Traveling the World on a Third World Passport

What is it like?

Europe does not make it easy for us to travel to their continent, in contrast to them coming to us. The entire process takes at least 2 weeks to a month, from us calling to book a time slot, which can be fully booked up to 2 weeks, to us picking up the passport, which can take 3 days to a month from the day we apply.

Planning a Trip

Planning for a trip for people with a first-world passport can simply involve buying a plane ticket and showing up on time. However, for us, it requires extensive planning weeks in advance.

For Europe, first, we would have to find the embassy to apply, read up on their document requirements, and follow the list to a tee. The documents involved usually include a valid return flight ticket, all the accommodation booking details for the entire stay, an itinerary of the entire trip, a 3-month bank statement with cash movement (to prove that it is your money), a letter from work proving that you have something to return to, a non-refundable fee from 50 - 200 USD, and many more. If anything is missing from the documents, we would be rejected outright, and we would have to make an appointment again.

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As you can see, going somewhere with a third-world passport requires extensive research and careful planning that hinder us from exploring the world as freely as those with other types of passports.

Traveling on a Whim

People often wonder why we, third-world passport holders, don't travel on a whim. The answer is simple: we can't. Our passport just doesn't allow for the type of backpacking trip that goes on for months and months around the world without a return ticket. Even with countries that are visa-free for us, we sometimes get rejected if we do not have a return or onward ticket.

Depending on the countries we are visiting, we are also forced to remain tied to our home country because some visa applications require us to apply from our home country.

For example, I cannot travel in Turkey for a few months and apply for a European visa in Istanbul to continue my journey to Europe. I have to return to Thailand to obtain the visa and fly back to Europe, which doubles the cost for us. Since we are not from a very wealthy country, we can only afford to do this a limited number of times.

What do we get?

For most first-world passport holders, when you get a visa or are exempted from one, you are often given a maximum fixed period of time you can stay in a country, such as 90 days in Europe or Thailand, along with multiple entries. However, for us, it is not as simple.

With a third-world passport, often times the duration we receive is considerably less than that of our first-world counterpart. Europe is the worst at this because they will only give us the duration and entry that is shown on our submitted itinerary.

If we apply for a Schengen visa with a 10-day itinerary involving countries in the Schengen zone, instead of getting the maximum 90-day period like other passport holders, they would only give us an 11-day single-entry visa, which leaves us no room for flexibility.

Imagine if we wanted to backpack through Europe for 3 months. We would have to book 90 days of accommodation, print them all out, and submit them to the embassy every time. Even with that, we wouldn't be able to leave the Schengen zone, for example, for a small spontaneous trip to Croatia, and get back into the Schengen area because that would be considered multi-entry.

As you can see, it is not all flowers and sunshine even after we have obtained the visa.

How I Travel the World With a Third World Passport?

Even though that sounds grim, I can confidently say that it is not impossible for us to travel the world like a first-world passport holder if we know our way around our passport weaknesses. There are many world travelers out there with a third-world passport (Aileen from IAmAileen.com, Melai from LovedandWanderlust.com) who constantly push the limits of what is possible for us.

Research and Preparation

It all comes down to doing your homework before a trip. First, I would see which countries have exempted my passport, and I would try to stick to that area first. If I came across a country that requires me to get a visa prior to the trip, then I would go to their website and look at the visa application requirements one by one.

The key is to do enough research so that you have an itinerary on which to base your trip. You don't have to follow the itinerary to a tee, but it is good to know which countries you can go to and which ones you cannot without a visa in order to prevent disappointment.

For example, when I first planned my trip to the Middle East, I wanted to go to Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey for 3 months. I found out early on that I would need a visa for Egypt prior to traveling, and none were needed for the other 2. So, I went and got my Egypt visa beforehand. I was also looking at neighboring countries like Georgia and Armenia in case I had spare time, which I did, and I was prepared for it.

As you can see, you can travel the world with a third-world passport, enjoying the flexibility similar to that of a first-world passport, if you conduct thorough research.

Paperwork for Visa

After you have done your homework, it's time to do the boring part: the paperwork. The key here is to prove to the embassy that you have the means to return to your home country. They put this rule in place to prevent us from going to their countries and working illegally, and we will have to prove that that is not the case.

