travel visa graphics

• Images home
• Editorial home
• Editorial video
• Premium collections
• Entertainment
• Premium images
• AI generated images
• Curated collections
• Animals/Wildlife
• Backgrounds/Textures
• Beauty/Fashion
• Buildings/Landmarks
• Business/Finance
• Celebrities
• Food and Drink
• Healthcare/Medical
• Illustrations/Clip-Art
• Miscellaneous
• Parks/Outdoor
• Signs/Symbols
• Sports/Recreation
• Transportation
• All categories
• Shutterstock Select
• Shutterstock Elements
• Health Care
• Sound effects

PremiumBeat

• PixelSquid 3D objects
• Templates Home
• Instagram all
• Highlight covers
• Facebook all
• Carousel ads
• Cover photos
• Event covers
• Youtube all
• Channel Art
• Etsy big banner
• Etsy mini banner
• Etsy shop icon
• Pinterest all
• Pinterest pins
• Twitter All
• Twitter Banner
• Infographics
• Zoom backgrounds
• Announcements
• Certificates
• Gift Certificates
• Real Estate Flyer
• Travel Brochures
• Anniversary
• Baby Shower
• Mother's Day
• Thanksgiving
• All Invitations
• Party invitations
• Wedding invitations
• Book Covers
• About Creative Flow
• Start a design

AI image generator

• Photo editor
• Background remover
• Collage maker
• Resize image
• Color palettes

Color palette generator

• Image converter
• Creative AI
• Design tips
• Custom plans
• Request quote
• Shutterstock Studios
• Data licensing

You currently have 0 credits

See all plans

Image plans

With access to 400M+ photos, vectors, illustrations, and more. Includes AI generated images!

Video plans

A library of 28 million high quality video clips. Choose between packs and subscription.

Music plans

Download tracks one at a time, or get a subscription with unlimited downloads.

Editorial plans

Instant access to over 50 million images and videos for news, sports, and entertainment.

Includes templates, design tools, AI-powered recommendations, and much more.

Travel Visa Logo royalty-free images

3,752 travel visa logo stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free for download..

Our company

Press/Media

Investor relations

Shutterstock Blog

Popular searches

Stock Photos and Videos

Stock photos

Stock videos

Stock vectors

Editorial images

Featured photo collections

Sell your content

Affiliate/Reseller

International reseller

Live assignments

Rights and clearance

Website Terms of Use

Terms of Service

Privacy policy

Modern Slavery Statement

Essentials Plan Agreement

Cookie Preferences

Shutterstock.AI

AI style types

Shutterstock mobile app

Android app

© 2003-2024 Shutterstock, Inc.

©2024 iStockphoto LP. The iStock design is a trademark of iStockphoto LP.

We’re sorry, but Freepik doesn’t work properly without JavaScript enabled. FAQ Contact

• Notifications
• Go back Remove
• No notifications to show yet You’ll see useful information here soon. Stay tuned!
• Downloads 0/60 What is this?
• My collections
• My subscription

Find out what’s new on Freepik and get notified about the latest content updates and feature releases.

• Travel plan
• Tourist visa
• Travel wallpaper
• Travel background
• Passport travel
• Travel packages
• Travel concept
• Itinerary template

Travel Visa PSD

• Add to collection
• Save to Pinterest

• holiday travel
• template travel

• banner travel
• tourism traveling

• travel world

• poster travel

• digital mockup
• mockup technology

• post travel

• envelope mockup

• mobile mock
• mockup phone

• mockup travel

• airplane background
• plane travel

• holiday poster
• flyer travel

• travel website
• landing page template

• desk mockup
• desk office

• office table

• logo mock up
• branding logo

• Packaging mockup
• mockup pack

• adult woman

Security Alert May 17, 2024

Worldwide caution, update may 10, 2024, information for u.s. citizens in the middle east.

• Travel Advisories |
• Contact Us |
• MyTravelGov |

Find U.S. Embassies & Consulates

Travel.state.gov, congressional liaison, special issuance agency, u.s. passports, international travel, intercountry adoption, international parental child abduction, records and authentications, popular links, travel advisories, mytravelgov, stay connected, legal resources, legal information, info for u.s. law enforcement, replace or certify documents.

Tourism & Visit

Study & Exchange

Other Visa Categories

U.S. Visa: Reciprocity and Civil Documents by Country

Visit our Newsroom for information about the current status of visa services and visa restrictions.

What is a U.S. Visa?

