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News & Blogs United States citizens will need a visa to visit Europe starting in 2021

Matt Derrick

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(CNN) — US citizens traveling to Europe without a visa will be a thing of the past come 2021.

The European Union announced on Friday that American travelers will need a new type of visa -- a European Travel Information and Authorization System or ETIAS -- to visit the European Schengen Area.

The Schengen Area is a zone of 26 European countries that do not have internal borders and allow people to move between them freely, including countries like Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Italy and Poland.

Currently, US citizens can travel to Europe for up to 90 days without a visa.

To apply for the ETIAS, US citizens will need a valid passport, an email account and a credit or debit card, the EU said. Minors, the website said, will still only need their normal passports to travel after the visas go into effect.

The Union said that the ETIAS visa is valid for three years and allows Americans to enter the Schengen Area as many times as necessary.

On the ETIAS website, the European Union said it "has recently decided to improve their security level to avoid any further problems with illegal migration and terrorism."

The United States has been in a dispute with the EU's European Parliament and European Commission over visas for Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Cyprus.

Travelers in those five countries are the only EU nations that the US requires to apply for a visa.

In 2016, the European Commission first released a report calling for the U.S. to grant the same visa-free status to those five countries as the other 23 EU nations in exchange for U.S. citizens maintaining the same visa-free status in the Schengen Area. EU rules require equal treatment for all member states.

The report also indicated, however, that the commission wanted to wait until after President Trump was in office to "push for full visa reciprocity."

In June 2018, the Parliament voted in favor of the Commission imposing visas on US citizens.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-citizens-need-visas-to-visit-europe-in-2021/index.html
 

Matt Derrick

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i haven't dug any deeper into this article, but i two interesting things here:

  1. if you can get a visa, it's good for 3 years for unlimited visits to any Schengen zone country, so that's good.
  2. the credit card requirement worries me.

i think this is going to make it MUCH easier for countries to deny travelers that don't have a certain amount of money in their bank accounts. of course this could be faked (not going into detail on that) or you might be able to get away with it if you say you're only in the area for a short time (weekend, week, etc) then leaving. a rented return ticket would help sell that to customs (look under 'throwaway ticketing' in that link).

anyways, just thought this was worth posting for anyone wanting to go to Europe.
 

roughdraft

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thanks for posting this

what a damn shame they can't just let Bulgarians Croatians and company come to the States without a visa, now more funny paperwork at best...and nobody likes that

interesting to see how it will shape out and how much it will cost..
 

Coywolf

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Ya, this worries me. As I wouldnt be surprised if countries like Canada started requiring visas to retaliate against the bullshit trade agreements trump has put into place.
 

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Would they be able to tell how much money you have just based on your debit card info? I just assume the card requirement means there's a small fee involved, as there is with most e-visas.
As it is, if you show up at the EU border without proof of available funds you're gambling your whole trip.
>if you can get a visa, it's good for 3 years for unlimited visits to any Schengen zone country, so that's good.
Fuckin' awesome. There's probably a drawback I'm overlooking but this'll save the headaches involved in hacking the 90-day limit (though bad news for visa-hopping hotspots like Tangier and Istanbul)
 
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Cam3J

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(CNN) — US citizens traveling to Europe without a visa will be a thing of the past come 2021.

The European Union announced on Friday that American travelers will need a new type of visa -- a European Travel Information and Authorization System or ETIAS -- to visit the European Schengen Area.

The Schengen Area is a zone of 26 European countries that do not have internal borders and allow people to move between them freely, including countries like Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Italy and Poland.

Currently, US citizens can travel to Europe for up to 90 days without a visa.

To apply for the ETIAS, US citizens will need a valid passport, an email account and a credit or debit card, the EU said. Minors, the website said, will still only need their normal passports to travel after the visas go into effect.

The Union said that the ETIAS visa is valid for three years and allows Americans to enter the Schengen Area as many times as necessary.

On the ETIAS website, the European Union said it "has recently decided to improve their security level to avoid any further problems with illegal migration and terrorism."

The United States has been in a dispute with the EU's European Parliament and European Commission over visas for Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Cyprus.

Travelers in those five countries are the only EU nations that the US requires to apply for a visa.

In 2016, the European Commission first released a report calling for the U.S. to grant the same visa-free status to those five countries as the other 23 EU nations in exchange for U.S. citizens maintaining the same visa-free status in the Schengen Area. EU rules require equal treatment for all member states.

The report also indicated, however, that the commission wanted to wait until after President Trump was in office to "push for full visa reciprocity."

In June 2018, the Parliament voted in favor of the Commission imposing visas on US citizens.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-citizens-need-visas-to-visit-europe-in-2021/index.html
I reduse to read cnn articles, but ill take your word for it Matt
 
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Matt Derrick

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I reduse to read cnn articles, but ill take your word for it Matt

yeah, i wouldn't want you to endure the overbearing responsibility of reading a 2 minute article.

Ill hop a train or pay $150 extra, so what?

i don't even understand what you're trying to say here. you're gonna hop a train to europe? and pay a $150 extra for what exactly?
 

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I wonder if this has a chance of getting rescinded if the US stops needing visas from those EU countries, or if Americans will start traveling to non-EU countries more often now.
 

roughdraft

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Would they be able to tell how much money you have just based on your debit card info? I just assume the card requirement means there's a small fee involved, as there is with most e-visas.

that's what I'm thinking, no *credit* card requirement; just debit, which I've had a few thru different banks and there was a limit on opening of maybe 100dollars on *one* out of three i can think of. although PNC started charging 7 dollars monthly to my account for having less than 500 dollars in the account. so fuck them. Be wary of other banks trying to do the same

i doubt that it's hard to get a debit card but there may be something I'm missing here.

As it is, if you show up at the EU border without proof of available funds you're gambling your whole trip.
>if you can get a visa, it's good for 3 years for unlimited visits to any Schengen zone country, so that's good.
Fuckin' awesome. There's probably a drawback I'm overlooking but this'll save the headaches involved in hacking the 90-day limit (though bad news for visa-hopping hotspots like Tangier and Istanbul)

it'd be amazing to pay 10 bucks for a true 1000 day limit as opposed to a "free" 90 day limit but I doubt that's how they're going to do it....although I could be wrong

"authorization will last for three years and allows Americans to enter the Schengen Area as many times as necessary during that period"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vo...7/europe-new-visa-requirements-americans-2021

how they swing the term "necessary" is the mystery there

i also read on another source that i cant relocate at the moment - it's not just for the States but for Canada, Brazil, Singapore and a few others - so Canadians of STP be aware

https://www.etiasvisa.com/etias-requirements/canadians
 
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what does this mean, exactly?

i know this post is kinda old sorry about that, i just wanted to point out that the financial requirement is pretty common when crossing borders on temporary visas (well, you need to prove you have funds if you're on a "permanent" visa too i guess). i've lived in both New Zealand and the UK, for NZ i had a working holiday visa and had to show proof of funds at the airport, a minimum of NZ$2K...this was back in 2006 so i just gave them a copy of my bank statement. but it's increasingly common for countries to require this even for tourist visas because so many people overstay. i think the debit card requirement is just so they know you have easy access to your funds (as opposed to waiting on a wire transfer).

to be honest i was expecting this to happen for awhile now since the United States has been rolling back their visa reciprocity with just about all of its longtime allies, it's only logical they would do the same to us eventually.
 
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