More often than not, the embassy will require you to provide several documents about your itineraries, such as flights, accommodation, and day-to-day itinerary. Here is a list of things you are often asked to prepare:

• Filled-in Application Form First Name: John Last Name: Smith Date of Birth: 01/15/1990 Address: 123 Main Street City: Anytown State: California Zip Code: 12345 Phone Number: (123) 456-7890 Email Address: johnsmith@email.com Please review the information above and make sure it is accurate. If there are any errors or missing information, please contact us as soon as possible. Thank you for your attention to detail.
• A Copy of Passport
• 2 x photos with specific requirements In order to meet the specific requirements, two photos are needed.
• A confirmed return flight ticket.
• Proof of booked accommodation Dear [Guest Name], We are writing to confirm your booking for accommodation at our hotel. Your reservation details are as follows: - Check-in date: [Date] - Check-out date: [Date] - Room type: [Room Type] - Number of guests: [Number of Guests] Please note that your booking is confirmed and guaranteed. If you have any changes to your reservation or if you need any further assistance, please feel free to contact our customer service team at [Phone Number] or [Email Address]. We look forward to welcoming you to our hotel and ensuring you have a comfortable and enjoyable stay. Thank you for choosing our accommodation. Best regards, [Hotel Name]
• Travel Health Insurance is essential for anyone planning to travel abroad. It provides coverage for medical expenses that may arise during your trip. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, having travel health insurance can give you peace of mind knowing that you are protected in case of any unforeseen medical emergencies. It is important to carefully review the policy and understand the coverage limits, deductibles, and exclusions before purchasing travel health insurance. In addition, make sure to carry your insurance card and policy details with you at all times while traveling.
• A day-to-day itinerary
• 3 months' bank statement
• Proof of employment, or a letter explaining what you do and how you earn money.

The application form is often found on the embassy website where you can fill it out online, print it, and attach it with a copy of your passport, 2 photos, and all the other documents listed above.

I often book a flight in advance that would give me enough time for the visa process (a month prior), and often, I would buy at full price so that I could get a full refund if need be. Be sure to look at the airline's refund policy so that you can choose the right type of ticket.

For a day-to-day itinerary, I would often come up with a plan that I would loosely stick to and write it in the format shown below:

[Arrival Date] – [Departure Date]: Travel to [City], [Country] via [Bus or Train or Airline] and [a brief activity]

Here is an example of the itinerary I wrote for my Europe trip:

Jan 22, 2018: Flight from Bangkok to Warsaw, Poland via Qatar Airline

Jan 22, 2018 – Feb 12, 2018: Warsaw, Poland and travel around the city..

For the accommodation, I often go on Booking.com to book the accommodation for the entire time I plan to be traveling based on the day-to-day itinerary I come up with. I print the email confirmation and make sure that the dates on the booking confirmation emails add up to the exact amount of time I want to be there. Booking.com is great for this because they allow you to cancel the booking for free if needed.

For the proof of employment, you can ask your employer to provide an employment letter with your job title, the date you started, and a signature of an authorized personnel in your company.

If you are like me and do not have an employer, you will have to write your own letter explaining in detail what you do, who your client is, and how much money you are making per month. If you have any business websites to show, capture screenshots and print them out as well. The good thing is that once you have written one freelance letter for an application, you can reuse it forever.

Last but not least, the bank statement. This is by far one of the most important documents you will have to carefully prepare. One of the criteria they use to approve or reject people is the amount of money you have.

You must have enough money in your bank account to cover the entire trip, and the bank statement will have to show an active bank account with money coming in and out regularly in the last 3 months. This is to prevent people from asking others to temporarily transfer the money to the account just for the visa process.

From my experience, if you have around 2,000 USD in your account for a 3-month trip in Europe, that should be enough to prove that you can cover all the costs. However, the value varies considerably depending on your duration, the embassy to which you are applying, and how expensive that country is. So, prepare accordingly.

Apply Process

The process of applying for a visa varies depending on the embassy, but for the most part, you will have to make an appointment with the embassy in your home country, prepare all your documents according to their requirements on their website, and organize them in the order they recommend.

If there is no embassy in your home country, then you can apply for it in any country that has one.

Once all the documents are ready, you will have to go to the embassy at the time slot you were assigned and give them all your documents. They may ask you a few questions about your trip, so answer them truthfully, and the process should go smoothly.

They will usually inform you of when you will receive the result, so all you have to do now is wait until they call you and tell you when you can come and pick up the result. You won't know the result until you pick it up, so don't bother asking the person who called you.

Getting Rejected

Getting rejected is a common occurrence for us. I was lucky enough to only get rejected once, but many people often do, and all we can do is observe what went wrong and try again. There are many factors that could affect the outcome of a visa process, and more often than not, it boils down to either not providing enough proof of our return or the bank statement not meeting their requirements.

