4 ms·

Pay? WTF? I wanted to visit friends there, but I'm not going to pay some highwayman.

arrowsmith 8mo ago
The EU is launching a similar scheme that costs €20 to apply for: https://travel-europe.europa.eu/en/etias https://travel-europe.europa.eu/en/etias
- mytailorisrich 8mo ago
  Which was all started by the US' ESTA back in 2009, which I believe now costs $40.
  - swarnie 8mo ago
    Have you filled one out lately? The questions have got a bit wild.
- jjgreen 8mo ago
  > UK customs shits in you shoes?? WTF! >> EU customs also shits in your shoes
  - arrowsmith 8mo ago
    oh no, basic border security!
- michh 8mo ago
  yeah, but I got the impression that the EU is very much doing it as a retaliation to the US and UK doing it. Tho they could have limited it to just those countries.
  - red_admiral 8mo ago
    The US, maybe. But wiki suggests ETIAS (the EU one) was proposed in 2016 whereas the UK ETA idea was created around 2023, so ETIAS can't be a reaction to ETA - perhaps the other way round? I'm not sure if, without Brexit, the UK would have ended up with ETIAS anyway - it's a "mostly Schengen but not exactly" thing so it would have depended on what agreement they came to.
    - michh 8mo ago
      You're right, I misremembered the order in which I learned about these things as the order in which they were announced. (lol, I sound like an LLM apologizing for getting something wrong but I promise I'm human :) )
  - mFixman 8mo ago
    My impression was that the EU did it to prevent people doing visa-free layovers from claiming asylum, while the UK did it to negotiate a dual exception with the EU in the future. ETA is a visa to the entire world in all but name. I'm not looking forward to the future where every county implements is and visa-free travel becomes a thing of the past.
mm0lqf 8mo ago
EU and US do the same to the UK
xelaboi 8mo ago
If you want to visit the USA, you have to pay for an ESTA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
swarnie 8mo ago
Its pretty common for international travel....? USA, Canada, Australia all have a small fee to process a visa. Some even have tourist/hotel taxes if you really want to get a huff on.
- Sharlin 8mo ago
  A visa is entirely different. EU citizens of course don't need a visa to visit the UK (or the US, or Canada). The UK always had some special border shenanigans (not in the Schengen, etc etc), even for travelers with EU passports, but demanding an advance application with an associated fee is a new level of ridiculousness.
  - swarnie 8mo ago
    You've described exactly what the EU are implementing this year
mdcurran 8mo ago
The US also incurs a toll of $40 for visitors using ESTA.
- inigyou 8mo ago
  He's not going to visit there, either.
- kdheiwns 8mo ago
  I wish countries would stop trying to be cute with names like ESTA, KETA, ETA, etc and call it what it is: an evisa. These countries lie and say "don't worry bro you don't need a visa bro. Just ride that plane bro. it's free bro.", then you find out there's some government portal that runs 9-5 local time five days a week (holidays off) and requires a $X fee every submission with a chance of failing for a random reason. And it can take days for a response to come. And people will say "it's not a visa bro. You just need to upload your photo, personal info, pay a fee, and they'll get back to you in a few days to tell you whether you're allowed in." Indonesia and India have identical processes with 5 minute turnaround times. Know what they call them? E-Visas. And if you're not eligible for an evisa, you go get a normal one. It's tedious because you search for whether a country needs a visa, and results will say "nope", but it turns out if you're from specific nationalities that get visa free travel (but not all), you don't need a visa, but you need some random application for something named with a random combination of letters. And if you don't know that specific name, a shallow search might say you're fine. Just quit the BS. Call it an evisa. And countries that call their process evisas handle them cheaper, faster, and more easily than ESTA or whatever other scam/visa workaround other countries have. I've never been rejected yet, but it's a pain in the ass needing to do a deep search, thinking I'm fine since no visa is required, then finding out 3 days before my flight while browsing travel forums there is some secret application I need to submit and their webpage is slow and buggy as hell.
  - drstewart 8mo ago
    It's the sneaky death of visa-free travel, unfortunately.
pixelesque 8mo ago
Australia, Canada and the US also require you to pay money to get the equivalent...

