PASSPORTS AND VISAS 101

UPDATED November 26, 2022 (Please see information below under "Other things to consider")

The city of Orlando, located in the Central Florida region of the United States and known as “the City Beautiful”, is ranked as America’s 23rd most-populous city.  The Orlando metropolitan area includes various cities and towns such as Kissimmee, Sanford, Winter Garden, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, and Apopka.  The metro area has a population of 2.6 million people and is home to several theme parks including Walt Disney World, SeaWorld, and Universal Studios.  Orlando’s theme parks, natural attractions, and year-round warm weather make it one of the most-visited cities in the world.  Tourists are also drawn to the area’s outlet shopping malls, which is a popular destination for international visitors, especially those traveling from Philippines (who are no strangers to the mall!).  There are an estimated 140,000 Filipinos living in the state of Florida and 20,000 Filipinos in Central Florida.  Orlando is home to nearly a dozen Filipino restaurants and grocery stores, giving American people planning a trip to Philippines an opporuntity to try Pinoy food before they start their journey.  Orlando may soon have its first Jollibee, a fast-food franchise based in Philippines that offers unique menu items such as adobo rice, pancit palabok, pork sausage, corned beef, peach mango pie, and halo-halo.

UPDATED November 26, 2022 (Please see information below under "Other things to consider")

The Greater Miami Area is the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the United States and has a population of 6.2 million people.  The metropolitan area is composed of Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County.  Its main cities include Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Miami Gardens, Miramar, Homestead, Davie, Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, and Boca Raton.  This is a diverse community where 40% of the population was born in another country, and it is one of America’s most important cities for international trade.  Miami is a business hub for the Latin American region and is often thought of as the unofficial “Capital of Latin America”.  The city is also considered the “Cruise Capital of the World” and is the headquarters of several cruise line companies.  Filipinos are an important source of labor for the cruise industry, making up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers.  Although the population of Filipinos in South Florida is relatively low compared to other major American cities, there are still nearly a dozen Filipino restaurants and grocery stores in Miami due to the preponderance of Filipinos in the cruise industry.  This makes Miami a great city for local American people to sample chicken adobo, chop suey, pancit, lechon, pinakbet, and fried lumpia.

UPDATED November 26, 2022 (Please see information below under "Other things to consider")

Atlanta has a population of over 6 million people, making it the 9th most populous metropolitan area in the United States.  Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, which is the 8th most populous of the 50 states.  The city and surrounding area—known as the Atlanta metropolitan area—is also the commercial capital of the Southeast United States and has the third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country.  The metropolitan area includes the municipalities of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Chamblee, Roswell, Alpharetta, Marietta, Duluth, Norcross, Tucker, Lithonia, Decatur, Mableton, Clarkston, Conyers, and others.  Atlanta is a diverse and international city with an estimated population of 15,000 Filipino citizens and about 45,000 Filipino Americans.  Filipinos have been in Atlanta for decades working in the healthcare industry but nowadays also work in various other fields throughout corporate America doing office administration, accounting, engineering, and computer science.  Atlanta is home to the Filipino American Association of Greater Atlanta and the Atlanta Filipino Student Association.  Atlanta even has a Filipino grocery store (Manila Mart in Doraville) with imported products from the Philippines and a Filipino restaurant (Estrellita in Grant Park) and a few pop-up restaurants.

UPDATED September 21, 2022 (Please see message below regarding COVID-19 Restrictions)

Charlotte is the 23rd-most populous city in the United States and is the most populous city in the state of North Carolina.  The Charlotte metropolitan area is a sixteen-county region that stretches into the state of South Carolina and includes the towns of Concord, Gastonia, Huntersville, Kannapolis, Indian Trail, Mooresville, Monroe, Salisbury, Matthews, Statesville, Rock Hill (SC), and Fort Mill (SC).  Known as the Queen City, this metropolis of 2.6 million people has been one of the country’s fastest-growing cities the past two decades.  Charlotte’s youthful population, low cost of living, and geographic location in America’s Sun Belt, have made it an attractive destination for business investment.  The Interstate 85 corridor stretching from Atlanta to Charlotte has attracted investment from industrial companies from all over the world, including those from Japan.  The state of North Carolina has nearly 300 Japanese-affiliated firms and employs thousands of Americans.  There are about 1,000 Japanese living in the Charlotte area and the city is home to the Japanese Association in Charlotte, an organization that hosts annual events such as the Bon Odori Festival.   The city is also home to the Japanese Language School in Charlotte and UNC Charlotte offers a bachelor’s degree in Japanese Studies.

