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there's around 12 million travelers* from the US to Europe every year, so if a ESTA-reciprocity is implemented, it'll bring around $180m of revenue to European
by vmarsy 10y ago
there's around 12 million travelers* from the US to Europe every year, so if a ESTA-reciprocity is implemented, it'll bring around $180m of revenue to European immigration offices.
* that's only counting leisure travelers, there might be many more business travelers?
- dottedmag 10y agoHow much will it cost to staff these offices and process visa applications?
- vmarsy 10y agoESTA is all electronic, the process would be automatic, I'm sure you can run it for less than $180m a year. It could be as simple as: Enter first name, last name, passport number, passport country, date of flights >>> Cool you have 90 days this year! or >>> You've stayed more than 90 days, please get a real visa. If one gets denied the ESTA, like the US system he'd get refunded $10 of the $14 and if he stills want to travel, he would then have to show up to the embassy for a real, couple of hundreds dollars visa, similar to what today's countries who are not part of the ESTA program have to go through to visit the US.