The new year 2023 is already here and changes to the toursim industry are coming as well. To be more specific these changes are affecting to the majority of Europe and more accurately to Schengen space and some other countries such as Bulgary Cyprus Croatia and Romania, which are not fully included in the treaty but will be soon. The ETIAS – SEIAV travel autorizacion form is almost here and will be mandatory from November 2023 as first date set.

On the other hand there we have ESTA travel authorization already up and running since 2009, but in this case the destination is only one country, the United States. There are up to 40 countries included in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) whose citizens can apply to travel for 90 days to the United States.

What differences may these two forms ETIAS vs ESTA have? In the first place and most obvious of all differences is that ESTA is intented for traveling to only one country, whereas ETIAS will give permission of entry for up to 30 countries. In terms of security this fact represents a great challenge as far as crossing and flow of information and databases between all Schengen states involved in the ETIAS travel aurhotization.

Everytime an ETIAS – SEIAV form is sent for authorization, there are a number of filters and systems that are consulted automaticly. All of them already existed in the European Union and were put all together for ETIAS – SEIAV purposes. These are the following:

• Schengen Information System (SIS).
• Visa Information System (VIS).
• Europol.
• Eurodac.
• Entry/Exit System (EES).
• Interpol database.
• ETIAS – SEIAV databases.

CBP (Customs and Borders Protection) is the organism that controls every ESTA request sent to the american government system. CBP is integrated in the DHS organization (Department of Homeland Security) There is a high number of employees (more than 240.000) working to ensure the maximun security to the country, ranging from aviation and border security to emergency response, from cybersecurity analysis to inspecting chemical facilities. All 27 departments integrated in DHR report directly to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary, and CBP is one of them.

Each ESTA request goes through automatic filters that cross information with different databases. If a direct authorization is not obtained then the application changes to a different status, and can take a few hours until the final approval is reached. DHS consults its own databases as well as international organisms, looks for clean records and gives a fastest response usually in the same day.

These are other interesting differences between ETIAS vs ESTA:

• Taxes: ETIAS 7€  (only 18 – 70 years old) – ESTA 21$ (each passport including babies).
• Validity: ETIAS 3 years or passport expiring date whichever happens first – ESTA 2 years same expiring condition as ETIAS.
• Passport picture: ETIAS not required yet – ESTA required.
• Form of payment: ETIAS credit/debit card – ESTA includes paypal.
• Mobile app: ETIAS yes – ESTA no.
• Resolution time: ETIAS within minutes – ESTA usually same day.

It feels as if travelling gets more and more complicated within time, but we have to asume it as part of a better security for ourselves which works for our interests.

Happy travelling 2023!!