After the current WBC lightweight boxing champion Edwin Valero had been denied a work visa back in September, 2009, he finally fought away from the United States in Venezuela on Saturday, December 19.
Spanish-language magazine Boxeo Mundial recently reported that Valero believed his U.S. visa denial was related to his sympathy with President Hugo Chávez, a fierce critic of U.S. government. Valero has an image of Chávez tattooed on his chest along with a Venezuelan flag (see photo). Other reports dispute this, pointing to Valero’s driving-under-the-influence of alcohol (DUI) charge in the United States earlier this year.
It came as a shock last week to discover that Malaysians may have to pay RM1,200 (Ringgit Malaysia) for a visa to Britain. Sunday Star lists some of the other countries that impose the visa rule.
The United States:
To travel to the US, you have to pay a non-refundable visa fee of US$131 (fixed at RM460 equivalent) and a service fee of RM32 [only in Malaysia]. Travellers are also required to find the proper visa classification for their US stay based on their purpose of travel in order to ensure smooth entry. There are 11 categories including Business, Pleasure, Internship and Media. A visa waiver programme is available for emergency or transit reasons. The programme also allows citizens of 35 countries to travel to the US for business or pleasure for stays of not more than 90 days. Unfortunately, Malaysia is not one of those countries.
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Robert Downey Jr.: “I probably should have seen there was a sign that said ‘No Felons Allowed’. That was in English and Japanese, and I haven’t had that expunged yet. You can actually get things expunged, but I’ve been pretty busy. I was detained, I was interrogated. God, it was a blast.” When Letterman asked, “Haven’t you kind of settled up, sort of ‘paid your debts’ to whatever that was, to whoever…” Downey Jr. cracked another joke: “Clearly I haven’t paid my debts to Japan.”
On December 14, 2009, the Department of State published a proposed rule to increase the nonimmigrant visa application processing fees. The proposed rule also establishes a tiered structure with separate fees for different visa categories. The Department is proposing the increase to cover the increasing cost of processing nonimmigrant visas. This increase applies to nonimmigrant visas placed in passports. Japan nationals seeking to enter the US now pay the US$131 (~¥11,750) application fee like all other applicants around the world, with no guarantees of actually getting the visas.
2009年12月14日、アメリカ政府は、非移民ビザの申請手数料の値上げの概要を発表した。また、この中では、異なるビザごとに異なる申請手数料を規定することが述べられている。