IAC:
We are sitting with Einar Steinsson the honorary consulate general of Iceland to Chicago. We’re talking about some visas, passports, voting, and visiting Iceland from the perspective of both: expats from Iceland living in the United States and Canada and North Americans visiting Iceland.
ES:
Thanks for doing this.
IAC:
Yeah, thank you for coming and sitting with me today. So I first wanted to talk about Iceland expats that may come to the United States or Canada for a period of time. You know certain things can always happen to people who travel. Passports maybe get lost or stolen. If I’m an Iceland expat and I’m here and I discovered that my passport is just gone. I can’t find it. What do I do in that scenario?
ES:
If you lost your passport, whether night or day you should contact the nearest consulate or embassy if you’re close to an embassy in Canada or in the US – one embassy in Canada and one in the US. The consulate can help. You should let them know immediately. Most all of them could issue an emergency passport. That is only valid to you get to a location where you can renew your passport.
IAC:
Okay, so that would get someone home and where they can take care of it from there.
ES:
Yes
IAC:
Is it possible for an Iceland Iceland expat to renew their passport if they’re currently living in the US or Canada?
ES:
No That renewal has to be done in Iceland. Like I said with the emergency passport that is possible for the embassy in DC in the US and the embassy in Canada can help. You might be able to renew it there. There’s also a New York consulate that has the ability to renew the passport, but if you are visiting in Iceland (you live in the US for example) and renew your Icelandic passport, you can have instead of waiting… You can have it sent to your nearest consulate or embassy. It has to go through a consulate or embassy to get to your house. And that’s the gist of it.
The passport the register in Iceland us https://www.skra.is/english/people/passport-and-id-card/passport/. That has all the information about getting passport for adults and children and so on. That pertains to an Icelandic citizen or you have a dual citizenship.
IAC:
Lastly for Icelanders living here are they able to vote by absentee ballot? For voting in national or regional elections do they have to go home?
ES:
They can vote with the with the consulates or embassy. The only thing the first thing I would say is that you are responsible for getting your vote to Iceland in time. Meaning that even though the elections haven’t happened, and you say one day before, I want to vote, that normally wouldn’t be possible because the vote wouldn’t arrive [on time]. But every consulate for each of the elections that are it could also be a referendum. It has happened. Then or for the president, for example, the Parliament, every consulate or consul will get the materials so you’re able to vote and we will stamp the vote and assign the form. Your vote your actual piece where you vote goes in a sealed envelope so the consulate doesn’t see it, nor the embassy. And then you get the materials and you can mail them or FedEx them to Iceland.
IAC:
I want to turn a bit right now if anyone is listening – someone who may be thinking about taking a job in the US or someone may be thinking of coming to study at a university in and around Chicago. What advice would you have to them upon moving to Chicago?
ES:
So the consulate or the embassy is not really involved but we can give it all the information for sure. I went through this process.
Let’s take the schools first. With the application you apply for studies in the US and you will get a student visa if you’re accepted to that school. And that student visa will last for the time you’re studying usually. Or you will get one year after that that you can work while you are trying to get a position with a company that supports a work permit or a green card. So that’s that.
If you are coming not to study but to work. It is similar – and the same thing applies if you go into Iceland. You will need to go and find the job, first connect with a company that can get you the visa – the H1 visa or it could be a J visa for doctors, for example. First you have to secure the position until the company can then started the process Usually with a lawyer to get all the forms done some bigger companies have their own departments that does this. Some of them bring in a lot of H1 visa holders from all over the world. Yeah, and that H1 for example is, I don’t remember the number I don’t know what the number is now. But that is set by the government How many H1 visas will be giving out each year.
IAC:
Turning now more towards someone that might be feeling homesick What would be to your guys to them to maybe not feel so homesick? Would you give a pitch for why someone coming from Iceland to the US might want to stay involved?
ES:
Yes It’s a very good question. Lena and I, my wife, felt especially in the beginning. But you still want to stay connected. The good way, as you mentioned, is to join our association. There are Icelandic associations all over the world, all over the US. We have a strong association here in Chicago with events and gatherings throughout the year. Keep up with your Icelandic and also just social activities. We have a golf outing [called the] Icelandic Open. We put up a Christmas tree at the museum and our biggest event is the festival – Þorroblót – to the God Þór – and so on, 17th of June celebration. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun if you are inclined to stay connected with friends of Iceland, Icelanders, and it’s open anyone who is interested in Icelandic and Icelandic culture.
