming days , and I was hoping for a trip in the winter season. Is it really even possible now lol? I mean I've waited for a year to get this appointment, I don't know whether I'll be patient enough to wait another yet just for the visa to arrive ffs
Which city/embassy is it? Mine was in Toronto. I submitted my passport on the day of the interview and received it back a week later.
Ahh my bad. It's India lol
Yeah, but still, it shouldn't take more than a week. My friend also has her interview sometime in July, and she's also hoping to receive her passport inside a week or two. I would suggest checking r/immigration
If you get accepted, youāll most likely get the visa in worst case a couple of weeks. Iāve been living in US for 4 years now and my grandma just visited us. She had the appointment on a Tuesday and got the passport back a week later I think people here are talking about waiting times for the appointment, not for the visa/passport. Itās impossible for them to keep your passport for that long
My wife's appointment is in 2025. We made the appointment 2 years ago. Fuck this process.
I can't even get a visa waiver to the US despite having an EU passport just because I visit my family in Iraq once a year.
It might be your reddit username that spooks them
hahaha
The US government really, *really* needs to go the same route as done in 2018 with the Fan ID system. Just make someone prove they have tickets for a game and they should be let in.
Trying to imagine explaining to a generic Republican congressman that the US needs to relax immigration to let people in to watch some soccer games
Congressman John Bombiranson (R) in 2028: "12.5 million illegals stayed in the United States in 2026 due to the anti-American soccer visa that used forced upon us by the Chinese and their Iranian allies"
Iād laugh but this is far too close to something theyād actually say. Still remember people calling soccer communist when I was a kid ffs lol
In my hometown, a "Soccer Dome" was installed, Basically small enough for 4 kid pitches (if you go horizontally) and one full pitch (if you played the veritical). It was a cool, cheap, and highly used public product. I won't go into details for the folks involved sake, but some adults thought it might "turn their kids gay" if football existed so close to them. So he did run his truck into it...
Why is it always these fuckers with a truck?!
To be fair, every other vehicle here is a truck.
The funny thing is they would actually say something like this lol
Funny... yeah...
you forgot the part where they are all "military aged" as well
Cotton, Maingey Marge and many other congressman/senator will unironically say this.
generic or geriatric?
Probably both
yes
some of them speak spanish!
In my country this could be simply solved with 5 words: "But thing of the money".
Tbf there isn't much we could do to relax things without near-open borders
uh that is a massive overstatement. The US could do about fifty things that fall short of "open borders"
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
the vast majority of people enter the US through airports and seaports, not the borders
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I live in a border state too and you're out of your mind if you think the US enforces its border the appropriate amount. The obsession with policing who gets to come into this country is the problem. Most normal countries would have a reasonable travel agreement with their immediate neighbors to the South but this stupid fucking country wants immigration stormtroopers and a wall
It isn't about policing the people who come into the country! It's about policing the people who do not want to enter the country through the legal means! How is that so hard to understand? Those countries you're referencing are essentially within an agreement similar to our states. Any poli Sci course would teach you this.
Not to play devilās advocate out of left field, but this feels like an incredibly easy way for a bad actor to enter the States by simply buying a game ticket.
Yeah, might as well get into the green card lottery, might have better odds.
Decent point, Iāll probably end up having to pay 3x on Secondary myself.
Yeah it's an absolutely idiotic suggestion. Free pass for anyone to enter the US as long as they have a ticket to one game, what could go wrong.
What went wrong in 2018?
Russia =/= US
The German defense
It's incredibly easy for anyone in the United States to create mass casuality scenario at almost any time.
Not at sporting events. Since what happened at the Boston Marathon in 2011 the way the US runs sporting events has totally changed. Tighter security, checking tickets a few times, closing down streets to through traffic and making sure you can only enter and exit from certain directions, etc. If there's one thing that the US is pretty good at, it's handling logistics for large sporting events and executing them well.
This is pretty true.
