Humid at American airports. Tourists from Europe ended up in detention, the travel agency owner is not afraid of complications

Traveling outside the European Union may not always go smoothly and it is necessary to know the rules for visitors in the country. The key thing is whether the Czech Republic has a visa-free regime with a specific country, otherwise you need to arrange a specific visa in advance.

Visa-free travel to the USA still applies to Czech citizens who do not intend to stay in the country for more than 90 days. But that does not mean that tourists can flow to America as easily as to other Schengen countries in the European Union.

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European tourists in American detention

"If you plan to travel to the USA for a maximum of 90 days and don't intend to work in the States, fill out the ESTA travel registration. It takes 10 minutes, an approved ESTA entitles you to travel to the USA. However, it does not mean permission to enter the USA, that will be decided by the entry interview. If you have not stayed in the USA illegally and do not intend to do anything illegal there, there is a 99.99% chance that your journey will be approved,"

Describes the bureaucratic pitfalls of visiting the country on the website Chcidoameriky.cz.

According to foreign media, however, people who did not expect problems when entering the country encounter complications when communicating with immigration officials. AP Agency reported the case of several tourists from Germany who even got detained for more than two weeks when crossing the American border.

The American news agency reminds us that Germany belongs to a group of several selected European and partly also Asian countries with visa-free contact for tourist stays shorter than 90 days, which also includes the Czech Republic.

The tightening is related to the policy of Donald Trump's administration. For example, the University of California in Los Angeles warned foreign students against leaving for spring break, as the rules might become stricter and the students themselves might not be allowed into the country when dealing with immigration officials. College students were having trouble coming to the country during the previous Trump's presidency.

Freedom of Speech and Ban for French Scientist

"The French scientist was not allowed into the USA. The reason was supposed to be the criticism of D. Trump's and E. Musk's approach to scientific research. A misunderstanding that will undoubtedly be explained soon, because something like this simply isn't possible in the time of return to the inviolability of freedom of speech,"

commented on another case of rejection from the country by ČT journalist Michal Kubal on Twitter. He was mainly reacting to the rhetoric of Trump's close collaborator, a member of his administration, billionaire Elon Musk, who regularly points out the threat to freedom of speech.

He comes across the case of a scientist who failed to get to the USA, where he was planning to attend a conference, due to the inspection of his own mobile, where he criticized the policies of Donald Trump and Elon Musk towards state support of science. The French Minister for Science and Higher Education Phillipe Baptiste then took a stand against the whole situation.

Czechs should travel without complications

"I think such claims/stricter screenings of people entering the USA/ are more of a wish of those who claim it, so they have something to write about... I don't have the feeling that the immigration service has clamped down, but I speak for our clients, citizens of the Czech Republic. Otherwise it might be the case for citizens of so-called "enemy countries". Our Czech clients really have nothing to fear, and they can enjoy the USA as they planned,"

Michal Kužel, director of the travel agency America Tours, warned against overgeneralization of individual cases in a statement for LP-Life.cz. He himself sees no reason to worry about travelling overseas and hopes that the situation will not worsen in the near future.

Sources: author's text, own questioning, theguardian.com, apnews.com, x.com, chcidoameriky.cz, aktualne.cz