I can confirm that our stove indeed does vent to the outdoors in the US. It is on an external wall and you can feel the air coming out when the vent fan is on.

I can confirm that our stove indeed does vent to the outdoors in the US. It is on an external wall and you can feel the air coming out when the vent fan is on. It is possible that in apartments the vents may only be filters and not external vents. That seems like a question for the building codes.