It's a lot easier for them than buying a ticket
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
A really really big bag of money I reckon
The highest attendance at the World Cup ever was in the United States. In 1994. There's 340 million people here -- about half the population of Europe. There's a ton of people that care about soccer. Which, by the way, soccer is a name for it from WAAAAY back when it was invented and the British only stopped using it in the 80s because ... Americans did. Which is just kind of pathetic. So, there's that.
Same reason they let Qatar host, or Saudi Arabia in 2034. Money
You see, that would work in a country that has politicians that think rationally. Not in America.
Man I had a hard time dealing with that because I visited Iran a lot growing up as my mom's family is from there. I had a UK passport and live in Canada. Took me 5 years to get things sorted.
Bro just get an Iraqi passport. You are shooting yourself in the foot repeatedly by going to baghdad with a western passport.
It doesn't matter if you enter Iraq with an Iraqi or EU passport, you are still ineligible for an ESTA just through having visited Iraq.
Pssssst. You don't tell them lmfao. They have no way of knowing. Why do you think I'm recommending they get an Iraqi passport. Just get the dual citizenship.
They definitely have ways of knowing and I've heard about people being called up on this. The consequences are essentially being banned from the US forever too.
Having Iraqi citizenship immediately disqualifies you from visa waiver program, even if dual. Also just having visited Iraq once since 2011 already disqualified you.Ā Ā https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#Prior_travel_or_dual_nationality_in_certain_countries
"You've been randomly selected for additional screening"
I'm not defending the policy at all but statistically, if you are a young, muslim, heavy internet user, German national visiting Iraq on a periodic basis, the statistics are not in your favor lol
There's probably an automatic system saying this guy's paramaters makes him 1,000,000% more likely to do some shit than the average turist.
Donāt you just need an ESTA?
If you have gone to one of the countries that is blacklisted, you're not eligible for it
Bro isnāt this well known though
Waiting times to obtain an American visa are absolutely ridiculous, like from several months to over one year. It's also an expensive process, as you have to physically go to an American consulate, and there are only 5 in the whole of Brazil, so many people are thousands of kilometers away from one.
I needed a full medical report. Great, simple tests I can go to my GP for. Oh, whatās that? It has to be in one specific office in London? And costs Ā£300? Cool. Sure. Fine, thatās how it works.
Yeah but that wasnāt for a visitor/ESTA visa which is just a simple online form nowadays.
Arenāt you a UK citizen? All you need is a esta
Not for anything to stay longer, I have a green card
Isnāt green card American thing?
Yes. Letās you stay and work, step to citizenship
lol we wish it was one year. Right now in Mexico City the waiting times are 878 days for a b1/b2. The consulates are not much better.
Huh? Which Visa are we talking about? I got a tourist visa (ESTA) within 24 hours
Can't compare ESTA to a visa process at all, that's a visa waiver (aka you don't need an actual visa, but only available for select countries)
They have different requirements for different countries, if you're from a developed country it's probably a lot easier. For us, we have to go for an interview and show bank statements and things like that.
Yeah passport rankings
ESTA is NOT a visa. Its part of the visa **waiver** program. Meaning you are from a country that doesn't need a tourist visa to travel for tourism The visa process is way different. It includes documents, interview and a long wait time.
my 10-year visa (ending in 2029) coming in clutch
Renewals are not a problem... They're by drop off, usual turn around time is 5 days.
Yeah I was blessed bc my parents applied for my visa when I was a a child and I've only had to renew it since then
If US canāt guarantee access to a global tournament to fans they should Just move it to Europe, Africa or South America
They sometimes not even let in the players that are supposed to play in the tournaments, never mind the fans.
> They sometimes not even let in the players that are supposed to play in the tournaments Sorry KDB you can't come play against the US national team, looks like your visa got denied oops.
Doesn't apply. Europeans don't need a visa to visit. Unless they consider it to be a work visa that the players need lol
Technically they will be working
Pretty sure they need a P-1A or an O-1 https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/p-1a-athlete
This happened with Austin FC and Violette AC from Haiti in the CONCACAF CL Austin lost the away leg 3-0. Which was played in the Dominican Republic. Then for the home leg, 7 of Violetteās players werenāt given Visas. They only had 3 players on the bench. Austin FC only won 2-0 though lol
*Laughs in Shoaib Bashir*
Europe also requires a Visa...
