JL is the only Asian carrier into MEX. MH had a short episode in the 90's, with a KUL-TPE-LAX-MEX flight. No longer. Most people who travel from CA/Mexico to Asia go through LAX/SFO I imagine.

I am a little confused, wouldn't you fall under the visa waiver program as a European, even when just transiting?

There are two separate issues being discussed here and many other threads.

1) US unlike many (most?) other countries requires international transit (by this I mean overseas to US to overseas) passengers to pass through customs & immigration (actually twice). Most other places I have transited you can stay airside and not have the hassle. This includes places with large airports where you need to change terminals.

2) While VWP exists, it has been massively watered down due to the requirements for bio data (no passports have these yet for some months or years to come) - hence nearly every foreigner is having to submit to fingerprint and eye scan.

Taken together it means international transit through US (eg from NZ to europe) is a major PITA. Contrast this to transiting through asia where it is a breeze. Many people I know (myself included) now avoid US altogether as far as is possible, due to these hassles.

I am a little confused on the suggestions for transiting via Canada. Canada pretty much has the same rules as the US dont they? You have to go through immigration even if you are transiting and depending on what country you are a citizen of you are required to have a visa. As far as I can tell it is basically the same visa. I was looking at some itins to Asia and considered going via YVR and my wife is on a Thai visa so that was the info I dug up and why we didnt transit via Canada.

Also, what country is your citizenship? Are you even required to have a visa? I would think the list that Canada has for visas is the same as the US.

As mentioned above, not having a visa does not equal hassle free transit (or entry for that matter) to US. Whereas for other countries it does.

But RTW tix require you to take a trans-pacific segment!!!

Thats why they are called RTW

I agree but my point is that the same goes for Canada. I have been through Canadian immigration many many times and have had more hassle than any other country I have ever visited. I just feel like avoiding the US to transit via Canada is not gaining a lot for the OP.

Not all Europeans qualify for visa waivers.


It would, to begin with, save several months' wait for an interview for the right to apply for an US visa; non-nationals get 3rd class treatment at US embassies even in their country of residence. Canada doesn't require visas for a much broader range of countries than the US.

We are talking about transits, not visits. And the immigration you get between Canada and US (at least in that direction) is US immigration anyways!!

Does Canada differentiate between the two(transit and visit)? The way I read it Visit and Transit was the same process, I have never transited via Canada so cant say for sure but you still need to go through immigration like everyone else. When you enter Canada from the the US you are harassed by Canadian immigrationa (at least suspicious folks such as me are) and when you enter the US from Canada you are harrased by US immigration.

I guess I am just curious why people would think the process would be "better" via Canada as it seams to really be the same as the US process.

Edited to mention that I agree with monahos's statement on the US visa process. I may wife being Thai I painfully understand that but depending on the nationality of the OP could be a different topic...I do find this a curious topic and am trying to get more details than anything else as it does affect my travels quite a bit as well.

Canada's visa process is a lot easier for various non-VWP country citizens than the U.S.'s. The U.S. also has a USD100 non-refundable visa application fee which you lose if your transit visa application is rejected. I believe you also need your ticket in hand so if you buy a non-refundable and the visa is rejected, you can end up losing a lot of money.

That said, YVR has sterile transit at least for U.S.-int'l and you can bypass Canadian immigration for int'l-U.S. (to go straight to U.S. pre-clearance). I don't know about whether int'l-int'l sterile transit is available (as very few flights would make sense).

YUL has sterile transit at least for passengers travelling between St. Pierre and CDG.

Not sure what YYZ has or will have (when the AC terminal is rebuilt).

KUL-EZE MH201 on Sundays & Wednesdays. departs KUL at 1:05AM, so good inbound connections from other Asian cities. The return flight (MH202) departs also on Sun. & Wed. from EZE, and arrives KUL the following morning at 6:20AM, again a good arrival time to connect to other Asian cities.

MH's KUL-EZE flight is via South Africa, and thus over the Atlantic, i.e. won't qualify as the transpac leg on a RTW.

The key difference between a Canadian VISITOR visa and a Canadian TRANSIT visa is that the latter is FREE of all fees and can be processed by mail in most cases.