1.4 billon people from over 60 different world countries, who currently travel to the 27 Schengen Area countries without having to obtain a short-stay visa, will have to apply for an online travel authorization before any trip to the Member States, starting from 2024.
The European Union has been working on this travel authorization, which is called the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), since 2016, in a bid to enhance security in Europe by being aware of who’s coming in advance.
Previously, the system was scheduled to become effective on November 2023, but without any announcement, the EU had silently postponed the launch of the ETIAS to 2024, in the summer of last year.
“ETIAS is expected to be operational in 2024,” is noted now in an informative page regarding the ETIAS published by the EU Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs.
At the time, SchengenVisaInfo.com had contacted the EU Commission about the change of the date of the ETIAS launch and the reasons behind it, but even months after, the Commission has not responded to the email.
The ETIAS is a travel authorization that travellers from Schengen visa-free countries will have to apply for, starting from November this year. The application will be completed through the ETIAS website, which has not been launched yet, but will be published under the .eu domain on time before November.
It has been asserted that applying for an ETIAS will take around ten minutes, as travellers will have to upload their passport scan and a photo of theirs on the system, as well as answer several simple questions, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“Around 1.4 billion people from over 60 countries around the world benefit from visa-free travel to the European Union,” the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) had pointed out in a statement issued in October of 2021.
Only recently, the EU has also announced that the Entry/Exit System, which was planned to become effective on May 2023, will now be postponed for the end of the year, too.
The move has been announced by the EU agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Fields of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) in a meeting held on January 12 in Tallinn, Estonia, between eu-LISA’s Management Board.
“For EES, the planned Entry into Operation of May 2023 is considered no longer achievable due to delays from the contractors. The Agency is currently preparing a revised timeline that will presented for approval at the JHA Council in March 2023,” the agency has said.
The Entry/Exit System (EES) is a new automated IT system built by the EU, which will keep a record of third-country travellers, both those who need and do not need visas.
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