A citizen of a foreign country who seeks to travel to the United States generally must first obtain a U.S. visa. Visas are placed in the traveler’s passport, a travel document issued by the traveler’s country of citizenship.

Certain international travelers may be eligible to travel to the United States without a visa if they meet the requirements for visa-free travel. The visa section of this website contains information on U.S. visas for foreign citizens seeking to travel to the United States.

(Note: U.S. citizens don’t need a U.S. visa for travel, but when planning travel abroad may need a visa issued by the country they wish to visit. When planning travel abroad, learn about visa requirements by country, on the country information  page of the International Travel Section of this website).

More Information about Visas

Find out what visa type is appropriate for you

The type of visa you must obtain is defined by U.S. immigration law, and relates to the purpose of your travel.

Please visit our Visa Wizard to find out what visa type is appropriate for you.

You can also visit our Frequently Asked Questions   or find out about the  Visa Waiver Program .

Other useful links:  Visa Categories   |   Find a U.S. Embassy or Consulate   |   Glossary

Visa Appointment Wait Time

Check the estimated wait time for a nonimmigrant visa interview appointment at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

Note:  Please check the individual Embassy or Consulate website to determine if your case is eligible for a waiver of the in-person interview.

As noted, you may schedule a visa appointment in a different place than where you live. Visit the Embassy or Consulate website to see wait times for nonresidents.  

Select a U.S. Embassy or Consulate:

Global visa wait times, travel to the united states, forms & fees, rights & protections for temporary workers, fraud protection, glossary, a-z index, & faqs, electronic system for travel authorization application, rights & protections for foreign-citizen fiancé(e)(s), check the visa bulletin, need help getting started.

Many non-U.S. citizens need a visa to enter the United States to visit, work, and live. Why do you want to travel to the United States? Please try our Visa Wizard.

U.S. Visas News

Apr 19, 2024 Department of State/AILA Liaison Committee Meeting March 20, 2024

Apr 15, 2024 Visa Information for Nationals of Haiti

Jan 2, 2024 Worldwide Visa Operations: Update

Dec 21, 2023 Important Update on Waivers of the Interview Requirement for Certain Nonimmigrant Visa Applicants

Dec 21, 2023 Department of State to Process Domestic Visa Renewals in Limited Pilot Program

MORE NEWS >>

Visa Operations and the US Economy

Visa Photo Requirements

Photo Requirements Photo Examples Digital Image Requirements Photo - Frequently Asked Questions Photo Composition Template

Law and Policy

Your Rights and Protections Visa Bulletin Visa Statistics Laws and Regulations

External Link

You are about to leave travel.state.gov for an external website that is not maintained by the U.S. Department of State.

Links to external websites are provided as a convenience and should not be construed as an endorsement by the U.S. Department of State of the views or products contained therein. If you wish to remain on travel.state.gov, click the "cancel" message.

You are about to visit:

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

• My View My View
• Following Following
• Saved Saved

Israel launches ETA system for visa-exempt countries

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

An Israeli pilotless plane was shot down over Lebanese territory by a surface-to-air missile on Saturday, Israel's military said, and Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the interception.

World Chevron

China lands on moon's far side in historic sample retrieval mission

The landing elevates China's space-power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on Saturday reported an incident 48 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's Hodeidah where the vessel's master witnessed an explosion a significant distance from the ship.

Expedia Rewards is now One Key™

Elektrostal, visit elektrostal, check elektrostal hotel availability, popular places to visit.

• Electrostal History and Art Museum

You can spend time exploring the galleries in Electrostal History and Art Museum in Elektrostal. Take in the museums while you're in the area.

• Cities near Elektrostal

• Places of interest
• Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
• Peter the Great Military Academy
• Central Museum of the Air Forces at Monino
• History of Russian Scarfs and Shawls Museum
• Ramenskii History and Art Museum
• Balashikha Museum of History and Local Lore
• Pekhorka Park
• Balashikha Arena
• Drama Theatre BOOM
• Bykovo Manor
• Malenky Puppet Theater
• Pavlovsky Posad Museum of Art and History
• Saturn Stadium
• Church of Vladimir
• Likino Dulevo Museum of Local Lore
• Orekhovo Zuevsky City Exhibition Hall
• Noginsk Museum and Exhibition Center
• Fairy Tale Children's Model Puppet Theater
• Fifth House Gallery
• Malakhovka Museum of History and Culture

Thailand Relaxes Its Visa Program: Longer Stays For Tourists And Digital Nomads

Beginning next week, Thailand will roll out an initiative that will allow travelers from 93 countries to stay up to 60 days, and relax rules for digital nomads, students and retirees.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Thailand is pulling out the stops to attract more tourists from a larger pool of countries and for longer stays.