The EU is launching a similar scheme that costs €20 to apply for: https://travel-europe.europa.eu/en/etias https://travel-europe.europa.eu/en/etias

mytailorisrich 8mo ago
Which was all started by the US' ESTA back in 2009, which I believe now costs $40.
- swarnie 8mo ago
  Have you filled one out lately? The questions have got a bit wild.
jjgreen 8mo ago
> UK customs shits in you shoes?? WTF! >> EU customs also shits in your shoes
- arrowsmith 8mo ago
  oh no, basic border security!
michh 8mo ago
yeah, but I got the impression that the EU is very much doing it as a retaliation to the US and UK doing it. Tho they could have limited it to just those countries.
- red_admiral 8mo ago
  The US, maybe. But wiki suggests ETIAS (the EU one) was proposed in 2016 whereas the UK ETA idea was created around 2023, so ETIAS can't be a reaction to ETA - perhaps the other way round? I'm not sure if, without Brexit, the UK would have ended up with ETIAS anyway - it's a "mostly Schengen but not exactly" thing so it would have depended on what agreement they came to.
  - michh 8mo ago
    You're right, I misremembered the order in which I learned about these things as the order in which they were announced. (lol, I sound like an LLM apologizing for getting something wrong but I promise I'm human :) )
- mFixman 8mo ago
  My impression was that the EU did it to prevent people doing visa-free layovers from claiming asylum, while the UK did it to negotiate a dual exception with the EU in the future. ETA is a visa to the entire world in all but name. I'm not looking forward to the future where every county implements is and visa-free travel becomes a thing of the past.

mm0lqf 8mo ago

EU and US do the same to the UK

xelaboi 8mo ago

If you want to visit the USA, you have to pay for an ESTA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

swarnie 8mo ago

Its pretty common for international travel....? USA, Canada, Australia all have a small fee to process a visa. Some even have tourist/hotel taxes if you really want to get a huff on.

Sharlin 8mo ago
A visa is entirely different. EU citizens of course don't need a visa to visit the UK (or the US, or Canada). The UK always had some special border shenanigans (not in the Schengen, etc etc), even for travelers with EU passports, but demanding an advance application with an associated fee is a new level of ridiculousness.
- swarnie 8mo ago
  You've described exactly what the EU are implementing this year

mdcurran 8mo ago

The US also incurs a toll of $40 for visitors using ESTA.

inigyou 8mo ago
He's not going to visit there, either.
kdheiwns 8mo ago
I wish countries would stop trying to be cute with names like ESTA, KETA, ETA, etc and call it what it is: an evisa. These countries lie and say "don't worry bro you don't need a visa bro. Just ride that plane bro. it's free bro.", then you find out there's some government portal that runs 9-5 local time five days a week (holidays off) and requires a $X fee every submission with a chance of failing for a random reason. And it can take days for a response to come. And people will say "it's not a visa bro. You just need to upload your photo, personal info, pay a fee, and they'll get back to you in a few days to tell you whether you're allowed in." Indonesia and India have identical processes with 5 minute turnaround times. Know what they call them? E-Visas. And if you're not eligible for an evisa, you go get a normal one. It's tedious because you search for whether a country needs a visa, and results will say "nope", but it turns out if you're from specific nationalities that get visa free travel (but not all), you don't need a visa, but you need some random application for something named with a random combination of letters. And if you don't know that specific name, a shallow search might say you're fine. Just quit the BS. Call it an evisa. And countries that call their process evisas handle them cheaper, faster, and more easily than ESTA or whatever other scam/visa workaround other countries have. I've never been rejected yet, but it's a pain in the ass needing to do a deep search, thinking I'm fine since no visa is required, then finding out 3 days before my flight while browsing travel forums there is some secret application I need to submit and their webpage is slow and buggy as hell.
- drstewart 8mo ago
  It's the sneaky death of visa-free travel, unfortunately.

pixelesque 8mo ago

Australia, Canada and the US also require you to pay money to get the equivalent...