I've always been proud and grateful to be an American. I grew up admiring the spirit of America and the rights of privileges of being a US citizen. I was reminded of this just yesterday.
As you know, I'm going to be taking off soon for a stint in Southeast Asia, including some time in Laos. In order to enter Laos, I need a visa. So yesterday, I took some time at lunch to apply for my visa at the Embassy of Laos. First off, the Embassy doesn't really look like an embassy but it really more of a large house/estate and isn't located on Embassy Row in Delhi (a/k/a Chanakapuri).
I arrived around 2 pm (post lunch) and waited about 15 minutes for the Embassy to open back up. Apparently, they've adopted IST as well. I gave the representative my passport, a copy of my passport and visa to be in India, two copies of my application and two visa photos. He looked at the paperwork and asked me for copies of my airline tickets. Now, I was a bit prepared for this since I had been asked for ticket copies at the Vietnam Embassy - but I explained to him that I didn't have tickets because I was flying into Thailand and then driving into Laos and out of Laos (into Vietnam) by bus. He then asked me for my tickets to Thailand. I looked at him puzzled and asked him how that would help since they were tickets to THAILAND! He pondered this a moment and then asked me for my bank statement.
WHAT? I protested. Sharply. I told him that I wasn't giving him a bank statement and that I had never been asked for one before. He said it was part of his rules - I of course asked him where this was written. As we stared each other down (and I told him that I would just wait and get a visa at the border where I wouldn't need to provide this), he looked back at my papers and said, oh, you have a US Passport, are you part Indian? are you visiting here? I told him that with that passport I was 100% American. Lo and behold, he backed down.
He advised me that for other countries (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and others) a bank account statement was required but not for the US. I assume it is because the countries want to know that their visitors have the means and desire to return to their home countries and that if you are a US citizen (and I'm assuming this is true for other European countries) that you would of course want to return. I can't imagine turning over such sensitive statement to a foreign country (with no obligation to maintain the information as confidential). It once again reminded me how grateful I am to be an American - with all of the rights and privileges that follow.
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