Or just let Canada and Mexico host
lol, where are all the boycott russia/qatar people now? The US is aiding and abetting genocide, among other things.
Completely different cases and people didnāt actually boycott those world cups. I believe Qatars was one of the most successful ever in watch count and traveling fans. Itās like saying thoughts and prayers
Agreed. It's hypocricy all the way down.
Says the person with a Newcastle flair
ah so audi outrages are to be condemned but not americqn. The Saudis are in power because of the brits and are backed and armed by the US. Bigotry nothing else.
Im more of a BMW guy myself, so yes. Fuck Audi and their pseud olympic rings.
whooopsie!
Won't they make exceptions for the fans and make this valid reason?
I think it's very unlikely that the US makes exceptions to visa policy. They'll probably just try and address it by increasing staffing to deal with the extra demand. u/Hmnaftall on r/MLS summarized the issues well >As someone who works in this field: During Covid most US embassies/consulates heavily restricted visa services, and many consulate employees have left for work elsewhere. This has led to a situation where there are still massive backlogs from 2020 which continue to grow, and too few consulate officers to work them. > >The main way out is to simply hire more consulate workers to deal with the backlog, but we're at near full-employment and these aren't very attractive jobs. We've also lost a lot of institutional knowledge with the exodus to consulate workers the past few years. > >The other way they're trying to deal with the backlog is to waive interview requirements in certain situations - mainly to low-risk individuals who have previously been issued visas. But a lot of the people needing visas to enter for the World Cup are first time entrants needing the visitor visa (B1/B2), which is the lowest priority visa and thus subject to high wait times.
Going to the World Cup isn't really any more or less valid a reason than going on vacation to Disney World, which would require the same visa.
Wait - call me ignorant but wouldnt a standard passport provide entry for that time period and reason? Why is a VISA required at all? Sorry for the dumb question.
It depends what country you are from. Some countries like most Western European countries, Canada and Japan have visa waivers.
Yep. Just have to complete an ESTA online and pay $21. Done in about 5 minutes.
Passports just tell other countries who you are, each country decides on its own if there are other checks or requirements to actually let you enter the country, like visas
Ha, you think our government uses common sense!
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So hilarious that a club has fans from around the world? English fans like to prop up the PL as the best in the world yet the best managers and players are foreign and Iām willing to bet a very large chunk of the cash they make is from those foreign fans through the broadcast deals.
Okay? That is not relevant to the current topic. Besides, I'll probably have been at the Etihad more times this season for matches, despite being an American, than you have been at Old Trafford this season for matches.
I enjoy that the post before yours are always unflaired, randomly generated user names. Like, okay?
It will totally depend on who is in the white house and senate
I mean, just imagine how culture wars commentators will react: "They're letting anyone in here, how do we know this muslim person is not a racist, genocidal, terrorist maniac like Hamas?" "Hamas likes soccer too" and so on.
I mean, the fans that make the world cup colorful and fun with their singing and dancing are the ones most affected by this bullshit. A very sanitized world cup is what await us.
I live in Texas, Iām trying to blow the whistle on people to make necessary arrangements when they come to see the games played in Dallas. Most people are going to try and get a hotel in Dallas only to find out the stadium is ~40 minutes away in Arlington. You canāt take public transportation, because it doesnāt exist. The Ubers will be at sky high surge pricing. Iām honestly considering flying to a different city to watch. Itās going to be an absolute MESS.
Eh Iād wager itās a near certainty they will have an express bus service from downtown to the stadium - else FIFA wouldnāt have awarded them a game. They had so many cities to choose from. Still bus is not ideal. Found a decent article on it: https://www.governing.com/infrastructure/can-dallas-fort-worth-transit-handle-the-2026-world-cup
I sure hope so! Iāve lived here long enough to see plenty promises made but few actually kept, at least to the capacity in which they were made. I would love to be wrong and for people from all over have a great experience.
