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I think US citizens should lose the Visa-free travel arrangements in most countries. It's supposed to be reciprocal but the ESTA is a Visa, it walks, talks and

I think US citizens should lose the Visa-free travel arrangements in most countries. It's supposed to be reciprocal but the ESTA is a Visa, it walks, talks and quacks like one. If it's denied, there's no real recourse and the process is completely opaque... Obviously, it's not in the interest of most countries to do that but it's really infuriating how something like ESTA was created to abuse the spirit of the reciprocal visa free agreements while sticking to the letter of the agreements.

Rebelgecko 6y ago
I think the EU created ETIAS as a direct response to ESTA
smnrchrds 6y ago
> It's supposed to be reciprocal but the ESTA is a Visa The thing is that, other countries looked at the US and instead of making US honour the reciprocal agreements, they reciprocated by creating non-visa visas of their own. Now, Canada has eTA, Asutralia has ETA, New Zealand has NZeTA, Schengen area is rolling out ETIAS, ... So yes, there was a brief period of time when visa waivers became non-reciprocal. Now the reciprocity has been restored, but not to what it was before, instead to a new normal. We as the citizens are worse off and the governments have more power in this new normal.
- nicolas_t 6y ago
  Yes and that's a real shame. Visa free was nice while it lasted... As a European, I'm appalled at the bullshit justification shown on https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/etias/ https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/etias/ "The main reason for the approval of the ETIAS authorization is security. With the increased risk of travellers worldwide, the EU wants to ensure safe travels in its countries. " The increased risk of travellers worldwide? What increased risk... That's just using a baseless assertion and basing the entire argument on that.
- deleted 6y ago
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