Americans Will Need to Register to Travel to Europe in 2023
forbes.com
forbes.com
Edited to add: and of course they request fingerprints and photos ( of course in a special format nobody else uses). I'm still pissed i had to give up that information and it ended up for nothing ( i didn't end up visiting the US, and now i no longer need that visa)
It's crazy how law-oriented people are in the US. I'm sure they don't do bad things only because It iS ThE LaW, not because they are bad.
"Answering yes in this question does not disqualify you from receiving a visa".
People entering US from other countries are treated like shit regardless if they have visas or their countries apply for visa-less process. Both of those suck, you are treated like a criminal from the very first meeting in consulate, they take your fingerprints and you still have a decent chance of being put back after arrival. Business visas are more pleasant but it was for so long just "pay for more predictable process" and still has a lot of flaws.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/16/baby-us-emba...
I know of many people who worked on the floor in those institutions during that time that have joked about what would happen if they would technically tell the truth on those ESTA questionnaires.
I don't think any has actually done so.
At least they didn’t want entry/exit dates. Imagine you lived somewhere like Baarle-Nassau.
Back in the late 90s/early 00s I worked for the British Council. I travelled the world with a pack of Windows NT 4.0 CDs upgrading their servers. I was in my early 20s. They flew us Business. It was quite a thing. I’ll never stop appreciating how lucky I was, it was the time of my life.
This was pre-9/11, so security was … lax? I remember there being two lines at Heathrow: British, and not. (There were probably three: British, EU, other. Anyway.)
So you’d fly in from some really random place – I mean Kosovo, Ukraine, Nigeria, Colombia – and you’d walk through the ‘British’ line. You’d get to the guy checking passports and, I shit you not, he’d have his feet up on the desk and he’d be reading The Sun. (Terrible tabloid newspaper.)
Scores of British people would walk down that corridor holding their passports up, photo page presented, three abreast, and the guy would occasionally look up from the paper to check nothing too untoward was going on.
Good times.
I once flew from San Francisco to Frankfurt, and we were stopped by security because my brother had handcuffs in his baggage. (toys from Alcatraz sold as Souvenirs, but they were made of metal and looked quite real).
Can you imagine what would happen today if security found handcuffs in your bags at the air port? Back then, they smiled and put them back after my brother explained they were just toys. Unbelievable today.
So you are trying to tell us not to take our sex toys to the airport. The world just got thougher.
I went on a school trip from Manchester to Austria in 1995 and set of the metal detector with my tin foil wrapped sandwiches. Very little difference between that security and the process I had at Heathrow earlier this month.
About 10 years ago was good in the U.K., arrive at heathrow, walk through Iris, job done. Now there’s no fast track arrivals for frequent flyers, and while someone travelling once a year doesn’t mind waiting at immigration for half an hour, when you doing it every week being able to whiz through is very beneficial.
Hot tip: Never fly into Dulles, immigration can take upto 2 hours (pre covid). Fly into and out of BWI instead. IAD has better facilities on the way out, but takes longer to get through the airport.
My dad is a pilot, and pre 9/11, I would sometimes join him as a kid on flights from Europe to the US. I still vividly remember walking with a backpack behind my dad in pilot uniform trough all the US airport "security" without them checking anything.
Fast forward several months after 9/11: even the pilot had to take off his shoes and get them checked.
Flying really was amazing and luxurious in the 90'ies. On the other hand: the price has gone down a lot making flying a lot more accessible.
> This new system should not put American noses out of joint. The United States Customs and Border Protection has run a similar visa-waiver program since 2008, called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). The U.S. visa-waiver program requires citizens from 40 countries in Europe and elsewhere to apply online for a visa waiver and pay $14 to enter the U.S. for short stays of less than 90 days.
Of those I know who have fallen for it most were able to get their money back.
E.g. (not the first link for me but still up there on duckduckgo)
"https://estaapplication.com.au
Official USA ESTA Application for UK & Australian Citizens ..."
As much as I agree turnabout is fair play, I still want to see fewer barriers to travel, not more of them.
Want to attract more people- don’t put in silly things like esta.
Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?
I am always tempted by the imp of the perverse to answer yes. That genocide just sounds so inviting.
There must be tens or hundreds of thousands of Europeans who have done terrorism/genocide/espionage earlier in their life and are now reintegrated into society to the point that they might want to visit Disney World.
