#EU visa for US citizens

[jjbizconsult]

EU Visa for US Citizens: New ETIAS Rule Starting 2024

EU Visa for US Citizens: New Rule Starting 2024. US Travelers Will Need A Visa To Travel To Europe Starting 2024 EU Visa for US Citizens under ETIAS EU Visa for US Citizens: The European Union (EU) has announced that it will begin requiring visas for all US travelers starting in 2024. This is a major change, as US citizens have been able to travel to Europe visa-free for many years. The EU has…

[wanderlustphotosblog]

Argentina Entrance Requirements: A Guide for Travelers

Plan your dream trip to Argentina with confidence with my comprehensive guide on the Argentina entrance requirements. Make sure you don't miss any of the necessary requirements by using my handy checklist to make sure you're ready.

For many travelers, the breathtaking country of Argentina is a dream destination. With vibrant cities, spectacular national parklands, and an amazing food scene, the country has something for everyone. Whether you are visiting to explore the gorgeous Patagonia region in the South, see the jaw-dropping magnitude of the Iguazu Falls in the North, or spend time in one of the country’s amazing…

[japanevisainfo]

Are you planning a trip to Japan and need to apply for a visa? The Japanese visa application process can be daunting, especially if it’s your first time. However, with a little preparation and these ten tips, you can make the process smoother and increase your chances of a successful application.

Research the type of visa you need The first step is to determine which visa you need based on the purpose of your visit. Japan offers a variety of visas, including tourist visas, business visas, student visas, and working visas. Each visa has its own set of requirements and restrictions, so make sure you research the visa type that best suits your needs.

Check your passport validity Before applying for a Japanese visa, ensure that your passport is valid for at least six months beyond the date of your departure from Japan. If your passport is expiring soon, renew it before starting the visa application process.

Complete the application form accurately Fill out the visa application form carefully and accurately, ensuring that all information is correct and matches the information on your passport. Any mistakes or discrepancies can result in your visa application being rejected.

Provide all necessary documents Make sure you provide all the necessary documents required for your visa application. The required documents may vary depending on the type of visa you are applying for, so check the requirements carefully. Common documents required include a valid passport, a visa application form, a passport photo, and proof of financial means.

Book your flights and accommodation When applying for a Japanese visa, you may need to provide evidence of your travel itinerary, including your flight and accommodation bookings. Make sure you have confirmed reservations before applying for your visa.

Apply early It’s important to apply for your Japanese visa early to allow for processing time. Visa processing times may vary depending on your country of origin and the type of visa you are applying for. Applying early can help you avoid any last-minute complications and ensure that you have your visa in time for your trip.

Be honest in your application Honesty is crucial when filling out your visa application form. Any false information or misrepresentation can lead to your visa application being rejected or even result in a ban from entering Japan.

Attend your visa appointment on time If you are required to attend a visa appointment at the Japanese embassy or consulate, make sure you arrive on time and bring all the required documents. Being punctual and prepared can help your visa application go smoothly.

Prepare for the interview Depending on the type of visa you are applying for, you may be required to attend an interview with a visa officer. Prepare for the interview by researching the purpose of your visit and being able to answer any questions truthfully and confidently.

Follow up on your application After submitting your visa application, follow up with the embassy or consulate to check on the status of your application. This can help you avoid any unexpected delays or complications and give you peace of mind.

In conclusion, applying for a Japanese visa can seem like a daunting process, but with these tips, you can make it smoother and increase your chances of success. Remember to research the type of visa you need, provide all necessary documents, and be honest in your application. Good luck!

Apply for eVisa Japan: CLICK HERE

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

#20yrsago EFF is suing the FCC over the Broadcast Flag! https://web.archive.org/web/20040314151119/https://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20040309_eff_pr.php

#20yrsago ICANN’s tongue slithers further up Verisign’s foetid backside https://memex.craphound.com/2004/03/09/icanns-tongue-slithers-further-up-verisigns-foetid-backside/

#20yrsago Nader kicks Mastercard’s ass in fair-use fight https://web.archive.org/web/20040401171817/http://lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/2004/03/nader_wins_pric.html

#15yrsago AIG has insured $1.6 trillion in derivatives https://web.archive.org/web/20090312010613/https://www.scribd.com/doc/13112282/Aig-Systemic-090309

#10yrsago Putin your butt https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1zrchl/check_out_my_3d_printed_putin_butt_plug/?sort=new

#10yrsago Public Prosecutor of Rome unilaterally orders ISPs to censor 46 sites https://torrentfreak.com/italian-police-carry-out-largest-ever-pirate-domain-crackdown-140305/

