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Comment by ido | Hacker News Reader

I thought EU citizens no longer need a visa to the US ahead of time at all[0]?

[0] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-...

It's not technically a visa, but you must have an ESTA which is like a pre-approval for a visa and is required for all flights to USA from participating countries. Then on arrival it's up to the border patrol to determine you're validity for entry and issue you with a 90 day "visa".

From your link:

> Travelers must have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel and meet all requirements explained below. If you prefer to have a visa in your passport, you may still apply for a visitor (B) visa.

So it's not as complex as the visa process and can be all done online. The ESTA lasts for 2 years (as far as I can remember).

edit: spelling

The ESTA is not a visa and when using the Visa Waiver Program you do not have a visa. The Visa Waiver Program existed before ESTA.

Think of ESTA as an opportunity to search for you in terrorist & crime databases ahead of time, as doing it at the time of the entry is logistically hard.

No Visa in advance but you need to fill out ESTA online a few days prior to your departure.

If you are declined for ESTA you need to apply using the usual process at the embassy/consulate.

> I thought EU citizens no longer need a visa

Overwhelming majority yes, exceptions are citizens of: Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

What's different about those three countries?

Not sure about Bulgaria and Cyprus, but in Romania's case having a visa refusal rate of above 3%

From my circle of friends it seems like random chance, and because there is no reason given for the refusal one can only speculate. When I got my B-1/B-2 visa, my interview was very quick (I'd even dare to say closer to 1 minute). Whereas I have a couple of friends that applied for a travel visa and were rejected after being "interrogated" more heavily. When it comes to travel visas, I would assume they would mostly filter for potential illegal immigration, but all those I know that got rejected were pretty well "rooted" in the country.

There might just be the fact that getting an invitation letter from a company is considerably more important than receiving one from anyone else.

Cyprus has a land dispute with the US.

The Americans thought Turkey should run it to avoid them taking up a communist government

There's still un peacekeepers there keeping the conflict quiet iirc

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