May as well ask.
ETIAS registration will be necessary to enter Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The same goes for trips to the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City.
Four countries — Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania — are not Schengen countries yet but are in the process of joining. Once they are admitted to the zone, they will require travelers to have an ETIAS authorization, too.
This is a fairly large chunk of Europe, but it is not the entirety of Europe. Notably it excludes the European nations of Ireland, the UK, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, Moldova, most of the Balkans...
I think they call it "Schengen-land", named after an obscure town in Luxembourg.
Didn't realize that Russia was a part of Europe. I thought the dream was the opposite, to make Europe a part of Russia.
And Pluto (the former planet) has about the same surface area as Russia.
Strictly speaking it's not named after the town, but after the agreements which were signed there, which grant the right of check-free border crossings to citizens of signatory countries.
It's as if Europeans deliberately wanted to make life difficult for people who believe in categories.
For example, when I still lived in Finland, going to Europe meant traveling to the continental Europe south of the Baltic Sea. Finland was not in Europe, Sweden was not in Europe, the UK was not in Europe, and Denmark was a borderline case. Poland was the northern and eastern limit of Europe. Mediterranean beach resorts were also not in Europe, but nearby cities were again borderline cases.
And when I read Finnish news, the EU is usually referred to either as "EU" or "Eurooppa". The actual name "Euroopan unioni" is too long, and it takes a lot of effort to write it and even more effort to say it.
It's a village, not a town.
That or use the term 'EU' when you mean 'EU'.
Croatia might soon enter, but as a Romanian citizen and Bulgarian neighbors, I'm pretty sure we are far away from getting accepted.
A short video about the reasons (I'm not really convinced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orrBJiXAcSU
Perhaps it's a reflection of the weakening of the US power. Perhaps it will finally have normal relationships with other countries?
The commission is a slow moving machine.
> Perhaps it's a reflection of the weakening of the US power.
I don’t think, in this instance. This applies to almost all countries.
And US limits countries I can visit. Iran is great holiday destination, but after visit I would need US visa.
The US specifically asks you if you have travelled to those countries. You can either lie, and that’s a serious risk at being jailed, deported, banned from ever going again, and having issues going to other countries, or you can tell the truth.
Since passenger lists on flights around the world are pretty much public information, the US immigration services will know exactly where you have visited in the past, and could totally put you in prison for lying when answering the question.
Is that something only people on ESTA get asked? Never heard of people on visas being asked that.
But as a US citizen you will never be asked. And better yet if you are a dual citizen like me. Then you can travel on your other passport to the places the US finds to be undesirable.
I am quite sure that this is not true.
You use one passport to visit Iran (etc), and the other to visit US, Israel and so on.
I never needed this, but it’s good to have such an option.
The US specifically asks “have you ever been to Iran”. You can lie, then get arrested in the US, or you can say “yes”, and have to go through the time and expense to get a US visa. Forever.
Or any number of things. I know of multiple French citizens born in "suspect" for the Americans places like Algiers and Beirut who have had extensive questioning on arrival at the US, including the mindbogglingly stupid " why were you born there?".
Rather than guessing, it's prudent to simply ask the question, no?
Its pretty stupid having to explain that to a 50 year old.
Edit: a crime to use it as a “workaround” (i.e. lie) to US customs, that is
Using a second passport, fake passport, alias, fake glasses and moustache doesnt make a differnce to the answer to that question. Its not even a workaround.
Work would like me to go to Iraq, which is fine. They’ll pay for me to get a US Visa too.
Trouble is in 20 years time when I want to go to NY for my kids wedding or whatever, I’ll still have to answer “yes” to the “I visited Iraq” question, and I won’t be working for the company that sent me there, so I’d have to go for the long arduous process of prostrating myself at the US embassy to beg for a visa, incurring a large expense to do so. Just because the stamp isn’t in my active passport doesn’t mean I can answer “no” to the question
It’s not like Israel, where the stamp would cause problems but they don’t ask (or the other way round where an Israeli stamp would cause problems going to Iran).
Even when I apply for a visa and have to list every country (often in a comically small box with like 100 characters max length), like with India, it only asks “what could tries have you visited in the last 10 years”
In Portugual you really need a very good reason for a 2nd passport and being convenient for tourism isn't one.