#5yrsago Palmer Luckey wins secretive Pentagon contract to develop AI for drones https://theintercept.com/2019/03/09/anduril-industries-project-maven-palmer-luckey/

#5yrsago Pentagon reassures public that its autonomous robotic tank adheres to “legal and ethical standards” for AI-driven killbots https://gizmodo.com/u-s-army-assures-public-that-robot-tank-system-adheres-1833061674

#5yrsago Elizabeth Warren reveals her plan to break up Big Tech https://medium.com/@teamwarren/heres-how-we-can-break-up-big-tech-9ad9e0da324c

#5yrssago The US requires visas for some EU citizens, so now all US citizens visiting the EU will be subjected to border formalities too https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/us-citizens-need-visa-europe-travel-2021/

#1yrago The AI hype bubble is the new crypto hype bubble https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

[juni-ravenhall]

anyway yasmin arrived in [redacted] and shit sucks over there so if anyone wants to send her some extra love, just letting u guys know. she's also posting art to tt recently and prob will try to sell some prints or similar in the future so if u like her art pls keep an eye out and if you can, help share or interact with her stuff <3

she has to stay there for 90 days before she can re-enter sweden (schengen/eu rules). in the meantime we keep trying to look for jobs for her (let us know if u have tips - concept art, character / graphic design, illustrator, cleanup for animation, art director, things like that). if she can get a job or a scholarship in sweden or the eu then she can stay. we would be able to get married and get her rights to stay permanently. (we cant get married or get spouse visa currently due to my disability status and being really broke - if youre disabled or poor you dont have the same rights to be with your spouse as middleclass or non-disabled citizens do in sweden.)

im doing my best to try to stop being disabled (haha. ha.) with almost zero help from healthcare for all the years ive been in contact with it, and continuing to try my best to use that 1 spoon of energy i have some days to improve at programming and 3D modelling and animation with the dream to eventually get a job, or my Dream dream, running my own game studio and make horse games.

[crazysodomite]

i know i mention marrying for a visa but i do take it seriously... its a huge problem. for women in poor countries especially single mothers its usually the only option of having (and giving their kid) a better life. hell my mother had to do it. its extremely dangerous too because you're fully dependent on who you marry. if you get abused at best you get deported and the culprit gets no punishment because governments prioritize their citizens over immigrants. its bizarre when people portray women trying to marry for a visa/greencard as greedy or whatever. theres a reason people are so desperate to get into eu/us... and then yeah theres the whole fetishization issue. western men pursue women from poor countries and especially asian women because they're expected to be 'servile'

lets just say the topic of being married off in the west is brought up often

[uncloseted]

You lived in england, right? If so, how hard is it to get a tier 2 visa and how much did the move cost?? I work in marketing / PR and I have my bachelors degree, and I just looked up on the uk.gov website that PR professionals qualify for skilled worker visas. i’m just wondering what the process is like since I cannot afford to get a masters degree (so can’t get a student visa) and the only other visa option would be marriage which isn’t happening anytime soon lol. what was the process like for you and can I get a skilled worker visa since i currently quality?? maybe in the next couple years? what about if i don’t qualify in the future?? also, money wise, was it expensive?

thank you christina!!

I've actually never lived in England! I studied at Oxford for a summer when I was in high school and I've spent a lot of time in England because I used to have family that lived in London, but I've never lived there for any extended period of time. There was a point around eight or nine years ago where I was considering making the move to the UK after I graduated university since at the time I didn't need a visa to live or work there as an EU citizen, but I graduated right when Brexit passed and so it ended up not being an option for me. In general, my understanding is that post-Brexit, it's significantly more difficult to move to the UK than it used to be, even if you are a skilled worker.

The most straightforward way to get a visa (assuming here that you're coming from the US because Americans are the most likely to not tell me where they're from, but let me know if that's not the case), is, as you said, a Skilled Worker visa. To qualify for this, you need to work for a company that is 1. approved by the Home Office, 2. will transfer you to their UK offices or is planning on hiring you for a job at their UK offices and 3. will sponsor your visa. If those qualifications are met, your company also needs to be paying you the "going rate" for your job or at least £39,000, whichever is higher. The process of applying for a Skilled Worker visa will typically cost somewhere around £3000-£4000. If your goal is to go down this route, I would start applying for jobs at medium to large size PR and marketing companies that have the majority of their offices in the UK.

