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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Between AUS, EWR, and YTO In a little twisty maze of airline seats, all alike.. but I wanna go home with the armadillo
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Originally Posted by
Efrem
I was thinking of the same question in terms of the Chilean fee that I paid before it was eliminated in February 2014. I came down on the other side, though. This list measures freedom to travel, not of the cost of doing so. U.S. citizens could visit Chile freely without advance permission of any kind. Yes, they (we) had to pay a reciprocity fee, but they (we) also had to pay for plane tickets, food and lodging while in the country, and all the rest. I saw this as just one more expense to figure into the total cost.
(I leave for Chile again in three days. I now have a brand-new passport, so my previous entry permit would no longer be valid. Not complaining.)
The Argentine reciprocity fee is a de-facto visa (and therefore a restriction on travel) because one has to pay it and show the receipt in order to be allowed by airlines to board a flight to Argentina. The way you reason (and I tend to agree with you), it would not have been a restriction on travel a few years ago when it was simply paid
n arrival.
Last edited by Xyzzy; Mar 3, 2016 at 10:24 pm