US citizens will need a VISA for European countries
 

CNN just reported that the 15 members of Schengen Visa agreement have voted to impose entry Visa requirenment on US citizens traveling to the European countries. This will take effect on 1June, 2004. There will be a $25US charge associated with the application. The process will be very similar to the Australian visa. The applicants will have an opportunity to apply for electronic visa over the internet. If that's not possible, there will be a paper application available for an extra $10US fee. It will also take about 2 weeks longer to process the paper application.
Anybody traveling to the following countries after 1June, 2004 will be required to have a valid electronic or paper visa.
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

This was done in retaliation for the need for some of the member countries citizens to have a valid entry visa when traveling to USA.




















:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
Happy April Fool's Day!
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

That was a good one! Tahnks for the chuckle.

You RAT. >:O

=D>

You had me fooled - and Mad!!

Oh, I am such a sucker - I actually BELIEVED you!

I just went to cnn.com to look for the article!

I'm such a sucker!

You fooled me -- but it isn't funny because it is too close to the way things work.The problem is that international politics has disintegrated into a tit-for-tat matter.

Very good one!!!! Because it was so believable!

I assume this is some kind of April Fool's joke but it isn't very funny in the context of this board. Not all here are experienced travelers and some will take this to heart, probably causing non-productive searches while causing undue worry.

Sorry to be a wet blanket.

The board editors should delete this.

Roberta,

Unless people don't know how to scroll down and see that it's an April Fools joke, they should get it. If they don't get it, well....maybe they deserve to do all the research....Survial of the fittest!

No need to delete it. After reading it (and believing it!!) The first thing I wanted to do was read the responses - as soon as I scrolled down I saw the "April Fool".

Maybe those who want it deleted are bent out of shape because they were "taken in" by the post?

Outrageous! I have just reported you AAFrequentFlyer to the editor's of the board who have already responded that they are blocking your account so you can no longer post here!







And that's my April Fool!

Whoosh! You had me fooled and looking for it! But as Miss sally said tit for tat...so it wouldn't be too surprising!

April Fool Day to you AAfrequentflyer..
I must say that you Fool me for awhile..

You got me too. You've built up too much credibility for me to go doubting you. Well, you used to have credibility anyway.

Very well set up. Two sangrias for that one!

Speaking of sangrias...where the heck s MaiTaiTom lately??

You're good. I called hubby and relayed the news before scrolling down all the way. You got us both.

I <i>knew</i> something was missing around here! It's MaiTai! Just checked and the fellow last posted 15 March. Where the heck is he? Should we be worried?

I'm walking with a limp after AAFF pulled my leg. Went for it hook, line and sinker. Very funny and well done, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. Instead of world politics it's like a world kindergarten playground!

Just for fun go to Google and type in weapons of mass destruction, then press I feel lucky. I think you will get a kick out of what happens. At least I did.

well I jotted down the info and then scrolled down!Good April Fools. I had seen the WMD site before and loved it! Now it seems even Georbe W. is playing the game. Do you suppose he will announce it's all an April Fool's joke as well?

AAFF:

Many a true word is spoken in jest.

And this has nothing to do with &quot;childish&quot; global politics, but a very great deal to do with measures the United States has committed itself to, with the assent of its electorate.

The US is due to require biometric passports in October from Visa Waiver countries (ie Schengen plus the UK, Japan, Oz and Ireland). No Visa Waiver country has the technology installed to reissue the relevant millions of passports - not least because the passports are illegal under EU Data Protection legislation, and we don't take kindly to changing our privacy laws at the whim of a foreign legislature.

And no US consulate has the resources to cope with a surge in visa applications.

So your DHS has now written to Congress - whose timetable is congested to death - asking for legislation to postpone biometric passports requirements yet again.

If time isn't found for that bill, the pressure in Europe - not from childish politicians, but from pissed-off voters - to impose identically unrealistic requirements on Americans will be overwhelming.

So if you don't want AAFF's April Fool to come true, get on the phone now to your Congressman to insist that time be found to postpone - or preferably kill -biometric passport implementation.

You got me! I was ready to pick up the phone and start calling people!

I think the really frigthtening part of this is that it seems completely plausible...as if people seem to sense that given all the restrictions we have proposed to people entering this country that this sort of thing is just a matter of time. Perhaps the fact that it has NOT happened should be cited when we see these rather frantic, and sometimes very self-centered posts, about &quot;how we'll be treated in Europe.&quot;
We should probably be glad that the Europeans are as understanding as they are.

flanneruk - last time I responded to you directly, I disagreed in spades. This time I think you are spot on.
Our American friends may think it's funny but actually I DO think European countries should slap an incoming visa charge on them?