Your only other option would be a student visa. As you said you can't afford tuition for a master's degree, your best bet here would be to apply for scholarships. There aren't a ton of these and they can be quite competitive, but if you were a good student, you may be eligible. The Marshall Scholarship is one such option for US citizens, as is the Fullbright Scholarship. Another option is a Rhodes Scholarship, which will pay for you to go to the University of Oxford specifically. There's a good resource for scholarships that you can find here and here. If you're on a student visa, you can legally work part-time, which may help to cover your living costs. Applying for a student visa will cost around £490.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Germany’s foreign minister warned Saturday that Russia could seek to spark division in the West through refugees, as Moscow seeks to expand its “hybrid war.”[...]

"[But this war] will also be waged with fear and division, and that is precisely what we have to prevent,” said Annalena Baerbock at a congress of her Greens’ party.[...]

“In this situation it is clear what will be next -- refugees and not refugees from Ukraine... but because this war is hybrid, other countries are also participating,” Baerbock said, pointing to Serbia which she accused of letting in planeloads of migrants without visas.[...]

Stressing that there cannot be a situation “where people are being used as weapons,” the minister said Germany was in talks with the Czech Republic and Slovakia on the issue.[...]

Germany has in recent weeks warned about Belgrade’s visa-free travel regime for several countries whose citizens use Serbia as a springboard to enter the EU.

Serbia, a candidate for eventual EU membership, lies on the so-called Balkan route used by migrants heading towards Western Europe as they flee war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Although the route is nowhere as busy as it was during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, tens of thousands still pass through the region annually.

15 Oct 22

Growing numbers of Cubans, Indians, and Turks coming via Albania and Serbia to claim asylum in the EU has prompted talk of suspending Western Balkan visa-free travel.[...]

"Nationals from Turkey, Tunisia, India, Cuba and Burundi, in particular, enter legally (visa-free) by air in Serbia (and from some of these countries also in Albania) and a very high number moves irregularly further towards EU member states," the memo said.

"These are unusual nationalities on the route and there is a risk of a growing trend," it added.

The largest numbers by far still come from Afghanistan and Syria, with over 60,000 detected trying to clandestinely enter the EU in January to August this year, compared to 51,000 for the whole of last year.

But the number of people coming via the Western Balkans from Burundi (259 so far this year compared to zero last year) also rose steeply. The number of Cubans (339 vs. 36), Indians (4,469 vs. 557), Tunisians (5,777 vs. 842) and Turks (6,186 vs. 1,652) likewise rose.[...]

The trend was putting new pressure on neighbouring EU states Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia. Hungary has built an anti-migrant wall on its border and was not mentioned.[...]

The Czech paper outlined a number of ideas for reducing the numbers.

These included diplomatic pressure for Albania and Serbia to align visa waivers and take back more irregular migrants. They also included sending EU border guards to Western Balkans states and pressuring airlines to prevent "abuse".

But if all else failed, Prague, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year, proposed suspending visa-free travel from Albania and Serbia.[...]

The Western Balkans problem comes seven years after the so-called migrant crisis of 2015, when more than 1 million refugees entered the EU irregularly, most of them via south-east Europe.

That figure was dwarfed by the fallout from the Ukraine war, with some 4.31 million Ukrainians having obtained "temporary protection" in the EU since Russia invaded in February.[...]

"To avoid that Ukrainian displaced persons become the target group of social tension and outright hostile reactions from EU citizens, member states with the support of the [EU] Commission would need to ramp up campaigns to counter disinformation," it said.

By contrast to the strong focus on reducing asylum applications from Cuba or further afield, the Czechs urged EU capitals to show kindness to Ukrainians.

13 Oct 22

[naturalrights-retard]

The European Union (EU) has a new excuse to tighten travel restrictions. The European Commission published a report claiming five Caribbean states have sold “golden passports” citizenship to 88,000 individuals from around the globe, including China, Iran, and Russia.

“Investor citizenship schemes (or citizenship-by-investment programmes, also commonly referred to as “golden passports”) run by third countries with visa-free access to the EU may present a number of security risks for the EU. These schemes grant citizenship rights on the basis of local investments or against a flat fee, with low or no residence requirements, weak security checks and no genuine connection with the third country in question. The third countries concerned often advertise those schemes as ‘golden passports’ with the express purpose of allowing visa-free travel to the Union to third-country nationals that would otherwise be visa required,” the report states.

These are more than merely passports as they provide a path to visa-free travel to 60 nations. The Guardian reported that these passports have a starting price of $100,000. The EU report sets out for the first time the true scale of the Caribbean passport trade, with prices starting at $100,000 a head, leading me to believe that the people of these Caribbean nations are not the main buyers.

