Tit for Tat – or Reciprocal Fees

Tuesday, 1 June 2010

Transiting Buenos Aires recently I encountered this sign in the immigration area at the air- port. Canad- ians were up for a single entry fee of US$70 if they wanted to enter Argen- tina. For Aus- tralians it was US$100, but not single entry, pre- sumably once they’d fronted up 100 bucks they could make a side trip to Brazil or another Argentinian neighbour at no extra cost. For Americans the entry fee was US$131.

The small print beside this sign explained that visas to enter Argentina are free and this was not a visa fee, it was simply a reciprocity fee. Whatever you charge our citizens for a visa for your country, we’ll charge the same for yours. Fair enough isn’t it? In fact:

• This may only apply at Buenos Aires EZE airport, come in by land or arrive at some other airport and it doesn’t apply?

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• At least you pay your money and they open the door for you. In too many countries (including the USA?) the visa fee is merely for applying. They can take your money and knock you back.
• I suspect a lot of other countries could be added to that list, quite apart from big tourist providers like Canada, Australia and the USA. Far too many countries in Africa are far too enthusiastic about hefty visa fees.

I’ve just had a newsletter from a Russian tourism consultancy announcing that Russians will no longer have to pay for visas to visit Turkey or Brazil and they were hoping to negotiate a similar agreement with the European Union. I certainly hope it becomes a two way deal because in the last 10 years my prize for the most expensive, most time consuming and most bureaucratic visa process would all three go to the Russians.