Americans Will Need Visa for Europe Beginning 2021
 

It is only the same as Europeans have had to do for years to visit the US. You can't have it both ways.

Doesn't seem terribly onerous. American visa policy is based on reciprocity, however, so we might see an end to the visa waiver program and the institution of a B1/B2 visa fee equal to that ETIAS will charge Americans.

Didn't this come out in 2017?

We already have ESTA which costs about the same as ETIAS will. ETIAS is there for Americans because of ESTA. Like i said you can't have it both ways - you visit here for free but we have to pay to visit the US.

$14 for ESTA, valid for two years, under 18 too, €7 for Etias, valid for three years, under 18s free. You still get a good deal.

I wonder if dual nationals like my son - born in France to an American father - has both passports but is a resident currently of the U.S. - will they need a visa - think not but not sure?

>>>I wonder if dual nationals like my son - born in France to an American father - has both passports but is a resident currently of the U.S. - will they need a visa - think not but not sure?<<<

No. Theyare supposed to travel to Europe on the European passport, and return to the US on the US passport.

I hadn't heard of this, thanks for the heads up. The conditions are really rigorous-- you have to have a passport, a credit card and an email address. Yikes. what to do.

I remember the days when I had to actually go to a consulate to get a visa to visit France, so this is nothing to me.

The biggest danger is just people not knowing.

A US citizen needed a visa to visit France? That must have been a looong time ago.

Where do we have to go to get this new visa, if we are US citizens?

I think I will wait until it absolutely does happen.

>>>A US citizen needed a visa to visit France?<<<

Late Eighties. Created quite a headache for the consular staff in London.

When one door closes, another opens. Anyone for Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia to offer visa-free access to overseas visitors - Al Arabiya English

Maybe North Korea will be next.

In 1986, Americans needed a Visa for France.

Someone planted a bomb in a topiary on the Champs Ellysee in September, 1986, hence the Visa law.

My mother and I were taken off the TGV at Vallorbe because I did not have a Visa to enter France. I did not need one when we left the US.

Thin

I remember the French Visa for Americans too. The lines for the French Visa were quite long at the embassy in London.

It's lucky anyone got a visa as alot of countries do not allow or additional documentation is needed for visa applications outside their own country of residence. Wouldn't advise leaving it until getting to the UK to start applying for a French visa nowadays.

The only French visa I ever applied for was a student visa in the early sixties for which I received a receipt of payment and stayed in France for 15 months without ever receiving the visa itself. I also traveled in Germany and Switzerland without a visa, and I do not remember if I had to purchase a transit visa for train travel to Berlin and car travel out of Berlin. In 1967 I drove throughout western Europe and Yugoslavia without a visa. I had to purchase East German plates to ;get in and out of Berlin (they did not accept the tax exempt international plates), which can be considered purchasing a transit visa.

I believe that I essentially had a travel visa for a specified number of days when I drove in Czechoslovakia in 1975. It was obtained at the border and I had to buy x-number of Kroner for every day that I stayed. I remember this clearly because we tried to cross from Slovakia to Hungary at a border crossing that was only for locals, which made me lose a day and I had to spend an extra day in the country to apply for an extension at the nearest prefecture. No visa needed for Hungary as far as I remember.

All this to say that as an American I do not recall any visa application for travel as a tourist in Western Europe. My parents spent 15 years in France as apatrides, which meant applying for travel permits whenever they wanted to see family in Germany and Switzerland post W.W.II. My parents applied for American citizenship as soon as they could not out of patriotism but for the convenience of the American passport--no more visa applications to this or that country within Western Europe, starting in 1960 for them.

The 1986 visa requirement sounds very weird, especially as it was imposed after a legal non-visa entry to the country.

We, US citizens, were living in the Netherlands in 1986 and we traveled to France, by train, that year. We didn't get or need a visa.

If it's like the ESTA, you get it online. You need an email address, so they can email their confirmation. You need to pay for it by credit card. They ask you some questions, you enter your passport number, and in short order you have it.

