This new rule does not really fit with the self-image of some Americans: Anyone who wants to travel to Europe from January 2024 must register online beforehand – and pay a processing fee of eight dollars.
The EU is changing with its so-called ETIAS-Programm At the turn of the year, the entry regulations for holidaymakers from numerous third countries – including the USA. And Americans are angry. They are venting their anger on social media. Some speak of a “deterrence” by the EU, others of an “expensive insolence”.
The excitement seems to be so great that ETIAS has already arrived in the US election campaign. Ex-President Donald Trump has already announced that if he is re-elected, he will not allow his compatriots to have to pay to enter the EU.
“Imagine,” Trump writes on the Truth Social network. “We give them everything, including military support and trade, and now we’re supposed to pay to go there.” Europeans have no respect for the United States, Trump continues.
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The so-called “European Travel Information and Authorization System”, ETIAS for short, is to come into force next year. It affects vacationers from around 60 non-EU countries for which there is no visa requirement.
ETIAS is not a visa but an online registration
In addition to the USA, this also includes Canada, Australia and Great Britain. Anyone who wants to travel from one of these countries to the EU, Switzerland, Norway or Iceland will still not need a visa – however, prior online registration is required.
The reason: the EU wants to improve security at the external borders and prevent illegal immigration. Authorities promise to process most applications within minutes.
Alongside this, the ETIAS authorization will be linked to the passport, allowing border officials to automatically verify the authorization. To register, travelers have to pay a fee of seven euros (equivalent to around eight dollars) and provide some personal information. In the US, in addition to the costs, there are also concerns about the latter.
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Nile Gardiner, a former advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, even described the new EU program as “Orwellian” – in reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” about a totalitarian surveillance state. “I think that’s a big overstepping by the government,” Gardiner told Fox.
In addition to data such as date of birth, address and contact details, the ETIAS system also requires information on educational qualifications, occupation and previous travel destinations. The ex-adviser already expects abuse: “I fear that EU officials will use this to keep some people from the United States out of Europe whose political views they do not like,” speculates Gardiner.
The United States, with its “Electronic System for Travel Authorization”, or ESTA for short, has had comparable rules for travelers from the EU for 15 years. They also have to register online in order to be allowed to stay in the USA for up to 90 days without a visa.
ESTA currently costs $21
The fees for this are 21 dollars – more than double the future EU fee. In addition, holidaymakers have to register online with their personal data, and fingerprints are also given on entry.
In the USA, however, not only is the anger about ETIAS great, but also the uncertainty. For example, many Americans wrongly assume that entry will be made more difficult for them overall – due to an alleged visa requirement and stricter conditions.
“I can not believe that we will need a visa in the future,” writes user Myra Kay on “X”, the former short message service Twitter. ETIAS is just an electronic registration.
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But that doesn’t seem to work for many. Tour operators feel a real ETIAS effect on their bookings. After the EU plans became known, the demand for spontaneous vacations in Germany skyrocketed.
In the second half of July, Americans searched about 25 percent more often for hotels during this year’s Oktoberfest than in the first two weeks of the month, reports the travel portal Expedia. The holiday home broker FeWo-Direkt recorded a surge in demand of ten percent in the same comparison period.
“Such a significant increase in search queries just a few weeks before the start of the Oktoberfest is rather unusual,” explains Expedia spokeswoman Susanne Dopp. “As a rule, travelers try to find a place to stay with much more advance notice.”
More trips to Europe for false reports
From the company’s point of view, this only allows one conclusion: the false reports about the new entry rules and the associated uncertainty. “Following the motto: now or never,” says Dopp.
Similar figures are also available from Great Britain. There, too, according to data from Expedia and FeWo-direkt, both the search queries for hotels and holiday accommodation in Munich – at the same time as the reports – increased by 25 percent. In Canada, Expedia was even able to register 30 percent more searches in the same period.
This week showed again that the United States is not squeamish when it comes to entry from EU countries. The US authorities have severely restricted the visa exemption for Hungary.
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Last week, the ESTA validity period for Hungarian passport holders was reduced from two years to one year, and an ESTA permit is only valid for single entry.
After taking office in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán significantly simplified naturalization for Hungarians abroad – including Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. The US government sees this as a “security hole” because the naturalization program would not provide for strict tests, so the accusation.
Some Americans have already drawn their own conclusions from the new EU rules. They no longer want to travel to Europe as a protest, as Jeffery Lawnicki writes on Instagram: “Who wants to visit a garbage dump like Europe?”
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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is required, since the providers of the embedded content as third-party providers require this consent [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (which can be revoked at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page.