Not only is the price tag suspicious, but the sheer number does not make sense. The Dominican Republic alone sold 34,500 of these golden passports but has a population of only 72,000. In 2015, the EU permitted citizens of certain Caribbean islands to travel visa-free for up to 90 days. Visa-free travel to countries such as the EU and US is one of the key benefits advertised by Caribbean citizenship by investment schemes.

So, the European Union already announced that a mere passport will not grant people entry beginning in 2024. Those traveling to Europe must apply for authorization through the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) before their visit. Now, that restriction on free movement was implemented before the 88,000 golden passports came to light, so we can expect harsher restrictions. The European Commission now says it must overhaul regulations as it is concerned that these passports could be enabling the “infiltration of organized crime, money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption.” This is one of many reasons that I have warned travel will become increasingly difficult as we go down the long road to 2032.

[beardedmrbean]

BRUSSELS (AP) — Abdesalem Lassoued had been denied residency in four European countries by the time he chased two Swedish men into a building in Brussels this week and gunned them down at close range with a semiautomatic rifle.

The 45-year-old Tunisian arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in a smuggler’s boat in 2011. He spent jail time in Sweden and was refused entry to Norway. At one point Italy flagged him as a security threat. Two years ago, Belgium rejected his asylum claim and he disappeared off the map.

Until Monday night, that is, when he killed the two Swedes, wounded a third and forced the lockdown of more than 35,000 people in a soccer stadium where they had gathered to watch Belgium play Sweden. In a video posted online, he claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group.

Within days he has become the new face of the European Union’s campaign to toughen border controls, rapidly deport people and allow the police and security agencies to exchange information more efficiently.

“It’s important that those individuals that could be a security threat to our citizens, to our Union, have to be returned forcefully, immediately,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters on Thursday, as EU interior ministers met in Luxembourg.

Only around one in four people whose asylum applications are denied ever leave or are deported from the 27-nation bloc. Often the countries they come from, including Tunisia, are reluctant to take them back.

With EU countries constantly bickering over how to manage migration – their differences lie at the heart of one of the bloc’s biggest political crises – the European Commission has sought to outsource the challenge.

The EU’s executive branch has helped to seal deals with Turkey and Tunisia to persuade these countries to stop people from the Middle East or Africa – not to mention their own nationals – from trying to enter Europe, as they did in large numbers in 2015.

About 25 countries that people leave or transit to get to Europe are of concern. Egypt is the next country on the list. The commission is already helping to locate and pay for new boats for the Egyptian coastguard.

Belgium’s top migration official, Nicole de Moor, said that countries refusing to take back their nationals must be made to cooperate.

“The terrorist that committed an attack in Brussels on Monday had asked for asylum in four different European countries, and every time he was rejected because he did not qualify for protection,” de Moor said.

The EU does have coercive tools at its disposal. The commission has used visas as a lever, making it harder, more time-consuming and costly for the citizens of migration source countries to gain entry to Europe’s ID check-free zone – the 27-country space known as the Schengen area.

Thanks to this, Johansson said, the EU now has “much better cooperation” on deportation with Iraq, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Senegal.

The shooter Lassoued’s case was also marked by other failures. He applied for asylum in Belgium in 2019. His application was rejected a year later, and a deportation order was issued in 2021. Officials said this week that he couldn’t be found, as they had no address for him.

Within a few hours, admittedly with public help, prosecutors conceded, the authorities had discovered where he lived. He was shot dead by police at a café nearby the following morning when they tried to arrest him.

“It turns out that the individual had been convicted and had served time in a Swedish prison, which was unknown to our police and judiciary,” Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told reporters.

“We need to improve the information exchange on these kinds of things. The man apparently arrived in Italy in 2011 (and) wandered around Europe for 12 years,” she said. Migration services and the police must share information, she said, “to ensure that this cannot happen.”

The clamor for tougher laws and better intelligence sharing are fresh, but the problem is not new. Lassoued’s case resembles that of another Tunisian man, Anis Amri, who drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others.

German authorities tried to deport Amri after his asylum application was rejected but were unable to because he lacked valid identity papers. Tunisia had denied that he was a citizen.

On Tuesday, after leading security talks throughout the night while the hunt for Lassoued went on, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo loosened his tie from around his collar as he answered a reporter’s thorny question about the failings of Belgium’s police, justice and migration services.

“An order to leave the territory must become more binding that it is now,” De Croo conceded. “We have to respect the decisions that we take.”

[sassypotatoe1]

I put this in the comments on the post I just reblogged calling for an end to the Israeli occupation, but I felt it would work better as a post, so I'm saying it here too.

