That one is now free and on-arrival for US passport holders (as of this past summer). No idea about UK or other passports.

According to reciprocity schedule, Chinese are never given B-1/B-2 visas of validity longer that 12 months.

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Galaxy S: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.4; en-us; SGH-T989 Build/IMM76D) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

You're talking about visa. Even being a citizen is no guarantee of uneventful entry at the border, even at a U.S. border.

I also used this e-visa service, but found it not very valuable when arriving by air. The vias-on-arrival queue was moving very quickly!

On my AirAsia flight from BKK to PNH, I had seat in row 16, and a man sitting just before me attracted my attention with his huge and fancy-colored hat. So probably he might be about 6 positions ahead of me at disembarkation. I had a prearranged e-visa, and he went for visa-on-arrival, but at passport control he was queuing right behind me!

But apparently this e-visa is a good help for entering overland. A friend who had the experience of entering Cambodia through Paoypaet told me that officials require petty bribes to process visas-on-arrival.

Brazil seems to me a very bureaucratic country.

I once had the imprudence of going to a bank to exchange currency (US dollars to Brazilian reals). In my country, exchanging currency in a bank is not the quickest thing: the cashier fills in some form which you sign and which takes some 3 minutes, and we complain about bureaucracy.

But in Brazil the clerk typed on her computer so much that you could think it was she who wrote 'War and Peace' and 'In Search of Lost Time'. Besides, I was required to fill a form myself, and she also made a photocopy of my passport (or rather of my US visa - because for some reason all the clerks in Brazil who wanted to see my passport opened it on the page where my - by then expired - US visa was affixed and copied my particulars from it instead of my passport's title page; they also always marked my nationality as 'EUA'). All in all the operation took 25 minutes.

This is true. I've never seen a Chinese citizen with a 5-10 year B 1/2. The only thing that is a little better for them is if they have been issued a US visa in the past, they do not need to go in for another interview, unless one is warranted.

The Chinese give US citizens 1-2 year visas for visiting. So, it is not too far off.

Cost of visa is definitely a consideration for me (Canadian). VISA costs are different for each country but Canadian ones are very high in Chile and Laos (for some reason). Russia is nuts (you need an "invitation"). I may pay the high visa fees once to see the place but definitely would not pay it twice to countries charging (extortion rates) visa costs. It is a rip off--simple as that.

I feel the same way... so far I've avoided countries that require a hefty visa or a visa processing fee... this includes most of South America, India and China.

We went to Cambodia ten years ago. There was only visa on arrival. 20 US dollars and there were 11 people to process the transaction from beginning to end. One to take passport one to take money one to stamp passport one to recount money I don't remember all the other intermediate steps but I do remember counting the people and thinking that it promoted employment. Even with that many people involved it was a quick and painless affair at the phnom penh airport.

[QUOTE=worldiswide;19761074] but I do remember counting the people and thinking that it promoted employmentQUOTE]

That is the whole reason for Visas and passports---to employ people in relatively well paid jobs. With retina scans or finger print scans (like Nexus has), passports/visas could and should be done away with. Oh, wait that will hurt employment. No can do!

South America visas and entry fees
 

I am not sure if all these Visa fees are correct. I don't think there is a fee for Argentina for Americans.

Anyway, what I do is either put these countries at the bottom of the list or go there once only-ever. Visa fees, to me, say we don't want you, but at a price, you can come.

Of course there is!! (if you fly in)

It's now been at least a couple of years that US citizens flying into EZE on ordinary US passports are most commonly required to pay a reciprocity fee in order to enter Argentina at EZE.

Well, a visa is NOT required, but reciprocity fees need to be paid in Argentina, Chile and other South American countries.

"United States citizens are required to pay an entry request fee of $160.00, which is based on reciprocity (Argentina). This request is valid for multiple entries over a period of 10 years."