Why? To tell them that although they think they rule the world - they do not; and we don't like it and with their present government they fall into the category of citizens of an 'evil empire.

end of post.

Alice13: citizens of an evil empire? I do hope you are pulling an April Fool's joke, by stating that piece of mindless jingoism. We(Americans) are now evil? Shame on you if it is not a joke.

Thanks, AAFF. I read that and, considering the source, wondered how I could have missed your opinion on it, so I read it again. To my surprise, you didn't state an opinion and didn't ask for ours. Then the punchline! Nyuk nyuk.

It's nice to see that many of us still have a sense of humor :-).

I didn't and still don't want to turn this little joke into any serious discussion, but I do believe that some of the beliefs of our European friends here on Fodor are misguided.

First <b>flanneruk</b>, a very knowledgable and valuable Fodor contributor, but with whom I have to slightly disagree here. The deadline of October for the new passport will NOT force the entire population of UK, Schengen countries and few others to get a new passport. What the deadline requires is that ANYBODY that will need a new passport after October 26th, should get the new biometric passport. Every other person with a valid machine-readable passports will still be allowed to use them as long as the passports are valid. It is true that most countries are not ready to issue the new passports and probably won't be till mid-2005, so if this requirement stays, it will inconvinience some, but definitely NOT all.

This is a recent BBC report dealing with the subject:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3378057.stm

Now to answer some other comments. Maybe it's a surprise to some, but plans for the new biometric passports were backed by European Union as well as US and UK, and Civil Aviation Organisation. The folks that are opposing it are civil rights organisation, and to some degree I do agree with their stance(personal belief). So don't think this is forced on the world by US government only. This is a byproduct of new technology and the reality of the new world. You could agree with the notion that this will help or as some believe, it won't, but realize that other western countries are in total agreement with this idea, it's just that the technology is not in place just yet.

This is another BBC article dealing with the issue:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3582461.stm

And finally, quoting a movie line from &quot;Stripes&quot; as spoken by John Candy character - <i>Lighten up, Roberta</i> :-D

And now back to the regular programing!

Hope most of you enjoyed the little prank!

Have a wonderful day :-)

Let's hope that the powers that be don't decide that it's a good idea and then implement it!

Good one!

Well done, AAFF

Good one, AAFF!

You call it retaliation? Why not just call it reciprocity?
You are tightening security? Why could the EU not tighten its security standards?

Bad dog, AAFF. No biscuit.

That said, I just retired an old passport that still had a paper (glued-in) French visa on it. Took up a whole page in the passport so that all sorts of flowery language and official seals and stamps could fit. Soon all they'll have to do is save the eating utensiles one used on the incoming flight, swab them, and your DNA will be on record before your bags have been unloaded. Oh wait, they're not going to be serving food. Oh well...

I have to admit you pulled my leg. It is a bit close to reality, and I wouldn't be surprised someone came up with that after the next terrorist attack...
Congratulations.

Good show, AAFF.

I'm really confused here. How come so many people say things like &quot;I HOPE this is an April Fool's joke&quot; or seem to take the post seriously. Are people not able to see the giant row of faces and the big letters &quot;Happy April Fool's Day&quot;???

AAFF, you scared the daylights out of me, since I have an upcoming trip!! However, I laughed my butt off when I read the punch line. Thanks for your sense of humor!!

I was very relieved to see that it didn't start until June. We'll be back by then. :-) Then I scrolled down. Ho Ho HO

Our US passports expire Jan 05. I plan to start the renewal process this June. Will we get biometric ones?

<b>Frank Moss, deputy assistant secretary for Passport Services, presented his organisation's plans to evolve to a new, more secure &quot;intelligent document&quot; from today's paper-based passports at the Smart Card Alliance's Government Conference and Expo conference last week.

&quot;Our goal is to begin production by October 26, 2004,&quot; Moss announced.

Current plans call for the new passport books to include a contactless smart chip based on the 14443 standard, with a minimum of 32 Kbytes of EEPROM storage. The chip will contain a compressed full-face image for use as a biometric. European biometric passports, by contrast, are planned to feature both retinal and fingerprint recognition biometrics on their smart cards.</b>