T his week, Thailand’s government announced that it is significantly relaxing its visa program, approving longer stays for tourists, students and remote workers in an initiative that will allow travelers from 93 countries (up from 57) to stay 60 days (up from 30).

The changes will go into effect on June 1.

For digital nomads, as well as self-employed and remote workers, visas will extend to five years—a significant jump from 60 days—with each stay limited to 180 days, Thai government spokesperson Chai Wacharonke said at a press conference. Previously, digital nomads were allowed only two 30-day stays.

Foreign postgraduate students will be able to stay an additional year after graduation.

In addition, Thailand is drastically lowering insurance requirements for foreign retirees. Currently, retirees aged 50 years and up must have health insurance coverage of 3 million baht (nearly $82,000). The new requirement will be just 440,000 baht ($12,000).

Thailand is hoping these moves will collectively help juice its stuttering economy. Earlier this month, the finance ministry reduced its 2024 economic growth forecast to 2.4% from 2.8%. The country is aiming for a record 40 million foreign tourism arrivals in 2024, with an anticipated revenue of 3.5 trillion baht ($95.3 billion).

Around the world, there’s a marked trend toward fewer countries requiring traditional paper visas affixed in a passport, according to UN Tourism’s latest Tourism Visa Openness Report , which revealed that just 47% of travelers in 2023 required a traditional visa, falling steadily from 77% in 2008 and 59% in 2018. Instead, travelers are finding looser rules and less friction when traveling to destinations around the world. Today 21% of the world’s population does not need any visa—up from 17% in 2008—and visa-on-arrivals and eVisas are popping up around the world.

This trend is most visible in the Middle East and Africa. Consider that in 2015, about seven in 10 people in the world needed to obtain a visa prior to visiting the Middle East. By last year, that figure had dropped to 57%.

The list of countries soon eligible for visa-free short stays in Thailand include large tourism source markets like China and India, as well as U.S., U.K., Albania, Cambodia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mexico, Morocco, Panama, Romania, Sri Lanka, UAE and Uzbekistan.

A Thai visa-on-arrival will soon be available for 31 countries (up from 19), including Armenia, Fiji, Malta, Saudi Arabia and Serbia.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

Creative Design

• Presentations

Video & Audio

drag logo to the bookmark bar and collect pikbest

Applicable for: individual advertiser, individual YouTuber, individual lecturer, individual audio book author, personal freelancer

Enterprise permissions

Copyright Security

Multi-Account Use

Enterprise Authorization

Industry-leading legal protection

Authorized Use Range

Copyright Notice:Abusing Pikbest content without the authorization is prohibited,you may be liable for any violation.

become affiliate make money

share links

video about us

What’s Templates

advertise cooperate

advertise with pikbest

• Backgrounds
• Illustration
• Decors & 3D Models

Tourist Visa Templates

5529  results

Blue small fresh special air ticket tourist visa going abroad poster

Format: psd

Category: Templates

Designed by: 薄荷色的夏天

Flat cartoon visa agency travel outbound tour poster design

Designed by: 柒年

Travel agency visa poster design

Designed by: 风吹紫罗湾

Agency visa poster design download

Designed by: 如果

Visa agency travel outbound tour poster design

Designed by: 爱上猫的诱惑

Canada Visit Visa post desing visit visa

Format: EPS

Designed by: Md. Ebrahim Khalil

blue simple agency visa travel clearance poster

Designed by: 印刷包装～手提袋 画册 贴

Simple agency visa poster design download

Travel agency visa poster

Designed by: 瑞朗广告℡¹³⁸⁹⁸⁶⁷⁸⁶³⁹

2 5D cartoon visa insertion agency travel outbound poster design

Travel poster design for visa agent abroad

Simple agency visa travel clearance poster

Promotional poster for travel visa agency abroad

Designed by: 小素

blue cartoon visa travel x roll up banner stand

Designed by: 凹凸曼

Turkey Visit Visa Post for Tour & Travel Agency Template - PSD

Designed by: Syed Graphics

Study abroad or student visa social media post admission web banner template design

