Europe Tweaked Its ETIAS Plan To Charge Visitors & Here's When You'll Have To Start Paying
If you're looking for a sign to book that Europe trip you've been thinking about, you might want to get on it now before things become more expensive and complicated.
The European Union just bumped the rollout date for its upcoming visa waiver system for most travellers, which it calls ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System).
The ETIAS, which was announced a few months ago, will require visitors from dozens of countries to fill out extra forms and pay a fee before entering the EU.
The system was poised to make travel a little more annoying in May of 2023, but the EU has since moved its launch date back to November of next year.
The exact launch date still hasn't been set, but the new date has been bumped to sometime in November 2023, according to an update on the ETIAS site. The change was not widely promoted, but it does mean that we'll get one more summer of waiver-free travel to the EU.
The ETIAS will apply to visitors who don't currently need a visa to enter the EU. That includes dozens of countries, including the U.S. and Canada.
Applying for the ETIAS visa will cost each person 7 euros per application, and it'll be a form that you must fill out online and get approved before you can visit the EU. Approval is also not guaranteed, and it could take a few days to get the OK.
The form will take about 10 minutes to fill out and will be valid for a few years, according to the ETIAS site.
All that means that visiting Europe will get a bit more expensive at the end of next year. It also means that it'll be a bit harder to book an impromptu trip to Europe until you get that ETIAS application out of the way.
If you're wondering why the EU is suddenly implementing the ETIAS, it's to address recent security concerns, according to the release by the Schengen visa website.
The EU wants to keep "track of visitors from countries who do not need a visa to enter the Schengen Zone" because of "recent security concerns with terrorism and the migrant crisis."
Here are the visa-free countries of origin that will be affected by the ETIAS when it rolls out in November 2023:
- Albania
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Australia
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Dominica
- El Salvador
- Georgia
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- Israel
- Japan
- Kiribati
- Macao
- Malaysia
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Montenegro
- Nauru
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- North Macedonia
- Palau
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent
- Samoa
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Singapore
- Solomon Islands
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- Timor Leste
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tuvalu
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Uruguay
- Vanuatu
- Venezuela
Before you get going, check out our Responsible Travel Guide so you can be informed, be safe, be smart, and most of all, be respectful on your adventure.
