Endangered Visas

Canadian, EU, Japanese, Israeli, US Citizens can Travel to Georgia Visa-free

The Georgian Parliament passed with its third and final hearing decision to lift visa requirements for the citizens of the United States, Canada, Japan, Israel and the EU member states, which plan to stay in Georgia for less than three months.

Georgian government announced its intention to do so in April, saying that the unilateral decision is an expression of Georgia’s good will. The government hopes simplified visa regime would help attract tourists and would liven up business exchanges with mentioned countries.

As an avid traveler, I always applaud visa free travel to countries of interest however I must bemoan the ever decreasing amount and quality of stamps and visas. Having already had to order additional pages in my passport, I as most treasure my collection of stamps, stickers and visas. Yet, with the rise of the EU, many eastern European species of stamp have gone from the endangered species list to the extinct list.

Here is a comparison shot between the original Estonian stamp from 2000 and one from my latest trip to there in 2004. As anyone who’s traveled in Europe knows, it now looks exactly like ~25 others.