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As an EU citizen I need to apply for an ESTA to travel into US. They get my fingerprints and a photograph besides a scan of my password when applying to said ES
by world2vec 3y ago
As an EU citizen I need to apply for an ESTA to travel into US. They get my fingerprints and a photograph besides a scan of my password when applying to said ESTA. Seems it's only fair US citizens get the same treatment? Alas, I'd prefer a much easier entry system for both sides. Aren't we all supposed to be friendly allies?
- chrisweekly 3y ago"scan of my password" you meant "passport", right?
- nikolay 3y agoIt's not fair in the context of American exceptionalism.
- sremani 3y ago>> Aren't we all supposed to be friendly allies? We are allies -- but it is not a symmetric alliance.
- TwoCent 3y agoDeGaulle's observation that "nations do not have friends, only interests" comes to mind.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoUnfortunately, while as a Canadian I am sympathetic to your point about the obnoxiousness of US passport / border entry controls... it's not just a symmetrical tit-for-tat, as the EU has also imposed this stuff on Canadians. In the past a passport was sufficient on both ends, as far as I understand it. Now Canadians will have to do this same thing.
- m_t 3y agoEuropeans also have to apply for an electronic thing to go to Canada.
- Scoundreller 3y agoCanada has required its own eTA garbage for EU citizens since late 2016 or so. But only when flying commercial.
- bloppe 3y agoIt's funny how everyone framed this as US vs. EU. It really didn't have to be framed that way.
- fatfingerd 3y agoThe US launched the first violation of visa free travel agreements, which the EU had to accept but could not have done first. Given a world where they would have had to back down on US/Canada, it would have been a diplomatic disaster to go through and try to justify why they are not going to back down with the other countries.
- akvadrako 3y agoIt was only recently that Americans could visit Canada without a passport. It's amazing how every country has clamped down.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoThat was a post-9/11 thing, and came from the US side as I recall. Used to be able to enter with just a driver's license. Then you could only do that at the land border. Then it was passport only. And at each point the volume of hostile tone from US homeland security guards has increased. It can be quite stressful crossing at times and I generally avoid it, even though I'm only 45 minutes from the border.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
- User23 3y agoThe general custom in international relations is tit for tat on this kind of thing. Hopefully the EU signals they will be happy to drop or simplify the requirements if the USA agrees to as well.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- glimshe 3y agoReciprocal/fair treatment makes sense from a moral perspective, but businesses actually don't like it. Every little added burden reduces the number of tourists. The US, given its popularity as a destination, believes that people will deal with it. It has always been like that, traveling to the US from anywhere is generally annoying. Not sure how American tourists will feel about this friction, even if fair in theory.
- tim333 3y agoI have to say my last trip to the US (Austin this spring) in spite of the ESTA thing was the easiest ever. I didn't even have to fill a paper form or answer dumb questions - just fingerprints and in. You used to have to fill out in writing if you'd ever been affiliated to a communist party or done, drugs, where are you staying, how long, and be interrogated. I almost got deported a couple of times for saying I hadn't figured which hotel or how long I was staying.