So there are rumors (yet again like there were in 2016) about the EU thinking of making Americans get visas to visit Europe due to the USA's policy concerning some eastern EU countries:
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/03/02/us-citizens-visas-for-europe/
Question- since no one seems able to clarify my question anywhere- would this not apply to the UK since the UK is not part of the Schengen at all and makes their own visa rules?
First, nothing is definite.
The EU and Schengen are two different things. There are some EU members that are not part of Schengen (UK and Ireland are two) and some who belong to Schengen but are not part of the EU (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland as examples.)
Schengen just allows people in one country to cross a border without going through passport control. If the EU insists that Americans get visas then all member states have to follow. It has nothing to do with Schengen. So, as long as the UK stays in the EU they will have to insist on visas.
just wait and see, there is nothing anyone can do until decisions if any are made, worrying and speculation makes no difference. Plan trips as you want and then deal with things if they change.I am a UK citizen and do not plane to make any changes to the trips I take.
I have two trips booked to the Czech repuplic this year, one in a few weeks another in June/July and am presently looking at a trip to Croatia later in the year.
I agree that this is likely to happen, in the EU, thanks to Trump's comments and behaviour towards the EU.
As to changes in the UK, who knows? The UK isn't part of Schengen, so changes in the Schengen Zone won't impact, but EU changes will have to apply.
We don't want to upset the Americans or the Europeans, as and when we leave the EU, but as we do more trade with Europe than the States, my guess is that if we have to take sides, we will side with the Europeans.
The place to get your answers will be the US government's foreign office website, as and when anything changes.
They wouldn't be electronic visas that claim not to be visas such as ESTA, which will be coming along anyway. It would be proper apply through the post, stickers / stamps in the passport maybe need to go to an interview type visas. Such as the ones that Polish, Cypriots, Bulgarians etc need to get to go to the USA which are at the heart of the problem.
eagerly waiting the first spammer offering to sell fake EU visas to Americans...
Hmm. I think really none of you know either. Sigh. Ok. See I read the article above, and also the one below- which was written last year when the same possible thing was going to happen:
You are right. No one here knows, because no one anywhere knows!
The EU implementation of visa requirements for US citizens has not happened yet. There is nothing in place to allow a US citizen to apply for a visa nor is there a visitor visa to give to a US citizen. Even if they vote to do so in their upcoming meeting, it would still take months if not years to put the necessary bureaucracy in place to support this.
UK does make their own immigration rules. Whatever the EU decides will not impact the UK, Brexit or not. Of course the UK may decide to require visas as well but there doesn't seem to be any push for that at this time.
This issue goes way back to at least 2008, maybe further. There has been a great reluctance to impose anything, even something that would only affect a small subset of travellers, but on the other side of the coin there has been no movement to fully extend the so-called visa waver system to every citizen of an EU country either.
Since it seems inevitable that the EU (either within or without Schengen) will introduce its own electronic permit system within a matter of years it would be easier to ramp up requirements from there.
Non-reciprocity can last for a long time. Visitors from the USA haven't required a visa to enter the UK from the Second World War, but it was decades before visas were 'waived' in the opposite direction. Indeed it required a similar indication that visas could be introduced by the UK then that concentrated the mind then as it had been a constant irritation in UK-USA relations.