It's not the same situation exactly, so the solution won't be the same, but it will be similar, and I know people can learn from the perspective of a white south African post apartheid about what ending occupation can look like. Another group of people you can learn from are Zimbabweans, as they successfully returned the land to the natives and ended white occupation in the 90s, though I don't know the specifics and impact afterwards so I won't speak further on it.

Hi, I'm a white south African, and avid anti-racist constantly learning, a journalist and a student of politics, law and ethics. Many people who are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza are reluctant to call for an end to occupation, because in their minds it means mass displacement of Israeli Jews and an influx of political refugees to surrounding countries and Europe.

I'm here to tell you this is unlikely. After apartheid ended in south africa, a huge chunk of white south Africans stuck around, retained their property (though there are ongoing movements to give the land back to the native groups without compensation which is a political nightmare I don't feel like touching on now) and kept living as normal.

The only difference is that black people and other people of color now faced much less violence at the hands of white people, the government and the police system. They were no longer held under a curfew, no longer forced to carry a pass book, no longer forced to use seperate and lower standard infrastructure, no longer forcefully uprooted and moved with no say, and now able to vote, work higher paying jobs, own property outside of "homelands" in white neighborhoods, and treated in the eyes of the new government, new constitution and law as equal citizens to white people.

An affirmative action system called black economic empowerment was instituted to legally ensure companies employ a quota of people of color and women that reflects the population of the country. It has many pitfalls, and hasn't worked well, but I'm of the personal belief that it has more to do with white people clinging to power than any skill issues or racist tropes white people here will tell you are the cause.

A result of the BEE policy was that many wealthy white people or highly skilled and educated white youth got work visas in the west, and later immigrated. The rest that are still here are either here because they believe themselves citizens in their own right because they fought wars to achieve occupation and independence from the British government, or because they want to help fix things.

Some, like myself, hope to eventually immigrate back to our country of origin (a couple generations back mind you), but because European countries no longer grant us ancestral citizenship because we've been here since the 1600s, it would require going through the very long, very expensive process of immigration that anyone else who wants to immigrate to Europe has to go through.

We would have to learn the language of the country we hope to immigrate to, find employment, get a work visa and work permit, aquire housing, get an EU passport, get a driver's license, get health insurance, and a host of other hoops to jump through. Since one euro is worth about 20 rands, this process would cost us 20 times more. Even if the euro and Rand were equal in value, a huge majority of us don't have the money to go through this process, so we're stuck here.

A fair but perhaps not fiscally responsible solution for us would be if Europe paid the south african government reparations, and accepted ancestral citizenship and allowed us passage back to the countries of our ancestors as rightful citizens, at the cost of the European governments.

For Israeli Jews, this would mean staying to help fix things but in a state that allows Palestinians equal rights and access to resources and opportunities, equal governing power, and affirmative action. Those that can't get themselves to accept the state of Palestine and its people as equals will have to leave. Those wealthy enough can immigrate to Europe or north America, and those who aren't should be allowed ancestral citizenship back into the countries their ancestors came from.

Western countries that supported the Israeli occupation then need to pay reperations to Palestine for all the decades of war and occupation that they endorsed. The quicker, more violent solution would be to forcefully eject Israelis from the territory and make them refugees, but it's not what we're calling for right now, at least from my perspective.

South africa has been recovering from apartheid for 30 years, and it would likely take a civil war or another 50 years to get to any sort of stability and agreement, but progress has been made and will continue to be made. The same can happen for Palestine. It will take time, but if the Israeli government relinquish power and end occupation, however that ends up looking like, it can happen, and it's our responsibility as humans with compassion to support Palestine while they try.

[newstfionline]

Sunday, October 15, 2023

US colleges become flashpoints for protests on both sides of Israel-Hamas war (Reuters) At Columbia University on Thursday, two groups of hundreds of students tensely faced each other in dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while university officials blocked public access to the New York City campus as a safety measure. Supporters of Palestinians, many of whom wore face masks to hide their identities, held signs in a grassy area near a library that read "Free Palestine" and "To Exist is to Resist." About 100 feet (30 meters) away, students backing Israel silently held up posters with the faces of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. Amid the growing conflict, tensions between students on opposite sides of the issue have boiled over on some U.S. college campuses. Statements by student groups supporting Palestinians have prompted outrage and fear among Jews and, in some cases, wider rebuke from public officials and corporations. There have been reports of harassment and assaults of both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students, deepening grief and putting students of all political stripes on high alert.

