Visas might be required, after all?

[karenj4546]

We leave on May 16th for an NCL Baltic cruise. Staying on top of the news, I worry that this might become an issue. Anyone else concerned? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/europe-visa-free-travel-americans-european-parliament-vote-a7609406.html

[dfish]

I saw the article as well. I don't know if I'll need a visa or not. It does say non-binding, but don't know who that applies to.

[TickledBlue]

This will take a while to percolate into anything. I think something does materialize, it might be something like the US ESTA program that they mention where you'll need to electronically get a 'visa' for all of the EU. When going to Australia quite a few years back, we needed to do this and it was no big deal, just something else to do before travelling there.

[CruiserBruce]

I seriously doubt this will launch that fast. We are going to Europe next year...that is more realistic.

[John Bull]

No worries for May this year, Karen - European wheels don't turn that fast.

 

And no big deal for the future, it's likely to be a reciprosity arrangement (in plain English, tit-for-tat), an EU version of the US ESTA that we Europeans have to get to visit the US.

As TickledBlue says, for the vast majority of Americans it'll be just one more thing to do - five minutes on the 'web and a few dollars out of the pocket.

Probably we Brits will have to do the same to cross the Ditch after Brexit.

 

JB :)

[karenj4546]

Thanks everyone...just more to watch.....

Karen

[MATHA531]

After Brexit, perhaps the only place Americans will be able to travel across the pond will be Great Britain.

[rocklinmom]

I am wondering the same thing about our July Baltic cruise. I sure hope we aren't forced to get visa's before then.

[angeleyes27]

I was concerned about this as well

 

 

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[hogie23]

According to another article I read today, they weren't going to have a plan put together until late June. We go in mid June.

 

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[cruisemom42]

According to the article below, the earliest any decision would be made is July 12th -- and even if the decision is to suspend the visa-free travel, I'm sure it will take them a while to get a visa program up and running.

 

http://www.askbte.com/RedlineNews/RedlineNews1/EU_Decision_on_Suspending_US_Visa_Waiver_Set_for_J_73909.aspx

[jkhcruiser]

As a US Citizen, can I even get a Schengen visa if I wanted to just in case? We'll be going on the NCL Baltic departing June 30, 2017.

[jkhcruiser]

According to the article below, the earliest any decision would be made is July 12th -- and even if the decision is to suspend the visa-free travel, I'm sure it will take them a while to get a visa program up and running.

 

http://www.askbte.com/RedlineNews/RedlineNews1/EU_Decision_on_Suspending_US_Visa_Waiver_Set_for_J_73909.aspx

 

This article is dated April 14, 2016. Probably has nothing to do with what's just happened a few days ago.

[angeleyes27]

We are going to Norway in July

 

 

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[angeleyes27]

https://www.google.com/amp/uproxx.com/life/travel-visa-free-europe-usa/amp/

 

 

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[aquilegia]

As a US Citizen, can I even get a Schengen visa if I wanted to just in case? We'll be going on the NCL Baltic departing June 30, 2017.

 

 

You can't get a visa 'just in case' when the country doesn't require you to have one. If the EC ever decides to implement Parliament's non-binding decision, nothing will happen overnight anyway.

[cruisemom42]

This article is dated April 14, 2016. Probably has nothing to do with what's just happened a few days ago.

 

 

Oops, sorry. It was posted on another forum yesterday in regard to this question -- I didn't look at the date. :o

[kaisatsu]

We are going to Norway in July

Norway isn't part of the EU. If this does go into effect, it will be very interesting to see how it plays out, given that the EU and the Schengen area are not quite the same:

EU but not Schengen - UK, Ireland, Croatia, Cyprus

EU but not Schengen (in the process of joining Schengen) - Bulgaria, Romania

Schengen but not EU - Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Lichtenstein

 

I suspect it would apply to the all of the Schengen countries (EU or not) for simplicity (though it is possible to enter the Schengen on a single-country visa, in which case it may be illegal to cross the inner borders, even though there are no checks).

 

As a US citizen with a non-EU Schengen residence visa, I will be keenly interested in the finer details, should anything come of this!

[kaisatsu]

I do think they will find a way out in any case. Too much money to be lost if every cruise passenger needs a visa.

 

Not every cruise passenger, since most European cruises have a fair number of European passengers. This would apply to any US visitor, period, and there are far more Americans visiting European destinations without cruising.

 

I've heard the tourism revenue argument tossed around, but I'm not convinced it carries much weight. The US requires all visa-waiver tourists (not just Europeans) to apply in advance for an ESTA, and when the $14 ESTA fee was announced, there was a lot of speculation about how it was going to affect tourism revenue. The Europeans around me all grumbled about it. In the end, they all paid it.

 

Looking at US tourism revenue since the fee went into effect in 2010, it certainly doesn't seem to have had any negative impact stateside:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/296161/revenue-tourism-in-the-us/

[kaisatsu]

Well, I did not know all the details. It's interesting, thanks! But when I talked about "finding ways" - adding a fee could be one of them. I think it is pretty natural, that $14 or even $30 will not affect tourism. After all a Baltic trip is not a cheap thing anyway. What can have an impact is the complications with the procedure. Currently obtaining a visa is a very complicated and time consuming process and costs much more than $14. So if say it turns out that the visa is required after all then the way to solve the problem may be to simplify the procedure and enable it for instance on board.

If this does happen, I suspect it will be very similar to the US ESTA, rather than a full-on visa, and the ESTA process is not particularly expensive or complicated.

 

Even if it becomes a full visa, a lot of countries have implemented e-visa systems for tourists, so the entire process can be completed online without much hassle.

 

And yes, I suspect the cruiselines would find ways to handle this smoothly as they do with other visa-required port calls. e.g. Immigration on board before disembarking in the US, cruiseline-purchased visas for passengers calling in Vietnam, visa waivers for organized tours in Russia, etc. However, for European embarkation, I suspect you'd need the visa in advance in the same way as visa-waiver passengers from the US need an ESTA in order to get to a US embarkation port.