I mean, I'm not saying you shouldn't complain about this, but I find it funny that Americans are mad about spending the 30 minutes and $30 to fill out a form. Seems entitled.
It makes my blood boil that I have to endure a disproportionate burden of proof on myself:
- demonstrate good financial status, have already booked tickets and accommodation (which might end up becoming a sunk cost because a bad visa result came too near to my travel date, making refunds impossible) even though visa isn't guaranteed
- a very long list of paperwork to complete and sort
- wait for multiple years to boot for an appointment where my application can get rejected, sometimes for really frivolous reasons
just to ensure I am there for, say, my brother's graduation, a moment which will come only once in my lifetime. Meanwhile, people from other countries and with a way worse profile than mine can walk into the same country, no questions asked. They don't have to demonstrate that they're really great people with absolutely no intention of staying there for ever. In fact they can even make that decision on a whim; what's there to stop them from staying permanently in the other country even if it's not for a "good" cause?
Don't treat people as criminals/paragons of virtue solely based on the country they come from.
What you provided is not context though, just some word salad rationalization. Visas are a function of bilateral and diplomatic relations which in turn are a function of the power differential between the two parties. That's all there is to it.
Not saying such restrictions should be encouraged, but the same has been needed to visit the US for a long time.
Europe, however , lets its citizens re-enter a border using automated password gates without the need for a "Global Entry" subscription (in the US, that's a product you pay for to be face-scanned and skip immigration lines when coming back home.)
But I'm a little bit sad that we will impose the same thing to other visa free travelers. First these countries will probably want to do that also in reciprocity. And secondly it is another marker of the slow decay of public liberties in Europe and the raise of the dictatorial surveillance society.
I remember traveling to European countries in the early 80s and needing to cross immigration at each border, but not having to secure a Visa ahead of time for most if any. You were given 30 to 90 days depending on the country.
Remember though, the US is one of only three countries (Eritrea, Myanmar are the other 2) that taxes its own citizens even if they have not lived in the US for years. I lived in SE Asia over 6 years. I've also worked in KSA and other areas, so I know. Amazingly, you can get a tourist's Visa to KSA online in like a half hour if that as a US citizen. A working Visa is a bit more difficult.
On another note, I believe Europe is in for a big downwards economic spiral worse than for the US, and does not have the geographic isolation or resource richness and flat, free land availability of the US, so this is just another dent to their future income via tourism. The war in Ukraine is not helping that to be sure. I live overseas for years and had to deal with US immigration for my wife, so I know it is lop-sided, but per Hillary Clinton and others with the same viewpoint, it is because the US Passport is the most valuable in the world. It was argued that the advantages bestowed upon US citizens needs to be met with things like FATCA, pressures on foreign countries to report US citizens banking/financial information to the US, and the once-nominal fee for rescinding your US Passport is now more punitive should you choose to give up your US citizenship.
Given the dominance of the US in NATO over the past several decades, where Europe could save money on military spending to boost their own economies, all the while having the world's largest superpower be there to step in when needed, or so goes the theory, maybe wishing to include the US and its tourists in the general Visa rule is not a great idea at this time? We've got millions of illegal immigrants coming to the US every year[1] with Germany, the UK, France, and Italy receiving the lion's share of the EU (sans UK).
[1] https://cis.org/Report/Estimating-Illegal-Immigrant-Populati...
These are the kinds of things that can be changed relatively quickly if the government wanted to. I understand for people financially struggling now that isn't encouraging. But there are other factors like access to resources and people that are important.
It's those and the larger term trends that we see that can inform personal choices on immigration.
I know, anticipating hypothetical tricky legislation switches seems like a waste of time. I'm truly sorry I'm wasting your time on that.
Like, either allow visa-free travel or don't.
I once had to go in a business trip to Australia, together with some coworkers, because we were employed by an Australian company, for a meeting at the headquarters of the company.
We were supposed to travel visa-free to Australia (at that time, meanwhile it seems that Australia has introduced visas for all countries). Nevertheless, Australia required some kind of electronic approval without which we could not enter the country, for which you had to apply exactly like for any visa.
After a few months of satisfying extremely invasive requests for documents from the Australian authorities, e.g. with complete details about all operations from our banking accounts for several months, the delays for issuing the "non-visa" travel approval have been so great that we missed the deadline and we had to cancel the trip.
If there would have been an official requirement for visas, it could not have been worse than the "visa-free" travel. Of course, while the Australian authorities did all they could to discourage foreign visitors, the Australian citizens were able to really travel visa-free, because the other states fulfilled their obligations, according to the agreements signed with Australia.
Now, when everybody requests visas, at least all are treated equally, without special privileges for the citizens of countries like USA or Australia, which have never fulfilled their promises to treat the foreigners in the same way as their own citizens are treated.
See "US citizens will need a visa to visit Europe starting in 2021" (https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-citizens-need-visas-to...) with 256 HN comments from 2019 at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19346012 .
> Although the exact launch date of the new travel authorization is uncertain,
Ahh, so it could be another four years? :)
Make sure to mention how easy, super not-inconvenient it is. Include some initial skeptics who now have no problem with it. Resistance is indeed futile.
(I don't think this is the height of tyranny - there are much worse everyday systems harming us. My commentary is on the government press release dressed as a news article.)
By contrast, the Travel Visa to US, while also a painful process, at least grants you multiple entry visa thats valid for 10 years.
You want better terms, improve the situation in India. Favorable terms are given to citizens of countries where they're unlikely to violate the terms of their visa, like overstaying the validity of their visa.
Literally nothing would be different if they decided to grant you the visa for the duration you asked for but allowed you the flexibility to make that trip within a time window. You would still ensure I'm in EU for a limited time, but allowed some flexibility.
Secondly, none of the measures like asking me to show booked hotels or booked flights actually ensures I wont be overstaying. I could very well show you all of those and overstay if i wanted to do so illegally. All it does is forces people to shell out of a bunch of money even before they can be sure I'll be granted the visa.
Painless solutions like email/phone call where you explain why you are extending your stay?
Or painful solutions where you need to go to an office, find somebody who gives a shit about actually doing their job?
The problem is that journalism is very difficult to do because people are now used to free news, so they have to do these click and bait patterns that really suck and the only thing they do is generate hate.
To the downvoters: Give a different opinion if you don't agree. Like it or not, it is the truth. My sister is a journalist.
As much as I like Americans, you have to understand that you were priviledged before and that this privilege has ended because of your country's visa policy treating EU citizens differently.
When I flew to the EU and eastern Europe in 2019, I didn't need a visa. I didn't need to tell anyone my exact dates and itinerary. I paid for a ticket, had a passport, and went.
Like many have pointed out, the US requires visitors from otherwise visa-free countries to have a travel authorization to come here.
I wonder when the EU will start reciprocating on all the financial reporting bullshit that banks have to do when dealing with US persons.
