There were many friendly nations, such as the EU, astonished at the announcement made today by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. An insurance plan for a traveler tax was announced. 36 nations were chosen as the group required to pay to enter the United States a $14 “operational and travel promotion” for the vacationer levy. The tax will apply if the traveler does not already possess a U.S. visa, reports Yahoo! News.
EU thinks tourist tax is ‘inconsistent with facilitating transatlantic mobility’
There is one group of people that really doesn’t like the concept of a U.S. operational and travel promotion fee. The European Union has made really clear its opinion. Air and sea travelers from nations ranging from Australia and Germany to France, Japan and also the United Kingdom (among numerous other nations large and small) will be subject to the fee. Homeland security explained what the traveler tax is going to be going towards. The Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) was free, although now it can be paid for with this levy. The system is meant to check foreign tourists against no fly lists. The New York Times reports that vacationers are now required to have Internet access and a credit or debit card so they can go via the ESTA program and shell out the tourist tax. A non-immigrant visa has to be applied for at a United States of America embassy if a vacationer is denied by the ESTA. ESTA can deny someone without explaining why they’re denied.
Your tourist dollars
$10 is all that is really required for the travel promotion cost but $4 extra is there to help shell out for administration, says Homeland Security. If you are a traveler, just don’t forget one thing. Every little thing goes a lot better with an ESTA application submitted before actually traveling. ESTA authorization means one can travel to the United States of America several times in a two-year period unless the Homeland Security decides the tourist needs to reapply or the visa expires. Additional data regarding the traveler levy (aka the “operational and travel promotion fee”) could be found at CBP.gov, the site for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Further reading
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/national/08062010_2.xml
Yahoo! News
news.yahoo.com/s/ynewspoint/20100907/ts_ynewspoint/ynewspoint_ts3556