Dominica’s Golden Passport (Miami Herald) Dominica is a small country in the Caribbean with an increasingly desirable passport, especially for individuals who are willing to pay big bucks to get a citizenship toehold outside of their country for business, freedom of travel, or tax evasion reasons. A passport from Dominica gets you into most countries visa-free, and given an investment program where a passport can be had for $100,000, some of the country’s newest citizens may not be entirely on the level. An investigation found 7,700 people who purchased passports from Dominica, and they’re such a big business that golden passports alone accounted for 50 percent of Dominica’s government budget.

Ukraine hits Russian navy ships with sea drones (Washington Post) “Experimental” naval drones damaged two Russian military vessels—the Buyan missile carrier and the Pavel Derzhavin patrol boat—over the past two days, Ukrainian intelligence officials said Friday, as Kyiv continued a series of strikes against Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet. The attacks on the Black Sea Fleet, which is based in occupied Crimea, have demonstrated Ukraine’s ability to operate in Kremlin-controlled waters but do not appear to have seriously reduced Moscow’s capabilities.

France is deploying 7,000 troops after a deadly school stabbing by a suspected Islamic radical (AP) France will mobilize up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded in a school attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization, the president’s office said Saturday. Counterterrorism authorities are investigating the stabbing, and the suspected assailant and several others are in custody, prosecutors said. The suspect is a Chechen who had attended the school and had been under recent surveillance by intelligence services for radicalization. The government heightened the national threat alert, and President Emmanuel Macron ordered up to 7,000 soldiers deployed by Monday night and until further notice to bolster security and vigilance around France, his office said.

Poland prepares to hold a high-stakes national election (Reuters) Poland holds its parliamentary election on Sunday, with the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party, called PiS, seeking an unprecedented third term in power. Critics say the government has politicized the judiciary, used public media as a propaganda tool and undermined the country's position in the EU. The party says it supports Ukraine in its war against Russia, but not at the expense of Poland’s own interests.

Turkey earthquake: Reconstruction promises and reality (Reuters) Sheltering in a converted shipping container, Ismet Kaplan waits to hear if he's eligible for one of hundreds of thousands of homes President Tayyip Erdogan promised would replace those ruined by modern Turkey's deadliest earthquake in February. Days after the quake and with a national election looming, Erdogan made bold promises. While survivors were still emerging from rubble, he said half the disaster zone would be rebuilt within a year - a total of 319,000 homes. Eight months on, more than a dozen officials, builders and engineers told Reuters that rising construction costs and economic uncertainty have deterred companies from bidding for government reconstruction contracts, making that deadline look hard to reach, especially in the worst-hit areas. With work underway on a fraction of the planned new buildings in the devastated city of Adiyaman, Kaplan fears a long wait together with his disabled wife and other survivors. They are exposed to summer and winter temperatures in the lines of containers set up as temporary housing after the Feb. 6 disaster. "I believe it will take years to move," said Kaplan, whose apartment block collapsed in the quake. His daughter, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren died under falling buildings.

Israeli army to confront resilient foe in anticipated Gaza invasion (Reuters) An Israeli invasion of Gaza will face an enemy that has built a formidable armoury with Iran’s help, dug a vast tunnel network to evade attackers and has shown in past ground wars it can exact a heavier toll on Israeli troops each time. Based on past experience, Israel’s bunker buster bombs and hi-tech Merkava tanks will be up against booby-trapped tunnels, fighters using the underground network to strike and vanish, and a range of Hamas weaponry that includes Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles that Israel first reported used in 2010. Hundreds of thousands of reservists are being mobilised by Israel for combat against fighters who one former official in Israel’s Shin Bet security service said could number 20,000. Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy chief of Hamas politburo, told Al Jazeera that before Hamas unleashed its assault on Israel it had a defence plan that was stronger than its attack plan.

Thousands Flee Northern Gaza as Israeli Evacuation Order Stirs Panic (NYT) Panic and chaos gripped the northern Gaza Strip Friday as thousands of people fled south in vehicles piled high with blankets and mattresses along two main roads after the Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of half of the besieged coastal strip. But rather than finding safety from a feared ground invasion, at least 70 people were killed along the way when Israeli airstrikes hit some of the vehicles fleeing south, according to the Gazan authorities. Some Gaza residents said they feared this could be the start of another permanent mass displacement like the one in 1948, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes in present-day Israel during the war surrounding the nation’s establishment. The majority of Gaza’s population—some 1.7 million of the 2.1 million residents—are among those who were forced to leave their homes in 1948, or are their descendants. In 1948, Palestinians were told they would be allowed to return after a few days or weeks, and they took just a few belongings and the keys to their front doors. But they were never allowed back.