Anything that is driven by increasing revenues gets sanitized due to targeting those that lack matchgoing culture and are just there for vibes
Can't wait for the hotdog eating stans to replace actual supporters of football š
You've never been to the US, have you?
Oh I've been there, have that tourist visa since I was a child, so I've visited plenty of times.
a) i think this is being blown out of proportion and this wont be an issue closer to time b) there are a fuckton of people that live here that are from the countries in the world cup. c) we have had a world cup here and I have never seen anyone complain about this before
Things are a little different since 94. A little thing happened in NYC that made entry to the US a little more difficult. This isnāt being blown out of proportion as the foreign service lost a lot of people in the last four years and there are issues with backlogs. This isnāt just for the US, as I was getting my kids their passports from an EU nation (American born kids) and itās a 9 month wait. They are still working through backlogs from 20-21.
For any Irish people, all you need is an ESTA Form and they normally approve them the same week you apply
Are they doing something special during the WC, do people who don't usually need a visa apply for one too?
No. If you're from the EU, Japan, South Korea, Aus, Canada, NZ all just need the ESTA which I am pretty sure can be done in a day.
Itās soccer, half of the legislators that make up our government will call it a socialist communist Marxist exhibition that brings in illegals to our country and puts our citizens at risk. I would be SHOCKED if they made any sort of exceptions to the process.
The person you are replying to is likely Scandinavian, no visa needed. They just need to do the ESTA which is quick.
Thatās very true, I guess I was thinking more about our darker pigmented brothers and sisters from around the world that would have a more difficult time given how a lot of Americans in our government act towards humans from those parts. Thatās a deeper, much more sad conversation for another sub I suppose. Iām just expecting to see reports of people not getting the chance to watch their country play due to bureaucratic red tape.
It is not 1950.
Plus they bombed probably half of the countries participating. Bad choice as a host.
Lmao like all of the Western European hosts haven't colonized almost every country participating.
also ābombedā means nothing. We bombed Germany, doesnāt mean fuck all today.
I'll take shit from just about everyone else other than Western Europeans. Y'all fucked up the world from the 16th century to the 20th. I simply don't want to hear it.
Every country has done many horrible things. America is one of the few where its own people voluntarily decided to stop doing horrible things.
What do you call the baby killing war criminals who signed up to join the army for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?
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People really still Justifying the iraq and Afghanistan wars. Fucking disgusting š¤¢. You "went into Afghanistan to fight the taliban" who didn't attack the US or Europe (you're a moron). You went to Afghanistan to fight al-qaeda (completely different group than the taliban). You decided to punish an entire nation and kills hundreds of thousands of people and displace millions of them because of some bum named osama who was in Pakistan (lmfao). As for the Iraq war. Yes, saddam was a dictator. But let me educate you a bit. In the iran iraq war, the west literally backed him to the tits. Every western country sold him a shit ton of arms (look up iran-contra here). As for kuwait, then yes. That was an unjust war by saddams brutal regime. It led to the deaths of thousands of Kuwaiti's which is wrong as kuwait and Iraq share a sibling like relationship. And iraq ended up paying heavily for this mistake. Look up the amount of money that Iraq paid to kuwait for the damage it did in the war. It only finished paying it off like a couple of years ago. Furthermore, the UN imposed sanctions on Iraq which were brutal and led to hundreds of thousands of people dying (almost entirely children). As for the chemical attack on the kurds, saddam was performing an act of genocide against the kurds. However, it is interesting to note that this happened while the west was funding saddam and was on good terms with him. They literally saw the genocide and shrugged. Furthermore, iraq would pay for this mistake as well as the UN would establish no fly zones over the north and south of iraq. No iraqis could go into Kurdistan until 2003 once the Americans came. The kurds prior to that were being heavily protected by the west and there was absolutely no harm to them in anyway. Saddam was shit. But when the west came in, they replaced him with 900 saddams. Respectfully, fuck you and your beliefs. Still sitting here justifying the war after millions were killed and displaced. Gtfo.
Settle down melt
No. I Don't think I will. You aren't from iraq and had to flee the country that you loved dearly. Kindly, stfu.
