Trump furious over misinformation on EU travel requirements

Source: Schengen Visa Info

Recent media misinformation and fake news claiming that American citizens will have to obtain a visa to travel to the European Union in 2024 have reached former United States President Donald Trump.

The former President, who hopes to gain the trust of Americans once again in the upcoming elections of November 2024, has reacted full of rage to the ‘news’, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

In a post published on his official account on social media TurthSocial, in which Trump became active after he was banned from posting on socials like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, the former president has shared the title of a news article claiming that “Americans will need a visa to Europe in 2024, accusing the EU institutions for showing disrespect to the US through this requirement.

“Wow! “U.S. CITIZENS WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR A VISA TO TRAVEL TO EUROPE STARTING IN 2024.” Think of this. We give them everything, including military protection and trade, and now we have to pay them to go there. NO RESPECT FOR THE UNITED STATES. I WILL, AS PRESIDENT, NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. IT WILL END VERY QUICKLY!!!” he wrote.

Trump, like many nationals of countries under the EU’s visa-free regime, has been misguided by the recent spread of fake news claiming that the upcoming ETIAS requirement for travel to the Schengen Area is a visa.

The ETIAS, which stands for the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, is indeed not a visa, but a simple travel permit, which the citizens of the US, the United Kingdom, Australia, and around 60 others, will need to obtain for travel to the EU in the future.

“ETIAS is not a visa. Similar travel authorizations for visa-exempt nationals are required by the US, Canada, and Australia,” the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs has clarified recently in an article debunking the top myths regarding the ETIASAske the EU Commission explains, the US has for a long time now been running a similar scheme to the ETIAS, called the US Electronic System Travel Authorisation (ESTA) which the nationals of the Schengen Area countries are obliged to obtain for trips to the US.

Other countries like New Zealand, Canada, and Australia also run similar schemes. The UK will also start to roll out its own Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system gradually from November this year.

Unlike a visa, the ETIAS can be obtained online without the need to provide a ton of documents, aside from the passport scan. It has been asserted that the whole procedure for obtaining one will last just a couple of minutes. Travelers also have to pay a fee as low as €7. The fee for a Schengen Visa for the nationals under the bloc’s visa regime, on the other hand, is at least €80.

According to the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), around 1.4 billion will be subject to the ETIAS requirement. Previously, the system was scheduled to become effective on November 2023, but without any announcement, the EU has silently postponed the launch of the ETIAS to 2024.