US Citizens Visa-free EU Travel Suspension Question

GramChop

Senior Insider
With this new suspension looming, what, if anything, does this mean for US Citizens traveling to St Barth?
 
I have to think it is extremely unlikely that this will happen as it would drastically reduce the number of Americans travelling to Europe and tourism is a very important industry in countries like France and Italy. The economic cost would be very significant for those countries.
 
It's just politics. When the rules aren't equal, this things are said to make things happen. Most of the time people just don't know what people who travel the other direction have to. We have to fill and pay $$$ for that stupid ESTA to enter the US, I don't have a clue what Americans need to fill to get here.. Americans need to pay $$$ to go to Australia, we don't.

Has happened between various unions and countries over the last years. For example people from Romania would need a Visa to enter Canada but not the other way around. Brunei had similar case with Croatia.

France is the most popular tourist destination in the world and Americans account are less than 5% of the tourists travelling to France. Strong USD has helped US tourism to Europe but Asia is driving global tourism.

Visa happening is as likely as Trump winning the election.. oh, wait.. anyway :)
 
The vast majority of foreign tourists to France are other Europeans. In the 80% range. US visitors have been the next most numerous unless that has changed in last couple of years. Asians next.
The US remains far and away the #1 tourism country in the world in terms of total dollars spent.
 
I heard yesterday that New York City tourism officials are anticipating a decline in tourism in 2017 in numbers exceeding $200MM.
 
Normally, this might be a non-issue of obscure political bureaucracy. However, these days America is quite obstinate & the EU is quite foolish, which means that you might end of with a temporary cluster**** like the Executive Order travel restrictions that recently took place in the USA.

Supposedly it will be sorted out at a meeting in mid-June but it would be wise not to take anything for granted. Nothing worse than getting stuck in transit limbo (overnighting at airports, etc). A visa is not really a big deal but you want to know about it before you head out the door. Personally, I would be cautious about booking travel during the next couple of months and probably delay any unnecessary trips until it is sorted out.

Here is a quote from an article not the subject:

"It seems action could be one or two years away," said Jack Ezon of Ovation Travel, "But my advice is to never take visa-free travel for granted anywhere these days. Always check on the U.S. Department of State website for entry requirements anywhere you travel in the world."

Quoted from NBCnews.com:
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/do-you-now-need-visa-your-european-trip-n729966
 
Please, check the facts and forget the media. There might be some crazy things happening in the world nowadays but the media is even worse.

This discussion is nothing new, back in October 2014 and April 2016;
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-1118_en.htm
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-1345_en.htm

Australia and Japan fixed their case between 2014 and 2016, for example Australia added Croatia to the list of countries who use eVisitor Visa, Australia's free visa system for EU passports.

Already back in 2014 the press release said "
If the third country has not lifted the visa requirement within 24 months of the publication date, the automatic introduction of the visa requirement for all citizens of the third country concerned will enter into play, provided that neither the European Parliament nor the Council opposes such a measure."

EU could have issued a Visa requirement to the US already last autumn.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-4403_en.htm

Canada fixes their visa reciprocity issue by end of this year.

European Parliament did vote for action (=people's voice) and it's European Commission that is working with the US government how to proceed. And next report will be in June.

Even if the new US administrations continues to surprise the world, it will take noticeable time for anything to go into effect and it doesn't mean that you will need to send your passport to somewhere. You'll just do something similar to the ETA that Australia requires from US visitors -- or ESTA that US requires from European visitors already.

If one is from Iraq and on a student visa, I might not leave the US today with the risk of being able to return. But for the rest, changing plans because of this is like not going to New York because it's such a hot spot for terrorism.

 
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