Designed by: joynul abedin

Canada and Australia Visit visa Service post

Travel Agency Air Tourist Business Guide Logo

Designed by: designmonsoon

Study Visa Prossecing Higher in Newzealand Desing

Canada Schooling visa post design for social media

USA Visit Visa post Design

Visa card design template

Designed by: PrettyStock

Blue simple agency visa travel clearance poster

Designed by: 玛莉

Canadian Visit visa processing post

Malaysia tourist team attractions poster

Designed by: 请叫我肖某人

Travel agency promotion poster visa exhibition board vector travel background

Designed by: 夏

Saint Petersburg tourist travel poster

Modern social media post for study abroad and visa

India Visa Harvest Festival Color Poster

Designed by: 李珂

Colorful Travel Around The World Tour Group Poster Banner

Designed by: Huyền Thu

Green background in Visa, India

Designed by: lisa

Personality Fashion India Visa Festival Poster

Fashion Cartoon Simple India Visa Harvest Festival Poster

Fashion Color India Visa Harvest Festival Holiday Poster

Blue background India Visa

Temple India Visa Harvest Stem Template

Designed by: yechow

Blue background India Visa Harvest Template

Vietnam Tourist Attractions Introduction poster

Designed by: vicki

Yellow Creative India Visa Harvest Template

colorful travel around the world tour group poster

Simple travel poster, above is a picture of the tourist city

Designed by: Ryanliang

Travel poster set template design with promo text and car tourist in background

Designed by: binh nguyen

Travel Agency Social Media Banner - PSD

Tourist hotel reservation poster

Designed by: carol

Modern Tourist Travel Agency Flyer

Designed by: Karim82

Time To Explore Tourist Poster eps

Designed by: Muhammad Rizwan

Hot tourist city hotel promotion poster

Designed by: haiky

How do you like the search results?

Thank you for your Feedback!

Related Searches:

Great to have you back! Log in to see more

Start your free trial

Register to get 2 free downloads/day

Wrong password

By creating an account, I agree to Pikbest’s Term’s of Service , License Agreement and Privacy Policy

Not a member? Sign Up

Free download millions of high-quality assets.

Sign up free to see more

Already have account? Log In

Welcome to find more free high-quality assets.

Log in to enjoy free download everyday

join the creator community

Upload your first copyrighted design. You can get a $10 cash bonus

• Design Templates
• Office Templates
• Multimedia Templates
• Decoration Templates
• Support FAQ
• Refund Policy
• Terms of Service
• License Agreement
• Privacy Policy
• Copyright Information
• Intellectual Property Rights

Become Affiliate Advertise with us

Unlimited downloads.

13,249 Premium Members joined us

Added Today

1) Share the above link 2) The invitee registers via the link 3) Both of you get 3 downloads for ALL CATEGORIES

Upgrade to our Premium Plan for unlimited downloads.

Free downloads unlocked

You've unlocked Today's Free Downloads. Check it out in your account and make sure to use it

Add shortcut to your desktop. Easily get back to Pikbest !

Members can access discounts and special features

Elektrostal, visit elektrostal, check elektrostal hotel availability, popular places to visit.

• Electrostal History and Art Museum

You can spend time exploring the galleries in Electrostal History and Art Museum in Elektrostal. Take in the museums while you're in the area.

• Cities near Elektrostal

• Places of interest
• Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
• Peter the Great Military Academy
• Central Museum of the Air Forces at Monino
• History of Russian Scarfs and Shawls Museum
• Ramenskii History and Art Museum
• Balashikha Museum of History and Local Lore
• Pekhorka Park
• Balashikha Arena
• Military Technical Museum
• Church of Our Lady of Kazan
• Drama Theatre BOOM
• Bykovo Manor
• Malenky Puppet Theater
• Fryazino Centre for Culture and Leisure
• Pavlovsky Posad Museum of Art and History
• Saturn Stadium
• Borisoglebsky Sports Palace
• Church of Vladimir
• Likino Dulevo Museum of Local Lore
• Orekhovo Zuevsky City Exhibition Hall
• Noginsk Museum and Exhibition Center
• Shirokov House
• Zheleznodorozhny Museum of Local Lore
• Stella Municipal Drama Theater
• Fairy Tale Children's Model Puppet Theater
• Fifth House Gallery
• Malakhovka Museum of History and Culture
• Art Gallery of The City District

Explore Elektrostal

Essential elektrostal.

Elektrostal Is Great For

Eat & drink.

