It has been just revealed that we’ll be seeing some new rules for Americans who want to travel to Europe. Check out the latest reports below.
New traveling rules
Officials have announced that the new travel requirement for Americans visiting most European countries, which involves an online travel authorization through the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), has been delayed once again and is now expected to take effect sometime in 2025.
The requirement applies to visitors of 30 European countries, including popular destinations such as France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Portugal.
Now, the system “will be ready to enter into operation in Spring 2025,” said a brief announcement after a meeting of the Council of the European Union earlier this month.
“The new roadmap for the delivery of the new IT architecture foresees that the Entry/Exit system will be ready to enter into operation in Autumn 2024,” it also said.
In a recent update to the European Union website for ETIAS, it said that “mid-2025” is when the new travel requirements will go online. No applications are being processed or “are collected at this point,” according to the website.
Multiple reports noted that the system was supposed to go into effect in 2021, but it has been postponed several times since then.
The online registration is not limited to travelers from the United States only. Travelers from various other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Israel, Mexico, and some European countries such as Albania, Montenegro, and Ukraine, must also fulfill this requirement.
In 2016, the European Commission proposed a system to strengthen security checks for people from over 60 countries who can visit Europe’s Schengen Area without a visa.
This decision-making organization for the EU aims to bolster security measures and is similar to the system imposed by the United States several years ago.
It has also been revealed by official data that the system, meanwhile, will register the information and biometric data of travelers. That includes face scans and fingerprints, while stamp passports will be phased out.
This system, elaborated the European Union’s site, “will replace the current system of manual stamping of passports, which is time-consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings, and does not allow a systematic detection of over-stayers.”