Since then I’ve reduced the number of visa based countries I’ve needed to go to (more have gone electronic), and countries have reduced stamps, throw in covid, and it’s to the point that I doubt I’ll fill my passports up before the 10 years has expired. It’s a shame really, the stamps in past passports are a great momento, but places like Hong Kong, Israel, Canada, Australia have all stopped stamping in the last few years.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2004/38/oj
> Without prejudice to the provisions on travel documents applicable to national border controls, Member States shall grant Union citizens leave to enter their territory with a valid identity card or passport
It is an exercise in geography to track down down which 16 countries don't care you have an ID card.
I want at least the same treatment for them, incl. pre checks, Information requests like social media accounts, pre registrations and a fee.
We're just becoming one big dystopia.
When are people going to realise that?
On the other hand, a lot of people that have never experienced something do not even realize that that problem even exists or is real. Maybe experiencing a little bit of difficulty will enrich the vision of those.
Still, I think the point should be that with this pre-approvals you have end up with an easier immigration process and less worries for both sides (less time at immigration and not being turned down in the last moment).
Source: Hispanic that used to travel a lot the US and always got VERY LUCKY! (I should have bought Powerball in the US, for some reason being in the USA gave me luck.
It’s a complex issue but at the end of the day current policies end with people not being treated like humans.
My wife is from another country and the mental tax that going through the US immigration system has had on us took two years to recover from. The entire system is meant to be punitive and humiliating.
Phone scanning &laptop - it never happened to me, and I’ve been to US 20 times, coming from Poland. But it sucks that this is always in cards :/
Is that part of the ESTA questions these days? I have heard reports but couldn't find a screenshot or similar.
I looked it up, and by my reading it does prohibit collection of social media account information. However, it's not clear to me that these protections apply to non-EU residents? Any actual lawyers able to chime in on this?
I guess at worst, any suspicious US citizens will have their internet details collected? Since we do the same to EU citizens, I guess I can't complain, but this creeping global data collection monster really gets under my skin.
The fundamental principle deciding visa restrictions isn't reciprocity, it's power.
Why have countries (US, Canada, now EU) moved to ESTA-like systems even for countries that are typically "low risk"?
I assume because the new system allows for a more in-depth background check and the pressure of immigration to make a decision in-real time at the border is eliminated. It's basically splitting the difference between inspection on arrival and forcing people to interview at consulates.
But is there anything more than that? To be honest, it seems a bit like overkill for any country to "pre-screen" all arrivals from what seems like very low risk countries.
No doubt there is some DHS policy paper that explains all this.
In the same way, the title should say "US citizens" then?
Heads would explode if Americans realised that Mexicans to Chilleans were also American.
> With the arrival of ETIAS expected in 2023, passport holders of 59 of the 62 countries that currently travel visa-free, will require an ETIAS waiver to travel to Europe for the purposes of tourism, business, or transit for a 90 days stay in any 180-day period.
Which three countries will be visa-free and ETIAS-free?
Can one balloon across a country without requiring a passport?
Alternatively, apply for asylum in one of the countries and start traveling to other EU countries (that’s not allowed, but not because it requires ETIAS, I think)
Also, parachuting in is relatively easy, but how do you get out?
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
I might make it sound frivolous but let me assure you its a very grievous injustice that people are subject to. And its worthing bringing to light.
And it happens way more often than you would like to think. Google it.
Since that's internet default when it comes to inflammatory topics, that's what a comment like the GP will pattern-match to, unless you explicitly disambiguate it (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...). The fact that your comment also added snark made this even more likely, as well as the fact that you've been posting unsubstantive and flamebait comments already.
This benefits NO ONE.
EDIT: And before anyone says it, the American system needs to be removed too!
Indeed, as someone who lost a finger when I was a kid, it is humiliating for me every time I go through the US border and the officers order me to place my fingers for "fingerprinting". Particularly when they ask me "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU". I hate traveling to the US and my problem is that I'm stuck on this side of the Atlantic. When I was living in Europe it was a pleasure to travel between countries. They don't assume you are a criminal, and the border officers are more intelligent/educated in Europe (even the ones in places like Bulgaria were cool).
Thus, why would you comment as such? Why would you assume that I support visas and restrictions, when I have CLEARLY expressed the EXACT OPPOSITE opinion?