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Originally Posted by magician
Actually...those requirements are pretty standard.
In fact...I cannot think of any country off the top of my head that will allow a foreigner to just show up without a passport.
Requiring an entry visa merely means that visitors or immigrants need to enter the country through a checkpoint. I do not know of any country that does not care if folks just saunter across national borders with no controls.
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Currently, US citizens are not required to have a passport when travelling to or from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central and South America (that is, by US law; each country might have its own entry requirements, but the US citizen does not need a passport to re-enter the US).
Canadian and Mexican citizens and Bermudan residents are not required to have a passport when entering the US.
The exemption for travel to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central and South America will end on December 31, 2005, affecting US citizens and Bermudans. On December 31, 2006, the exemption that allows passport-free travel (by air or sea) to or from Mexico and Canada will end. By December 31, 2007, a passport will be required for all air, sea and land border crossings into the US.
British and Irish citizens do not need a passport to travel among Ireland, the UK, and the UK dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
Under the Schengen Agreement, travel among Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden does not require a passport, although entry into them from a none-party generally does. I have landed at Frankfurt airport many times, shown my passport (but no visa) to enter Germany, and then driven to several of these countries, never having to show a passport. When I was on active duty, I didn't even need a passport when landing in Germany, the UK, Norway and Turkey, since a military ID qualifies as an alternative to a passport for entering NATO countries.
Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City are also part of the Schengen zone, since their borders are open to countries who are parties (Spain, France and Italy).
Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland have joined the Schengen Agreement, but have not yet implemented it. If and when Switzerland joins, Liechtenstein will also come in by default (currently, when driving in from Austria, you need to show a passport, but the border between Liechtenstein and Switzerland isn't even marked).