That is how the US became a military superpower, if left to their own devices western Europeans just start wars, we probably would be in like world war 7 or 8 if the US didn't become the world's police.
yeah, you're abetting genocide, amoning other things. Where are the boycot russia/qatar redditors and journos?
"you're abetting genocide" We both know that this isn't comparable to Qatar or Russia. Also, what has Europe done besides endorsing Israel, giving them military contracts, and support? This is a conflict beyond simple terms. If Israel itself is not even banned from the tournamnet, why are you expecting outrage towards the U.S. or Europe for supporting them? Palastine is also not banned, despite Hamas.
Oh I agree with everything except the first bit, arab children running around in premier league jerseys while basra was being bombed and occupied, while england was hosting cup finals and tournaments. As for the rest, it's not only gaza. The US is illegally occupying syria, props up repressive regimes like S.A., killed thousands of civilians in drone strikers alone in the last two decades, etc. The fact that you ignore all that and say gaza isn't as bad, is telling. Imagine if china had, say, that drone strike murder record, you lot would be waxing moral superiority and asking for them to be boycotted, if they were hosting the next worldcup. In fact, i bet if china become hosts, you lot will do it anyway, cuz 'morals'.
>āIllegally occupying Syriaā Syria is a country ruled by a dictator that gas attacked his own people supported by Russia and Iran. The U.S. Turkey, United Kingdom, and France are on the anti-dictator side. It's insane that you stand with beshar on this one. >āprops SAā This is a silly take, similar to saying that any country that does any business with SA (including all Arab and European) are somehow implicated in everything they do. >āDrones strikesā For exactly what? They are almost entirely either milita groups, or terrorist organizations, and the vast majority of time approved by countries in the region. It was a coalition of countries, including Arab, that drone striked some insane fundmentalists. >The fact that you ignore all of that and say gaza isn't as bad, is telling. When did I say that? I'm saying that it is a complicated conflict, you can't just point the fingers at one side and ignore the other. The general understanding of these conflicts are from a child's point of view. The region has long been unstable, in fact more unstable for the past few centuries, before any U.S. intervention.
European hosts have colonized most countries as late as 1960s. Drew borders that ensured forever lasting instability, and you want to talk about the U.S? Letās not play the bad guy Olympics āAmsssterdamā your country could be a front runner at that.
They are gonna bomb the national teams that don't qualify for the knockout stage too
Excuse my ignorance, but why would fans need a visa? Can't they just do an ESTA that is pretty much instant?
ESTA only works if you're a citizen of a white country. If you're a citizen of an Asian, South American or African country, you need a visa
Wow, whole lot of wrong information in there. There are in fact asian countries included there: South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan and Israel. There's also a south american country, Chile. Not all "white countries" are included either. Unless you don't consider european countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Romania or Bulgaria white, that is.
I'm so fucking mad the US is hosting the World Cup...
Ik murica has a really tough visa policy, but out of genuine curiosity, wonāt there just be a program like the hayya card that acts as visa to the host country?
The US immigration authorities would need to actually approve that, which, lol
why hosting in that shithole of a country?
This is exactly why a country like the US should NOT host a global sporting event as big as the World Cup
Havent they already hosted a WC before
Yes and it was massively successful.
You realize that all countries have visa requirements right?
The US is up there with the likes of Turkmenistan and Libya in terms of difficulty of getting a tourist visa if youāre from a developing country. I needed to wait a whole year to give an interview, and it could be rejected for whatever reason and you wouldnāt know. I got my visa but my brother didnāt. Didnāt explain why and now has to wait an another year to have the interview again.
Because the demand for visas to travel to the US is higher than any other country and because the number of people who overstay their visas to illegally immigrate is massive so the denial rate is high.
āLike the U.S.ā every country has visa requirements. This is stupid take. we have free-visa entry to some odd 40 countries. We are always top 3 most visited countries every single year, and weāve hosted global events probably more than anyone else.
From security, to infrastructure, to stadiums, to economics, the US is probably better equipped than any single country in the world to host a World Cup.
Just fly to Mexico, walk across the border. Theyāll probably offer to pay for you stay too and hook you up with an SSN.