IAC:
Iext to kind of want to shift focus if you will about Americans visiting Iceland. As a US citizen If I wanted to stay in Iceland for more than a weekend, how is that possible? What do I have to do? Do I need a visa? How well how can I reasonably stay around assuming I can afford it?
ES:
There are those who have US passports – because this is probably one of the most frequent questions I get – visiting Iceland. You have 90 days as a tourist to visit Iceland with the US passport. But, and this is extremely important, the passport has to be valid six months after the visit and you can see this on the airlines’ webpage also. Even though the airline would let you board the plane and you have a passport that is not expired, you will not be able to enter the country. People have called me from the airport in panic and so on, and there’s nothing I can do. The US doesn’t issue emergency, you know, extensions for that. That’s important.
There’s also your valid passport; you can stay for 90 days and we’ve talked about, you know, if you’re immigrating to Iceland or want to immigrate, you need a job and so on.
But you also might be living in the US and you are not a US citizen; you have a green card or your passport is from other countries. Then you have to look at which country that is. If you need a Schengen visa to Europe, you will need a Schengen visa to Iceland. That takes time. Sometimes people contact me the day before. I do not, and the consulate does not issue visas. The embassy does not issue visas; you have to go to VFS global. And we have, by the way, a link on the website. We have links on the website, answers to these questions at the Iceland Chicago org. The application, you should start as soon as you have decided to go if you need a visa And you don’t have a US passport
IAC:
US that want citizens that want to visit Iceland and even parts of Europe in 2024. There’s something new called the ETIAS. That is going to be a website that Americans need to go on to fill out a short form. Seven or eight dollar fee or something similar to that. Is that essentially applying for a visitor permit visitor – visiting visa for Schengen yes
ES:
Yes, this has been a process for Icelanders coming to the US for a long time. I don’t know exactly how long, and it’s usually an easy process. Not exactly sure right now. This is so new. It’s newer for Iceland. How long it takes, if it’s a week or ten days or even longer? I don’t think so, but the same thing else with the Schengen visa. You should give you as much time as possible
IAC
And again, we will have links to that service as well.
And if the fun part, we usually tell people for a short weekend or maybe an extended visit.
ES:
Yeah, if you’re not bringing your yacht or your helicopter, which I don’t have an experience with, it depends on your budget. It certainly depends on your budget. You can go and visit a lot of things, see a lot of things that are for free, the swimming pools. We always recommend the swimming pool number one, two, three. Without going to the lagoons because that’s gonna cost more.
Certainly, if you’re not on a budget. Yeah, we strongly recommend the newer and the older lagoons, Blue lagoon, Sky lagoon, and there’s others around the country in addition to the swimming pools. I would say that’s the first thing. People know. Many people know about good nothing in the golden circle. Which is depending on the year. It’s a great start, and I would maybe if I back up, if you’re staying only in Reykjavik, the surrounding area, and you focus on Reykjavik, try to get out of the city and experience the countryside a little bit.
There’s a plenty of tours if you’re going for norðurljósin (The Boralis) then that’s hit and miss of course depending on the weather, time of year. So you sign up for a tour or not, and then there’s a lot of other things. Whale watching. There’s concerts, partying in Reykjavik also in the other towns. But I think we have without bypassing other websites, there’s a website called grapevine.is that we always recommend. That has what’s going on in Reykjavik and in Iceland or around there.
That’s a good source.
Yes, and if you know anyone from Iceland or in Iceland, certainly get a look from the locals.
IAC:
Well, I hope this definitely helps anyone that’s either planning a trip over or is looking to just experience Iceland for a short time or a longer time. You know, there are some things you have to do, you have to fill out a visa if you’re staying for any significant amount of time. Yeah, so Einar, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Is there anything else you’d like to say about visiting Iceland or the Iceland Icelandic Club in Chicago?
ES:
No, I think like you said before we’ve mentioned before, visit the website, go through the website, and then shoot us an email. Give us a call. We’re happy to help. Anytime.
Appreciate it.
IAC:
Thank you. I appreciate your time.