• Apelsin Hotel
• Elektrostal Hotel
• Apart Hotel Yantar
• Mini Hotel Banifatsiy
• Restaurant Globus
• Amsterdam Moments
• Cafe Antresole
• Viki Cinema
• Statue of Lenin
• Park of Culture and Leisure

Why Traveling Around Africa Is Difficult for Africans

I was scrolling on social media when a post caught my eye. Green Ranger Safaris , a travel company I'd never heard of, was organizing a road trip through seven African countries. This trip would start in Nairobi, Kenya, then head down into Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana. The pricing was reasonable, so I paid a deposit, brushing aside concerns about both spending weeks on end with a group of strangers and the slight chance that the trip might have been an excellently worded scam.

A few months later, in August, I was on a truck with those strangers. It was late in the evening, and we swept through the Kalahari Desert in northern Botswana, the sun in the sky a flaming orb, the only visible life on the sand of the desert being the shrubs, the wild horses, and the herds of elephants. Music swirled from the truck's speakers, a mishmash of popular Kenyan songs from the turn of the century and Nigerian megahits. The countries we were traveling to had been chosen mostly because they were all English-speaking and provided visa-free travel to Kenyans, so the border crossings were simple, with clearances for the trucks, stamps for our passports and, in Botswana, disinfectant for our shoes.

Talk among the passengers was already turning toward doing similar trips in other parts of Africa. One suggested starting in Namibia, sweeping down along the coast into South Africa, moving through the megacities there, then traveling to Lesotho and Eswatini before entering Mozambique. Another pitched a West Africa trip. It all sounded exciting. Everything was possible. But then another passenger brought up Niger, where a coup had just led to the country's closure of its borders. What would happen if a person took a West Africa road trip and then there was a coup? Would the passenger have to stay there and never go home? We laughed at the absurdity. But behind the laughter was real heartache. Because the reality is that any African traveler has thought about the difficulty of traveling as an African.

My mother was a traveler, and when she traveled for work, my brothers and I would travel in Kenya with her. Then, when I was older, the expanse of my travel grew larger: First I traveled around Kenya, then around East Africa. Now I have a desire to explore the continent, to explore versions of myself in other countries in Africa, home to some of the most humbling and impressive landscapes and vistas in the world: to the largest freestanding mountain on earth (Kilimanjaro); to the largest hot desert in the world (Sahara); to thundering waterfalls twice as wide and deep as Niagara (Victoria); to sparkling white-sand beaches; to UNESCO-listed nature reserves; to cities whose histories stretch back through millennia; and to award-winning wine regions. But I find myself marooned before the bank of difficulties other African travelers face.

A few months after my Green Ranger trip, I spoke to Anneli Douglas, an academic at the University of Pretoria in South Africa who has studied travel in Africa. She pointed out how much easier it is for Western visitors to get visas for Africa than it is for African travelers to visit their countries. "Sometimes, travelers have to travel long distances to apply for a visa, or there might not even be representation of the destination country in the home country, making it difficult to obtain a visa at all," she says. "Also, for Western countries, the cost to obtain a visa to Africa is much cheaper than what it is for Africans-considering the value of the local currency."

In places like Kenya, African destinations are rarely marketed to would-be travelers. Instead, there is a surfeit of packages offering holiday trips in destinations like Dubai, Bangkok, and Istanbul, because it is not only easier but also often cheaper to organize trips to these places than it is to organize trips within the continent. Even when visas are relatively easily attainable, travel from one African country to another is rife with difficulties. Sam Maundu, a Nairobi-based tour operator who runs Rosolo Safaris , which organizes trips around Africa, had no shortage of factors ready when I asked what these difficulties are: "Language barriers, visa restrictions, expensive flights, African destinations not targeting Africans to visit, long distances to be covered either by road or by flight since there are often no direct flights, security situations in some places, perception that there is nothing to see in other African countries, harassment by border officials."

One of the lingering effects of colonialism on the continent is that interaction between African countries tends to exist along mostly colonial lines: There are the former Portuguese colonies, the former British colonies, the former French colonies. Passport holders from Kenya, which was colonized by Britain, are mostly able to go to former British colonies visa-free or with visa-on-arrival status. This means that for a person planning a trip, it becomes easier to think of traveling to these countries. On our multiple-country road trip, the travelers were mostly holders of Kenyan and Ugandan passports (Uganda, another former British colony), and so the countries that the trucks went to were all-except for Namibia-former vestiges of the British Empire. This shared history meant also that because all these countries have English as an official language, it would be relatively easy for us travelers to communicate with people there.

