Travelling and exploring the world is a popular pastime, but a visa will be required to visit most countries. These can either be granted on arrival or need to be applied for in advance. The visa process enables governments to control who comes into their countries and is used to ensure safe and legal travel. Anyone looking to travel to a new country can apply for a visa that suits their needs. Each country has unique criteria and processes, from temporary tourist and work permits to permanent residency visas. But have you ever wondered where visas started and how they came to be the sticker or stamp in the passport that we recognise today?
Why is it Called a Visa?
Visa is a term taken from Latin, specifically ‘charta visa’, which translates to ‘paper that has to be seen’ or more directly verified paper. Simply put, it was a separate document that a traveller needed to have, alongside their passport, to confirm that the host country was happy for them to enter. In this modern age, it is now more common for the visa to be integrated into the passport, but failure to apply, obtain and comply with visa requirements can still land you in a lot of trouble.
Travel Documentation BC and AD
The first historical reference suggesting the need for travel documentation is found in 420BC, with the Hebrew Bible stating that Nehemiah required safe travel passage into Judea while in the service of King Artaxerxes of Persia and there it mentions passport and visa. However, the first formal and confirmed account of the passport does not come until 1386, when King Henry V is said to have created them during his reign, which lasted until 1442. At that time the naming was unclear, and it is thought that the word passport actually comes from ‘passe port’, which was the signed travel documentation that King Louis XIV insisted on signing during his reign in 1643-1715.
The First World War
It was not until World War 1 that it became mandatory for any international travel to require a passport. This would very often include separate visa documentation, and this was in 1918. After the war, in 1922, there were so many refugees who lost their nationality that the League of Nations, which was located in Paris, developed the Nansen Passport. Things remained this way until 1945 when the second world war ended, and people began to migrate all over the world. From a security point of view, it was then felt that strict border control was needed. This led to both passports and visas becoming mandated travel documentation for most cases when someone wanted to travel internationally.
Today
Migration control has become a very strict business right across the globe, and now we expect to have passports and visas to enter any country. Leaving and returning to your home country requires a passport, and some countries do not want tourists, so they rarely grant permits. The penalties for non-complies include detainment and prison sentences and, in some countries, even the death penalty.