UPDATED September 21, 2022 (Please see message below regarding COVID-19 Restrictions)

Atlanta has a population of over 6 million people, making it the 9th most populous metropolitan area in the United States.  Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, which is the 8th most populous of the 50 states.  The city and surrounding area—known as the Atlanta metropolitan area—is also the commercial capital of the Southeast United States and has the third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country.  The metropolitan area includes the municipalities of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Chamblee, Roswell, Alpharetta, Marietta, Duluth, Norcross, Tucker, Lithonia, Decatur, Mableton, Clarkston, Conyers, and others.  Atlanta is a diverse and international city that is home to about 7,000 Japanese, many of whom are highly skilled professionals working as executives for Japanese companies or working in an academic capacity at one of Atlanta’s 57 colleges and universities.  The Atlanta area and the state of Georgia have hundreds of Japanese companies doing business here, and there are at least 50 Georgia companies with operations in Japan.  Delta Airlines offers daily nonstop service from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Tokyo Haneda Airport.  Americans in Atlanta interested in learning more about Japan can makes plans to visit the annual JapanFest in Duluth.

Greater Boston is the eleventh-most populous metropolitan area in the United States with a population of 4.9 million people, and includes towns such as Cambridge, Brookline, Quincy, Brockton, Lynn, Newton, Waltham, and Medford.  Boston is one of America’s oldest cities and has a rich history that attracts over 20 million tourists each year.  Known as the “intellectual capital of the United States”, Boston is a center of education that has more than 350,000 college students from around the world, including international students from Zambia.  Boston University has one of the oldest and largest African Studies programs in the country and the African Language Program at Harvard offers training in dozens of languages including Bemba, an indigenous language spoken in Zambia.  Although the population of Zambians in the Boston area is small, the community is large enough to form its own organization called the Zambia Association of New England, which hosts annuals events and celebrations.  As one of America’s leading cities for medical research and academia, Boston has several hospitals and universities that provide education and healthcare services to the people of Zambia.  Boston is also home to organizations like MIT D-Lab that send engineers to Zambia to tackle poverty challenges. 

Philadelphia is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania and is one of the oldest cities in the United States.  Founded in 1682 by Englishman William Penn, a social reformer and champion of liberty, he named the city Philadelphia using the Greek term meaning “brotherly love”.  Philadelphia has the nickname “City of Brotherly Love” and is nowadays more casually known by locals and non-locals alike as “Philly”.  The Philadelphia metropolitan area has over 6 million people and includes cities and towns in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in addition to Pennsylvania.  The area is well known as a center of higher education and has more than 80 postsecondary institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Drexel, Villanova, and Thomas Jefferson University.  Philadelphia does not have a particularly large population of Zambian immigrants, however, the city does have connections to Zambia through its hospitals, universities, charitable organizations and church groups that make trips to the country.  University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Language Center is one of the few schools in the United States to teach Nyanja, a language spoken in Zambia.  Philadelphia is also home to professional golfer Vincent Kabaso, the first Zambian PGA member.

Los Angeles is America’s second most populous city after New York.  Greater Los Angeles—which includes Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, Ventura County, and Orange County—has a population of nearly 19 million people.  If Greater Los Angeles were its own country, it would be the 15th largest economy in the world (its GDP is slightly less than the GDP of Indonesia).  Known for its endless sprawl, Greater Los Angeles is the largest metropolitan region in the United States by land area and includes over 200 cities such as Santa Monica, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Burbank, Long Beach, Carson, Irvine, Anaheim, and Inglewood.  Los Angeles is one of the most multicultural cities on the planet and attracts people from all over the world, including immigrants from Sub-Saharan African and the country of Zambia.  The population of Zambians in Los Angeles is not huge, however, the city does have an honorary consulate that works with the embassy to promote trade and investment between our two countries in the manufacturing, agriculture, tourism and healthcare sectors.  Lusaka, Zambia’s capital and commercial center of the country, has a sister city agreement with Los Angeles that dates back to 1968. 

A growing number of foreigners are moving to Thailand so they can work in a year-round tropical paradise that provides all the contemporary comforts of the West.

The Kingdom of Thailand offers lush jungles, sandy beaches, colorful Buddhist temples, and spicy, aromatic cuisine. Modern infrastructure, stylish hotels, and well-regarded international schools also distinguish the South Asian kingdom. The quality of Thai healthcare services regularly rank it among the top 10 countries in the world, enabling the medical tourism sector to draw visitors from both hemispheres.  

The city of Dallas and the surrounding metropolitan area is the most populous metropolis in the southern United States and fourth-most populous in the country.  The Dallas metropolitan area—known as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, or DFW by local residents—has a population of 7.6 million people and includes the cities of Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Garland, Richardson, Frisco, Mesquite, Denton, Grand Prairie, and McKinney.  The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, located in North Texas, is one of the fastest growing regions in the country thanks to its low cost of living, low taxes, abundance of resources, and ease of doing business.  Dallas has the second-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the United States and there is a long list of companies that have been relocating to the area from other parts of the country.  Dallas has a growing population of immigrants, including those from Sub-Saharan Africa and the nation of Zambia.  The city is home to the Association of Zambians in Dallas-Fort Worth, a nonprofit organization that caters to the needs of Zambians and hosts events such dinner parties, business expos, and Independence Day celebrations.  Dallas also has several Christian ministries and nonprofit organizations providing services in Zambia.