Posted on 05/23/2022 2:57:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
The United States is one of the most popular tourist destinations worldwide. In 2019, only Spain and France had more visiting tourists, likely due to the rich history, architecture, cuisine and culture that these European countries provide.
The U.S. offers iconic cities such as New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco, as well as abundant national parks, and entertainment meccas like Las Vegas and Nashville. The visitors they draw bring a huge bump to the U.S. economy.
According to Statista:
In 2019, the number of international tourist arrivals to the U.S. stood at almost 80 million after being on the rise for over a decade. Thanks to this influx of visitors and a boost in U.S. travel spending, the travel and tourism industry contributed over 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars to the country's GDP and supported millions of jobs in 2019.
COVID, of course, put a temporary halt to tourism worldwide, with many countries closed to visitors during much of the pandemic. Those that remained open had ever-changing rules and requirements, not only to enter these countries, but other rules for those attempting to return to their home countries.
Tourist visas are technically called B1 or B2 visas and are used for non-U.S. residents desiring to travel to the U.S. to conduct business, attend a professional conference, visit family, or simply take a vacation. Residents of 39 specific countries are eligible for a visa waiver, allowing a 90-day stay in the U.S. for business or tourism without having to apply for a visa.
These countries are mainly first-world countries as in most of Europe and a few in Asia and Oceania. Notably absent are countries in the Middle East, Africa, or South America.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It is virtually impossible for me to get a tourist visa for my Thai-citizen wife.
I could get her a spouse visa, but the implication is that she’ll want to stay in the States permanently...neither one of us want to live in the States, just go to visit my family and come back to Thailand. Also, because the spouse visa is an immigrant visa, extensive checks are done...and those checks are expensive as ****. Pretty high price to allow for a brief visit.
Anyway, I often joke that I ought to fly her to Mexico, rent a car, and drive her to the border. Then meet her on the US side and then we could have our vacation.
I forgot about that scene
SEE?????!!!!!!!
She wiped her nose!!!
She gots da COVID-19(84)!!!
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