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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[redlancer]

Everybody who is thinking of going to Prague for the worlds this year should be paying attention to the recent slapping of Visas on Czech citizens by Canada.  This is highly likely to incur retaliatory visas from the Czech Republic.

Past Visas were around $50 and you needed to send your passport to Ottawa if you didn't do it in another country's capital.  The processing time was normally 4 days.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090714/visas_immigration_090714/20090714?hub=TopStories

[Kripple]

I was thinking the same thing, but saw a news article today (sorry no link) that seemed to mitigate that risk. But I would still monitor the situation, because it can really suck to get caught by surprise. I know from personal experience.

In 2000 I was travelling to Budapest from Dresden, and was to change trains in Prague. I was kicked off the train at the German/Czech border because I was a Canadian with no visa. All the noisy Americans with no visa got through Czech, but not I. A real WTF moment, cuz I had travelled to Prague on that same route 5 years before without a visa.

Turns out that the Czech govt had imposed retaliatory visa restrictions on Canadians because of our restrictive visa requirements on Czechs (as well as Slovakians) only a month before. I had not expected this and was caught completely off guard. It could have been a pretty expensive and horrible experience, except that I was able to return to a friend's place in Dresden. In the end it was an interesting story.

Anyhow, today's news article (CBC, I think) said that because Czech is now part of the European Union, it cannot impose visa restrictions on a country that other EU nations allow without visas. In other words, because Germany, France, England and the other EU nations don't require Canadians to have visas, Czech cannot impose visa restrictions. So that's good news for our Prague crews.

However, travellers to Czech should still monitor the situation in case the Czechs decide to impose restrictions anyhow. It ain't any fun being kicked off the train in a deserted railway station in a tiny eastern European border town in the dead of night.

[Kripple]

Here's CBC article on the topic:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/07/14/czech-visas-mexico.html

...as a member of the EU, the Czech Republic can't unilaterally impose a visa requirement on Canadians, according to...

However, you should watch this closely if you're going to Prague...

[threesea]

I heard the Czech goverment was thinking about applying for a EU wide visa restriction.