Immigration in Kurdistan is exemplary! No sarcasm (Erbil)

Travellers are responsible for verifying immigration policies prior to their entry to a given country, same as to their exit from the country, all related territories to this country included. Kurdistan is indeed, unfortunately, not an independent country. But it has a different, more relaxed, visa regime than Iraq. Much more expatriate-friendly and not corrupt at all; however, it’s still a distinct territory and a separate visa regime. And that has been so for many years. This should be known to anyone with a minimal general knowledge of the context and should be verified, as said, by the expatriate; a thing, that can be easily done on social media, travel sites and governmental sites. An expatriate that travels to Baghdad with an Iraqi visa and chooses to go through the papers, as said in the video, and act meticulously even on the COVID-19 test – should not miss the visa issue, even without a reliable travel agent that has issued the ticket for her/him. You enter Sinai in Egypt, Aqaba in Jordan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, Northern/Southern Cyprus from each direction, Pogradec/Albania, Mitrovica in Kosovo/Serbia, Kish/Bandar Anzali Free Trade Zones in Iran, tourists poles in the DMZ between the Koreas, Puerto Rico & few Mexican & Canadian territories vs. the US: You can exit them back to original, immediate place you came from – with the same visa you entered it, and according to the time-limits decreed in those places. However, if you wish to exit those territories to the outside world, and not to the place you came from, but to a third destination (to enter Eilat/Israel from Sweden but to return to Sweden from Aqaba/Jordan) – you have to get an exit visa, or to stay a minimum amount of nights, depends on the local immigration law. As for the lady, apparently, she’s very well connected (maybe due to the fact that she is not a 20-year old volunteer-new to the context, and having a year-long multiple entry Iraqi visa - rare, precious commodity): She managed to get into Kurdistan with the help of the Mosul Governor. Why not to do it the right way? Only because Kurdistan was closed (protection from COVID Protected content the flight was from Erbil, whereas it could have equally been booked from Baghdad? The Governor could have then helped her to exit Kurdistan the same way. Anyway, having a recourse to Mosul Governor’s good services should have triggered an alarm signal in the lady’s mind: His help was needed because her entry to Kurdistan would have not been that smooth and needed an exceptional intervention, meaning: getting out of Kurdistan, out of the Iraqi territory and not back to Iraq – would have been problematic as well, had she not settled her immigration status as thousands of others do every day. The Governor is not a travel agent and not an immigration officer, and Kurdistan is not a third-world country. It has its SoP and the Governor, by the way, is not even part of Kurdistan. Kurdistan Administration doesn’t need their fines money nor do they fine them with pleasure. They can simply do a U-Turn back to Baghdad/Mosul. 500$ ticket to Germany? Good price, but it does not worth the whole trouble, she can fly back from Baghdad. Cursing in an ignorant, racist and condescending generalization and threatening to “deal with it” would not help. Visas’ refusals are rarely subjected to appeals anywhere in the world, even if you come to a place for the first time with a valid visa. Her case was not a case of lack of chemistry with the Immigration officer. It was worse: Entering without a valid visa (but with success) – but you can rarely have 2 exceptions successfully granted, and in such a short interval, if you are so much out of the rule: this time to exit without that valid visa. The lady is wrong about Shingal: I work as a part-timer volunteer with a local NGO helping refugees in and from Shingal. On a daily basis, we never had any single problem to move people and goods, staff and beneficiaries, with the Kurdish side. To complain that they restricted movements to and from Kurdistan? Welcome to the COVID-19 era. Believe me, 6th time in Kurdistan, expatriates are fighting to come here, including diplomats, thanks to the safety and the clean, comely, kind, generous and pleasant attitude of the Kurdish administration. Not only it’s one of the safest political entities in the world, perfectly apt for assuming full sovereignty to its people as well as to the minorities it protects as a safe haven (yes, also from Shingal), but it goes out of its way and always in a VIP manner, to ease the administrative regularization of the expatriates, so shorten it, facilitate it, ease it and accelerate its good completion and accomplishment. Especially in all what concerns immigration, visas, residencies – it is exemplary. Fine here is not an example of greed and capricious temper. It’s an example of good governance, rigor, seriousness and drawing a red line on which there are no exceptions.