Americans Won’t Have to Apply for An ETIAS Travel Authorisation to Enter EU Until Mid-2024

Because the European Union has delayed the debut of the ETIAS again again, American citizens will be able to travel to Schengen Area nations without the requirement to apply for a travel permission for at least another year.

According to etiasvisatoeu.com, the ETIAS, which stands for European Travel Information and Authorisation System, is a document that Americans will have to obtain online in the future in order to be eligible to travel to most of Europe. It is very similar to the American Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA).

While Americans were meant to begin applying for an ETIAS in November 2023, the EU has delayed the launch date to the end of the first half of 2024.

Owing to contractor delays for the Entry/Exit System, another EU travel security system, the date of introduction has also been pushed back from May 2023 to the end of the year. Because the ETIAS cannot work without the EES being fully operational, the EU was forced to postpone the ETIAS as well.

While no specific date has been set for either system, the EES will go into effect by the end of the year, with the ETIAS following five or six months later.

“…despite the contractor’s work in several crucial areas, a new timetable for the introduction into operation of EES cannot be definitely specified at this point,” the eu-press LISA’s team informed etiasvisatoeu.com.

This determination was reached during a February 28 meeting of the agency’s Management Board (MB).

“The current projected completion date for ETIAS is 2024. “The ETIAS may only go live five to six months after the EES goes live,” the EU Commission’s Spokesman for Home Affairs, Migration, and Internal Security, Anitta Hipper, has remarked.

According to Frontex, about 1.4 billion individuals from over 60 countries will be required to apply for an ETIAS in the future. The same people can now travel to the EU without a visa.

Among these persons are citizens of the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Albania, Ukraine, and other nations.

The ETIAS is quite similar to the US ESTA, except that it is far less expensive. Whereas an ESTA costs $21, an ETIAS application will cost €7. In reality, ETIAS will be one of the world’s cheapest travel authorizations to date.

The EES, on the other hand, is a new automated IT system that will keep track of third-country visitors entering and departing the EU’s territory, including those who require and those who do not require visas.

The official ETIAS website is now travel-europe.europa.eu/etias en, while the official EES website is travel-europe.europa.eu/ees en.