Visas for Europe? Sort of.

WASHINGTON — Summer’s winding down and that might have you thinking about your fall or even 2024 travel plans. Following the announcement that travelers to Europe will now need to add extra paperwork to their pre-trip plans, searches on the internet for travel requirement details have skyrocketed. So what do you need to know right now?

THE QUESTION:

Do you now need a visa to get to Europe?

THE SOURCES:

THE ANSWER:

No. But new requirements for travel are set to begin in 2024.

WHAT WE FOUND:

The new requirements recently announced are not technically a visa, but that’s how you’ll hear a lot of people and even official sources refer to it, informally. Along with an updated passport you’ll need an ETIAS authorization to travel to Europe. The ETIAS, the "European Travel Information and Authorisation System," is an additional layer of border security.

“The European countries are very, very busy with travelers, especially from the US, and they want that safety and security,” said Shay Harrington, travel expert and agent at First in Service.

To be clear, you don’t actually need one of these yet,  but the EU announced US passport holders (among others) traveling to any of these countries for any business or personal reasons will need ETIAS authorization, beginning in 2024:

“We recommend you put your visa application in at least 30 days in advance because it should spit it out for you in about a few minutes, 10 minutes tops. But it could take a little bit longer,” said Harrington. “So it's just important to kind of keep that in the background, know that it's something you have to do in order to travel and have your details and information ready.”

Harrington says once you’ve put in your ID and travel info, the ETIAS will be digitally connected to your passport. It will cost 7 euros, or about 8 US dollars. 

This part’s important: Once applications are open, they will only be only available via the official website. Don’t fall for any third-party sites offering to get you through the process.

“While these applications are processed very quickly normally, they may see something that is a little off and it could take a little bit longer, and you risk that by doing and using any other form of this application,” said Harrington.