Visas Issues For Foreigners Travelers.

[deepthought]

I am a US citizen along with our 3yr son who has dual passports, my wife though is a Philippine citizen. We currently are in Thailand and we are planing to buy a sailing yacht in Spain or Greece.

When I contacted the Spain and Greece embassy to try and apply for a visa for my wife they told me that we have to apply in the Philippines since it was her country of residence.

I was wondering if we are going to be sailing around the world if every time we have a change of destination if she will have to fly back to here home country (Philippines) just to apply for a visa to a country or is there some other maritime exemptions that apply. Or does it work some other way?

If anyone has any experience we would be happy to listen and explore deeper.

Thanks

-VC

[Istioploos]

I am not sure but my daughter's husband is from India and has an Indian passport. She has a US and a Greek passport. We have had no problems getting him visas in Washington, DC nor in Kenya where they are both working. But he being married to a Greek citizen may make all the difference.

I would talk to the Greek consulate and explain the situation. Sometimes they do give quick answers without too much thought.

By they way both Greece and Spain are members of the EU and signatories to the Schengen treaty. So all you will both need is one visa from any of the member countries.

Good luck

[MMNETSEA]

Originally Posted by deepthought

I am a US citizen along with our 3yr son who has dual passports, my wife though is a Philippine citizen. We currently are in Thailand and we are planing to buy a sailing yacht in Spain or Greece.

If anyone has any experience we would be happy to listen and explore deeper.

Thanks

-VC

VC,

I live in Thailand and have a number of American friends who have wives who hold passports of other nationalities. VC do both you and your son have two passports? Which countries issued these?

More questions : Has your wife ever been issued a American Visa ? What visa does she have now to be in Thailand? Have you spoken to the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok, Have you approached the Spanish or Greek embassies in Bangkok?

Have you considered buying a yacht in South East Asia (Langkawi Tax and duty free?

[deepthought]

I hold a US passports. My son holds a US & Philippine passport as well. My wife has never been issued a US visa we have been living in the PH for the last 5-6yrs. Right now we have tourist visas in Thailand, but will get a 1 yr work visa. I have contacted both the Spanish and Greek embassies in Bangkok they told me she would need to apply for the visa back in the Philippines unless we where permanent residents in Thailand.

I guess my questions isnt so much about getting a Spanish or Greek visa as of now since she can most likely get it once she has a work visa here.

My question is really if some one has experienced issues with traveling around to other countries and having to apply for visas at the country of residence or visas or in generaly its fairly easy to apply abroad somewhere before arriving.

Example: She will need a visa to go to Panama, so should we apply for it now from the Philippines/Thailand even though we are not sure we are going to go there or say to Brazil(visa not needed) instead. But if we do decide to go there apply for the Panama visa say from Costa Rica(visa not needed) at a Panama embassy there?

I have compiled a list of all the countries my wife can travel too with out needing to get a visa already and we can have a very enjoyable world cruise just going to those countries only. However it would mean going by some countries etc..

So if some one has experienced or knows then we would just route a definite plan that we would have to stick to and apply for whatever visas we want before we would leave. Unless we can just apply for a visa in other countries then we will just worry about it if we decide to go there.

@Admiral: we have looked around but we are looking for something very specific and have only found it available in UK, Spain and Greece.

Thanks for the response.

[jibsail]

I wonder if it would help if you all applied for seaman cards/discharge books. There are some threads on this forum that deal with this. I use my British seaman card/discharge book all the time, even in the Philippines.