Trapped in Gaza, Palestinian Americans Say They Feel Abandoned (NYT) Duaa Abufares, 24, a psychology student from Clifton, N.J., has been anxiously awaiting word from her father, Fares, each day this week. He had gone back to Gaza to visit relatives in early September. Now, Mr. Abufares, who is a U.S. citizen, is sheltering with relatives amid the sounds of nonstop bombing, and calling his five children back in New Jersey during brief periods when he can access electricity. During a video call with them on Thursday, Mr. Abufares, 50, described seeing the bodies of dozens of women and children killed in an airstrike blocks from his family home. The sudden Hamas attack on Saturday and the subsequent counteroffensive left American citizens stranded in both Israel and Gaza. To assist American citizens who want to leave Israel amid the spiraling security crisis, the Biden administration announced it would begin arranging charter flights to ferry Americans to destinations in Europe starting on Friday. But for American citizens stuck in Gaza, there is no such arrangement. “I feel like I’ve been abandoned by my country,” said Lena Beseiso, 57, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is caught in Gaza with her husband, two of her daughters and a 10-year-old grandson. “We’re American citizens and we’re not being treated as American citizens.” U.S. officials estimated that 500 to 600 American citizens were in Gaza.

With all eyes on Gaza war, violence is quietly mounting in the West Bank (Washington Post) At least 11 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces and dozens injured across the West Bank on Friday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as fears rise over mounting violence and instability ahead of an expected Israeli land invasion of Gaza. In scenes rare for the West Bank, Palestinians raised Hamas flags in a solidarity march with Gaza, defying long-standing political divides between the Islamist militant group and the West Bank’s dominant Fatah party. Many in the occupied territory spent the day glued to the news as Israel ordered 1.1 million Gazans under bombardment to evacuate—fueling Palestinian fears of another mass displacement.

Rise in piracy (gCaptain) The ICC International Marine Bureau is reporting a rise in piracy, with 99 incidents of piracy in the first nine months of this year, up from 90 incidents of piracy over the course of 2022. The pirates are pretty good at their jobs, too: The pirates successfully boarded 89 percent of the vessels they targeted, mostly at night. Of those incidents, 21 took place in the Gulf of Guinea, and 33 took place in the Singapore Straits. The latter waterway is a congested and difficult-to-navigate waterway, and obviously being lousy with pirates complicates things even further.

Your Face May Soon Be Your Ticket. Not Everyone Is Smiling. (NYT) You may not have to fumble with your cellphone in the boarding area very much longer. As the travel industry embraces facial recognition technology, phones are beginning to go the way of paper tickets at airports, cruise terminals and theme parks, making checking in more convenient, but raising privacy and security concerns, too. “Before Covid it felt like a future thing,” said Hicham Jaddoud, a professor of hospitality and tourism at the University of Southern California, describing the way contactless transactions have become common since the pandemic. That includes facial recognition, which is “now making its way into daily operations” in the travel industry, Dr. Jaddoud said. Facial recognition systems are already being expanded at some airports. At Miami International, for example, cameras at 12 gates serving international flights match passengers’ faces to the passport photographs they have on file with the airlines, letting passengers at those gates board without showing physical passports or boarding passes. The company installing the systems, SITA, has been contracted to do the same for a number of international gates in 10 other U.S. airports, including Boston Logan International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport. (Passengers can opt out and still present physical documents instead, SITA says.)

[wanderlustphotosblog]

Brazil Entrance Requirements: What to Know Before Traveling

Make sure you meet the passport, visa, and immunization entrance requirements for visiting Brazil. Download my Brazil Entrance Requirements Checklist to stay organized and prepared.

It is home to one of the new wonders of the world, as well as one of the world’s most spectacular waterfalls. Not only that, but it also boasts many of the world’s most beautiful and famous beaches. In fact, there are so many things that draw millions of visitors to Brazil each year that it is impossible to list them all. However, before you can visit and enjoy this incredible country, you must…

[japanevisainfo]

Navigating the Japanese visa system can be confusing and intimidating, especially if it’s your first time. However, with a little knowledge and preparation, the process can be straightforward and stress-free. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the Japanese visa system and provide tips to help you navigate it successfully.

Step 1: Determine the type of visa you need

The first step in navigating the Japanese visa system is to determine which type of visa you need. Japan offers a variety of visas, including tourist visas, business visas, student visas, and working visas. Each visa has its own set of requirements and restrictions, so it’s important to research the visa type that best suits your needs.

Step 2: Check your eligibility for a visa waiver

Citizens of many countries, including the United States, Canada, and most European countries, are eligible for a visa waiver for short stays in Japan. This means they can enter Japan without a visa and stay for up to 90 days. However, if you’re not eligible for a visa waiver, you’ll need to apply for a visa.