Samuel Agblorti is a lecturer at the Centre for Mixed Migration and Diaspora Studies of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. I ask him about about a hypothetical trip from Cameroon to Senegal, across a region where multiple coups have happened in recent years. Safety concerns rising from these events had further entrenched visa restrictions across Africa. "Because our borders aren't very well protected, there is a fear that allowing too many visitors will make it unsafe," Agblorti tells me. But even getting those visitors has been a problem.

In 2016, the African Union announced plans for an AU passport to be rolled out by 2020. This passport would open travel across the continent, as more African citizens wouldn't need visas to travel to other African countries. However, more than seven years later, the passport hasn't been launched, stymied by a mixture of security concerns and protectionist attitudes among African states. (The AU remains silent on when and if the passport will be launched.) Still, Agblorti says such a passport would not necessarily be the panacea that its supporters think it would be as it wouldn't automatically lead to visa-free travel without individual states implementing it. He gave the example of regional blocs such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), whose membership comprises 15 West African states whose citizens hold ECOWAS passports. "Even within ECOWAS, there are protocols that member countries are supposed to adhere to, but some of them don't," he says. "You may have a common passport, but if the countries don't make extra commitments, then it doesn't matter."

Thus far, only a handful of African countries have committed to allowing African visitors to visit without a visa: Gambia, Benin, and Seychelles; Rwanda has announced plans to implement this. On a small scale, then, African visitors to these countries will experience the promise of the AU passport-if it does indeed come to fruition.

Most recently, in December 2023, rather than introduce the visa-free status its president had promised , Kenya announced that it would require an electronic travel authorization (ETA) , to increase revenue from visitors seeking to enter Kenya. Visa-free entry was scrapped for all but five other East African countries, and new travel requirements and fees were introduced for countries whose citizens had previously enjoyed visa-free travel into Kenya. To some, the doors of entry-rather than being flung open-were being closed even tighter.

Another issue is how expensive it is to travel in Africa. According to a 2013 World Bank report , airfare within Africa is roughly 50 percent more expensive than airfare in comparable locations worldwide. Flights from one African country to the other tend to be much more expensive than flights from Africa to Europe and Asia, despite logic that the shorter the distance, the cheaper the flight ought to be. This means, in effect, that a traveler from Kampala, Uganda, would find it more affordable, and therefore more attractive, to fly to Dubai than to Maputo, Mozambique, despite the latter being much closer than the UAE.

Tour operator Maundu told me that this makes it difficult for him to suggest to his clients travel packages that involve other African destinations: Often, it means the cost of the round-trip air tickets more than doubles the cost of the entire travel package. And there aren't always reliable road or rail options that offer alternative transport to travelers. Most leisure travelers can't move directly by rail from Kenya to South Africa (there is a luxury train network between Tanzania and South Africa that costs $19,000), while in most other regions of the continent, not only are there no multicountry rail options, but also existing bus networks rely on terrible roads.

The irregularity or non-availability of intra-regional air connections and of internal air transport also constrains access to internal destinations and prevents progress with multicountry tourism packages, Maundu says. Also, tax rates per passenger in Africa are more expensive than they are on other continents: The total tax per passenger is about $64, compared to $30.23 in Europe and $29.65 in the Middle East. This is exacerbated by the lack of a single unified aviation market, whose absence means that fares and tax rates swing with volatility across different parts of the continent.

Rather than negotiate with one central body, airlines operating in Africa deal with individual countries, which each usually have different rates and requirements for entry. In Europe, for instance, the establishment of the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) in 2006 decreased airfares across Europe by making possible the rise of a fleet of low-cost airlines, and at the same time increased the volume of flights within European airports. In this vein, there have been attempts to establish a single aviation market in Africa. The most recent of these attempts is the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). Announced in 2018 , the SAATM so far has signed on 34 countries. However, like the AU passport before it, the SAATM has not been implemented, and so it remains nothing but an idea.

In the meantime, African travelers continue to dream. Travel plans continue to be made. Potential destinations continue to be talked about. At the end of our seven-country road trip, as we headed back to Kenya, we spoke again about organizing future trips together, our group of strangers now bonded as friends. Some people discussed taking a trip to Uganda over the next month. Others talked about heading across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. In Lusaka, Zambia, where the first batch of travelers would leave us to fly back to Nairobi, weepy goodbyes were made. "We are family," one of them said.