The key is to never give up and keep trying. You just need to know what the embassy is looking for in your application and try to prepare enough documents to reinforce it. When it comes to applying for a visa, it is always better to be over prepared than underprepared.

I hope this guide helps shed light on how lucky it is to be a first-world passport holder, the situation us third-world passport holders have to deal with, and how we can overcome the limits of our passport and travel the world freely. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me in the comments below.

Further Reading for Inspiration

Looking for more articles to help inspire you to travel more? Here are a collection of articles you might like:

• Hiking to the Everest Base Camp is one of the most memorable epic moments of my life. Here's a long-read piece about my experiences hiking the Everest Base Camp: On My Way To Everest Base Camp.
• Here's why I always celebrate turning a year older with a hike: Climbing Kilimanjaro On My 33rd Birthday.
• Are you currently planning a trip around the world and looking for cheap countries to visit? Here are the 13 Cheapest Countries To Visit in the World.
• Traveling in Europe can be cheap, really cheap. These are the 12 Cheap European Countries to Visit.
• Looking for the most beautiful travel blogs to follow? Here are the 23 Most Beautiful Travel Blogs to Follow.
• For adventurers and backpackers out there, here are the 10 Best Adventure and Backpacking Blogs You Should Follow.
• I truly believe that we need more Asian representatives in the English-speaking travel blogging industry, especially for blogs about Asia. Here are the Top 10 Kick-Ass Asian Travel Bloggers To Follow.
• Did you know that you can travel without leaving your couch? Here are the 8 Great Travel Books You Should Read.
• For the best travel videos to inspire you to travel even further, here are the 20 Most Creative Travel Videos of All Time.
• If you are looking for travel vloggers to follow on YouTube that aren't cringeworthy, check out: 10 Best Travel Vloggers to Follow On YouTube.
• The best way to improve your photography skills is to learn from the best. Here are the 10 Best Photography YouTube Channels to Follow.
• A photo is worth a thousand words. Here are the 25 Most Beautiful Travel Photos I Ever Took From Around The World.
• Ever wondered what it is like to be a travel blogger during COVID-19? Check out: Being A Travel Blogger During COVID-19 - What Is It Like?
• Stuck at home and not sure what to do? Here are the 10 Best Things to Do When You Are Bored in Lockdown.
• Looking for off-the-beaten-path destinations to visit this year? Check out: 8 Best Off-The-Beaten-Path Destination to Visit.
• Can't travel internationally for the time being? How about traveling in your own country? Here are the 7 Reasons Why You Should Travel in Your Own Country.
• To find the most inspirational travel quotes and captions to go with your photos on your Instagram, check out 34 Short and Unique Traveller Quotes for Instagram.
• We often hear bad stories about locals from travelers, but what about the other way around? Here are some of the Notorious Stories Of Terrible Backpackers.
• If you lost your bag while you were traveling, here is how to deal with the situation: My Bag Was Stolen In Germany.
• Have you ever felt that you do not belong in a place where you were born? Read this: Where Is Home? - My Quest In Search Of Where I Belong.
• People often preach about how important it is to live in the moment, but sometimes, that may not be such a good idea. Here is The Problem With Living In The Moment.
• Solo traveling is not for everyone, and even though I love it to death, it is not always flowers and sunshine for solo travelers. Here are the 10 Things I Hate Most When Traveling Solo.
• Travel friends come and go, but that may not be such a bad thing. Here is why you should embrace your travel friends: A Life Of Brief Encounters.
• Hiking is life. Here's why: One Year Of Incredible Discomfort - 10 Things I've Learned From Climbing Mountains.
• Here's why having no plan is the best plan: Magical Things Happen When You Have Nothing To Do - The Art Of Doing Nothing.
• Is life getting you down? Here's why you can't always blame life for everything: Life Doesn't Suck. We Just Suck At Living It.
• Want to know why I chose to travel alone? Read this: We Travel Alone, NOT To Be Alone.
• For a meaningful solo trip, you need to share it with someone. Here is why Happiness Is Only Real When Shared.
• Traveling is no longer for the rich. Here is why: "People Think I'm Rich".
• The Himalayan Mountain is one hell of a teacher. Here are the 7 Life Lessons The Himalayas Taught Me.
• Want to travel alone, but scared that you might get bored out of your mind? Here is How To Enjoy Yourself And Have Fun While Traveling Alone.
• Want to start traveling solo as well? Here is What It's Like to Travel Alone.
• Here is a simple story on how I started traveling: F*ck It, I'll Do This Alone.
• For more inspiring articles like this, visit my Inspiration page.