> You will need a payment card to cover the EUR 7 fee. You can use a variety of online payment options to pay the fee. And no cash options?
I didn't have the option for cash payment either when applying for my ESTA. So yeah, no cash option.
New Requirements to Travel to Europe
81–90 of 115 posts
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#82Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I visit Germany, I am astounded at how many of my German coworkers dislike fresh air in the office. A beautiful 25c sunny day with a nice breeze, and I opened the window near my desk. Within five minutes, someone has closed it and given me a dirty look (no, the air conditioning is not on.)
Germany is also the birthplace of homeopathy, which is why German health insurers cover this mumbo-jumbo to this day.
don't get me started on this bullshit :-) a shitton of people genuinly believe in the "magic" here to the point its heresy pointing it out in public at times.
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you not view this as a problem, or do you not understand why the EU may view the status quo as a problem?
Sure, but two wrongs don't make a right.
I'm not sure you can reduce a complex political situation down to such a simplistic maxim.
That's like saying that the US was wrong to enter into WW2 because two wrongs don't make a right and war is bad therefore the US is bad.
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#85> The rules of travel to Europe have changed. Starting in mid-2025, some 1.4 billion people from over 60 visa-exempt countries are required to have a travel authorization to enter most European countries. I don't remember voting for this....
If you didn't vote in your country's election, then yeah, you probably didn't vote for it. But otherwise, you did. It's just that Europe operates under representative democracy rather than direct democracy.
Technically if your voted representative didn't get elected then indeed you didn't vote for this. But the elected person technically still represents you as an equal rights citizen. So yes, your representative can do things for which you didn't vote.
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#86So, no longer visa exempt, in all but name.
Don't compare the process of going online and filling out a form to applying to an actual visa in a consulate
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#87So, no longer visa exempt, in all but name.
Don't compare the process of going online and filling out a form to applying to an actual visa in a consulate
Why not, plenty of countries offer online visa applications.
This ESTA, sorry ETIAS thing is simply a visa with another name, albeit maybe a 'visa-lite'.
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#88The European Commission should’ve implemented visas for the US as they require visas from some of the EU’s members. They made Canada waive visa for all members by threatening to impose visas on Canadians, but are too chicken to do the same with the US. The EU parliament has voted that it should be done multiple times, but the Commission refuses to act.
The reason why Canada imposed visa requirements on some EU countries:
> Canada imposed the visa on the two countries as well as the Czech Republic to stop an influx of bogus refugee claimants among ethnic Roma applicants.
> The Czech visa requirement ended last year, but Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said at the time the Romanian and Bulgarian ones would remain because of continued concerns over human smuggling and organized criminal gangs.
* https://macleans.ca/news/canada/visa-obstacle-looms-as-harpe...
Starting in 2025 Canadians will need to get an ETIAS:
> From 2025, Canadians will need to register with ETIAS to enter the Schengen Area, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania without a visa.
The verbiage that ETIAS "is not a visa" is strong:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Travel_Information_an...
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#89So, no longer visa exempt, in all but name.
Don't compare the process of going online and filling out a form to applying to an actual visa in a consulate
> Don't compare the process of going online and filling out a form […]
Going online and filling out a form is exactly how you get a visa for (e.g.) NZ:
* https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-...
Re: New Requirements to Travel to Europe
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you didn't vote in your country's election, then yeah, you probably didn't vote for it. But otherwise, you did. It's just that Europe operates under representative democracy rather than direct democracy.
Technically if your voted representative didn't get elected then indeed you didn't vote for this. But the elected person technically still represents you as an equal rights citizen. So yes, your representative can do things for which you didn't vote.
The agreement we have in a representative democracy is that even if someone who didn't vote wins, they still represent me and I accept this, as otherwise it wouldn't be much of a democracy at all :)