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There are many people who travel each year from other countries to Europe to vacation and experience other cultures. A great deal of these travelers come from the United States. Many tourists take different vacations, see family members living in Europe, honeymoons, and much more. Most Americans who travel to other countries view it as a hobby and want to travel the world, especially if they’ve never been to Europe.

Right now, and has it has been for so many years, travelers from the US going to Europe don’t need anything else but a passport when they are visiting for less than 90 days. This is mainly how most people visit Europe as many do not stay for more than a one to two week excursion. Lately, we’ve seen a lot of different news articles talking about how European travel will be changing in the coming years. A visa is not needed at this time when you take a trip to most other countries around the world.

Starting in 2021, Americans wanting to travel to Europe for any period will need an ETIAS, in other words, a European Travel and Information Authorization System. While this is not a visa per se, it is a new term and form of entrance into European Union countries. This will all be done in an effort to enhance international security in the aforementioned countries.

Some of the countries that will participate in ETIAS are France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, just to name a few. The full list of countries can be found on the ETIAS website for any travelers looking to see what their travel plans may entail in the coming years.

With ETIAS, visas and travel authorizations will be a lot more straightforward and less time consuming and complicated. These authorizations will last for up to three years once obtained and will cost around $8 to submit. Everything for the application is done online to make it easy and convenient. This new system has been put in place to create more ease in the travel process for anyone coming into the European Union countries and also increase international security a great deal.

There has been a lot of talk with this newly updated system of travel with Americans into countries in Europe, but when broken down, you realize that this new cost effective and easy way of getting an ETIAS will help travel in the long run.