No one has ever asked to see my husband's ESTA, but they ask before he boards in Europe whether he has one. I assume US immigration doesn't need to see it; they scan his passport and it would probably be flagged if he didn't have one. Just in case, he printed it and carries it with you is passport.

No one is going to ask to "see" an ESTA. It's Electronic. US Immigration are the ones who issue the ESTA, so of course they can see if he has one or not. He would never even be allowed to board the flight to the US without one, there would never be a situation where he arrives in the US, passport scanned and then flagged if he didn't have one. Airlines get hefty fines for allowing passengers into flights without correct entry documentation.

Odin, I believe that's exactly what I said.

Here's an article in the New York Times that explains the process and makes it clear that this is not a visa. As I expected, it can be obtained easily and quickly online. Just don't forget to do it before your trip!

When the US first instituted the ESTA in 2010, we knew about it but totally forgot to get it for my husband before our next trip to the US. At the airport in Ancona, they asked if my husband had it and we slapped our foreheads. That small airport had no computers we could use, and we didn't have data services on our phones. The desk agent didn't want us to board the plane, which was making a connection in Rome. I talked her into letting us try to find a computer in the Rome airport. Reluctantly, she let us board. In Rome, the only computer they had was a strange contraption that looked like a public telephone, on a column. It was painfully slow and had an old teletype printer. Still, I managed to register my husband and printed out the confirmation. (I didn't realize at the time that he didn't need to show it to immigration in New York.) We made our flight by the skin of our teeth.

My husband always carries his ESTA confirmation with his passport, just in case. We've renewed it several times since then.

Here is an article in the New York Times, which explains the process well, and makes clear that this is not a visa.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/t...er=rss&emc=rss

When the US first instituted the equivalent ESTA in 2010, we knew about it but forgot to register my husband before our next trip to the US. At our local airport, when the desk agent asked my husband if he had the ESTA, we slapped our foreheads. That small airport had no computer we could use, and we didn't have data services on our phone. They didn't want to let us board, but I talked them into allowing us to go as far as Rome so we could try to find a computer in the airport there.

At Fiumicino, there was a computer, a strange contraption on a column that looked like a public phone. It was painfully slow, but I managed to register my husband and print out the confirmation on the incorporated teletype printer. (I didn't realize at the time that he didn't have to show it to immigration in New York.) We made our flight by the skin of our teeth.

My husband carries the confirmation with his passport, just in case there's a problem.

​​​​​This was not irresponsible or lucky on my part. It was a different time back then. This was the norm and it was encouraged, at least implicitly.

Unless you could visit the French embassy in DC, getting the visa in London was actually the safer method. The alternative was to mail away your actual passport to the French embassy. The study abroad program warned us that if we didn't get out passport back in time, we would have to pay individually for a later flight to London.

Most American students took the ferry/train when going to the continent from Great Britain. Flying was not cheap like now. The bulk of American students visiting the continent would have to go through France. Turning back lines of students who just crossed the Channel would not look great.

But again, it was a different time.
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actually its not a visa -the headling is wrong -.Its instead of a visa just like the ESTA we all have to get to enter US. Its instead of a visa.
USA is one of the 60 nations this applies too-Australia and New Zealand being 2 of th eothers.

I keep seeing newspaper articles that call it a visa. I said above myself that it's not a visa, but the misunderstanding keeps getting perpetuated.

It seems to be more like a "registration." But yes, I keep seeing it referred to as a "visa." Since it can be done easily & quickly online it seems that it should not be a problem for most. The problem will be all the people who don't know about it in 2021. Although it's getting so much press now, hard to imagine it wouldnt be a big deal before it starts in 2021.

We were living in W. Berlin at the time, got the visa and were glad we did as they made a point of checking for it at Orly. When my parents visited with us later we drove in and no one bothered checking. Just one of those things: you needed it if someone decided to ask. Kind of like an IDP.