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This is in response to security concerns for some EU countries, so it's really just a political tit for tat. "The United States has been in a dispute with the

This is in response to security concerns for some EU countries, so it's really just a political tit for tat. "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."

Findeton 8y ago
The EU is acting as a single political body, that's good. The US requires a visa for visiting from the EU, thus the EU requires the same to USA visitors.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- repolfx 8y ago
  It's not that good. Now travel for millions of Americans is becoming more of a hassle. This suits the political agenda of the EU because it wants all of Europe to be a single country run by itself and doesn't care about collateral damage along the way or even revels in it (look how big and powerful we are). But in the end it's still just making travel harder for people, despite all their rhetoric about how freedom of movement is one of their "four pillars". There is no obligation for countries to always get bigger, or for countries to pretend there's no regional variations. ESTA is a pain and stupid and it gives me a worse impression of the USA every time I have to fill it out. There is no reason why the rest of the world should follow suit. I see nobody else has said it yet, so I will - I hope that after Brexit the UK can drop this ETIAS nonsense and be more welcoming to Americans, even if they don't drop ESTA in response.
  - acjacobson 8y ago
    The reason the rest of the world should follow suit is to pressure the US to drop ESTA. Visa free is visa free - if your country creates additional hassles, expect the other country to respond in kind.
0r10n 8y ago
But you don’t need a visa for travelling to all these five countries (for up to 90 days of stay). All of them (without Poland) are not in Schengen area for now, so maybe that’s the reason of this. https://www.mae.ro/en/node/2040 https://www.mae.ro/en/node/2040 https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Romania.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-tra... https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Bulgaria.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-tra...
- detaro 8y ago
  Wrong way around... The US isn't allowing citizens of those countries in without a visa, and the EU principles generally say that visa(-free) reciprocity has to apply to all members (which in the case of the US has been ignored for years by the commission). That said, this new stuff seems to be pre-clearance for "visa-free" travel, so not really a change to this.
qbaqbaqba 8y ago
What security concerns?

Findeton 8y ago

The EU is acting as a single political body, that's good. The US requires a visa for visiting from the EU, thus the EU requires the same to USA visitors.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
repolfx 8y ago
It's not that good. Now travel for millions of Americans is becoming more of a hassle. This suits the political agenda of the EU because it wants all of Europe to be a single country run by itself and doesn't care about collateral damage along the way or even revels in it (look how big and powerful we are). But in the end it's still just making travel harder for people, despite all their rhetoric about how freedom of movement is one of their "four pillars". There is no obligation for countries to always get bigger, or for countries to pretend there's no regional variations. ESTA is a pain and stupid and it gives me a worse impression of the USA every time I have to fill it out. There is no reason why the rest of the world should follow suit. I see nobody else has said it yet, so I will - I hope that after Brexit the UK can drop this ETIAS nonsense and be more welcoming to Americans, even if they don't drop ESTA in response.
- acjacobson 8y ago
  The reason the rest of the world should follow suit is to pressure the US to drop ESTA. Visa free is visa free - if your country creates additional hassles, expect the other country to respond in kind.

0r10n 8y ago

But you don’t need a visa for travelling to all these five countries (for up to 90 days of stay). All of them (without Poland) are not in Schengen area for now, so maybe that’s the reason of this. https://www.mae.ro/en/node/2040 https://www.mae.ro/en/node/2040 https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Romania.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-tra... https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Bulgaria.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-tra...

detaro 8y ago
Wrong way around... The US isn't allowing citizens of those countries in without a visa, and the EU principles generally say that visa(-free) reciprocity has to apply to all members (which in the case of the US has been ignored for years by the commission). That said, this new stuff seems to be pre-clearance for "visa-free" travel, so not really a change to this.

qbaqbaqba 8y ago

What security concerns?