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The comments on (and migration of) my question https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/50836/how-can-us-citizens-not-residing-in-the-us-visit-the-white-house seem to suggest that a person who is a citizen of a country cannot be a tourist there, which to me is bizarre -- the question is about travellers wanting to see tourist sights. It just happens to be specific to a certain class of tourist. In particular, it seems that the question is not about immigration and living in a foreign country, so it's off-topic for Expats.SE, but questions about how to see certain sights are on-topic for Travel.SE.

Of course I got my answer, so I don't really mind, but it seems like we should clarify whether or not internal tourists are welcome on Travel.SE (I personally often ask questions about the country I live -- where do most of my tourism -- and these have not been considered off-topic before).

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    possible duplicate of Are questions about regular travel within a home city on-topic?
    – JoErNanO Mod
    Jul 8, 2015 at 16:42
  • Don't know if duplicate or related.
    – JoErNanO Mod
    Jul 8, 2015 at 16:42
  • @JoErNanO Certainly not a duplicate, because the other question has nothing to do with expats.
    – Bernhard
    Jul 8, 2015 at 16:44
  • @GayotFow There was a comment by you indicating that the rules are different between US citizens and tourists. Hence what convinced me to plant the final nail in the close-vote coffin.
    – JoErNanO Mod
    Jul 8, 2015 at 16:44
  • In am not convinced your question is off-topic on Expats.SE (I read the scope but do not know the site). Anyhow, I also think your question is not off-topic for Travel.SE either. I can imagine that you are more likely to get an answer at Expats, but that is not a reason for moving it.
    – Bernhard
    Jul 8, 2015 at 16:48

2 Answers 2

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Migrating this question to Expats wasn't a terrible decision. The asker certainly seems to qualify as an expat — or, at the very least, has a problem that would be common to expats — and asked about it in a good way.

That said, the "usual" guidelines for migration are:

  • the question is well-written, well-formatted, contains all necessary information, &c.
  • the question is not on-topic on its current site
  • the question is on-topic at its destination site
  • the destination site is not a beta site

I'm not an expert on the intricacies of this community, but I'd say that the question was pretty solidly about travel. It seems to me that the "if it's on-topic on the current site, then don't migrate" rule ought to have applied here. Again, though, this is not a disaster, there's no need to reverse the migration or anything. Just throwing it out there for the future.

As for the secondary question... I don't use this site much (and when I do, my questions get closed) so take this with a grain of salt, I suppose. I'm an American, living on the east coast. If I had questions about being a tourist in LA or Denver or Seattle, I would fully expect to be able to ask here. Being told I can't ask just because I'm an American would be a very unpleasant surprise. For many of the questions I might want to ask about those cities, citizenship would have absolutely no bearing on the answers.

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    I kinda side with this view. The question was likley to get a better answer on expats but I don't see how it was off topic for travel.
    – CMaster
    Jul 9, 2015 at 8:44
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    There are plenty of good reasons to avoid migrating to beta sites whenever possible, @pnuts. In particular, sites that are still very small or very young may not be equipped to handle them: their scopes are still in flux, their community of privileged members insufficient to moderate them. If a clearly off-topic question seems like it might be a good fit for another site, just point the author to that site's /about page and let them take the next step if they're willing.
    – Shog9
    Jul 22, 2015 at 3:10
  • Well, that has been a problem before too, and it's a headache and a half when it does occur @pnut - but the common concerns boil down to simply being polite to others.
    – Shog9
    Jul 22, 2015 at 3:21
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My close vote was the result of reading this comment by Gayot and finding it sensible:

The question is good and the answer is good. I still vote in state elections, and have renewed my driving permit (one time though, and a long time ago at that). BUT it's an Expat question. Tourists have to use American Consular Services -- a different kettle of fish altogether. Voting to close in favour of Expats https://expatriates.stackexchange.com/questions

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