Step 3: Research the requirements for your visa type

Once you’ve determined the type of visa you need, research the requirements for that visa type. The requirements may vary depending on your country of origin and the purpose of your visit. Common requirements include a valid passport, a visa application form, a passport-sized photo, and proof of financial means.

Step 4: Gather the necessary documents

Gather all the necessary documents for your visa application. This may include your passport, visa application form, passport-sized photo, proof of travel arrangements, and proof of financial means. Make sure you have all the required documents before submitting your application to avoid any delays or complications.

Step 5: Submit your visa application

Submit your visa application and all the required documents to the Japanese embassy or consulate in your country. Make sure you follow the instructions carefully and provide all the necessary information. Depending on your country and the embassy’s policies, you may need to attend an interview with a visa officer.

Step 6: Wait for your visa

After submitting your visa application, you’ll need to wait for the embassy to process your visa. The processing time can vary depending on your country and the time of year, so make sure you apply well in advance of your travel date. Once your visa is approved, you can collect it from the embassy or consulate.

In conclusion, navigating the Japanese visa system can seem daunting, but by following these steps and being prepared, you can make the process smoother and increase your chances of a successful application. Remember to research the requirements for your visa type, gather all the necessary documents, and submit your application well in advance of your travel date. Good luck!

Need to apply for an eVisa to Japan? Look no further – our user-friendly application process makes it quick and easy! CLICK HERE

[torillatavataan]

Have to say I hate this “emotional pro-ban” argument, as here in @POLITICOEurope. Ofc people feel strongly, but this is also a very practical challenge for countries like Finland Estonia that currently bear the burden for border controls implementation of sanctions

In Finland, after Russia lifted the Covid restrictions on 15 July just on time for the holiday season, end of July the numbers of Russians crossing the border had already reached ~6k daily. If you take movement in both directions, it’s ~10k crossings per day

Finnish customs have already tightened controls but it’s still a lot given that Finland has the responsibility to confiscate any sanctioned goods Russian tourists are trying to bring back from the EU. Finnish customs says attempts are frequent and a fair number also succeeds

It’s also difficult to exhaustively make sure Russian tourists aren’t breaching the Schengen visa rules (visa has to be issued by the main destination country, which can be easily circumvented with a fake hotel booking in Finland) because it’s based on honesty

Travelling through Finland is way more convenient than the alternative of going through Turkey. You can easily reach Helsinki-Vantaa or Lappeenranta airport by car. The telegram business of car rides (from carshare to luxury services) is booming (Pietari = St. Pete) via @yleuutiset

End of July, approx 1/3 of the Russian tourists crossing the Finnish border had a visa from Finland, the rest from other EU member states

In contrast to March, when the direction of travel was out of Russia without going back, now it’s mostly holiday travel (back and forth).

So even without considering the security risks of not being able to control these numbers of Russian travellers, it’s simply a practical challenge do deal with tens of thousands of border crossings on a daily basis for a country with a population of 5.5 million (Finland)

For sure, the numbers are not as high now as they used to be in the peak years before the pandemic at the Finland-Russia border. But back then the requirements on border authorities were not as detailed as now, with the new and quite extensive sanctions on luxury and dual-use goods.

It’s easy for Germany and France to want to keep reaching out to Russian citizens while not having to deal with any of this. And while not surprising, it’s still disappointing that Germany - despite the energy hassle - again is not willing to listen to the states closer by Russia

Germany France should also understand that solidarity is a two-way street. If they expect solidarity on energy, which both currently depend on, they should show understanding and solidarity on matters that affect them to a lesser degree.

[juni-ravenhall]

asking for help from fellow eu ppl on my dash - jobs, studies, place to live.

apparently the """easiest""" way for yasmin to get a swedish spouse visa would be if both of us leave sweden for 6 months, live in another eu country together as a married couple, and then when we re-enter sweden theres apparently a eu law thing that forces sweden to give her a spouse visa since we were already living together in another eu country. (so this is a legal way for poor ppl to get around the money requirement of the regular swedish spouse visa.)

problem is, it means finding a job or uni studies in another eu country so we can move there. we have no savings, no money. either of us could get a job and then move together, if we found a job (i have basically no resume and no degree, but i am an eu citizen so i dont need a work visa, therefore could theoretically do simple work if im able within my handicap - yasmin prob needs a specialist work visa using her design degree).

uni studies would only work if its free for me in that country (eu citizen), then i could potentially study something for 6 months, and hopefully get student money from the government to pay for food (and we need to find a place with cheap rent). in general this whole concept is really difficult when youre as poor as we are (aka barely money for food rn).

if anyone of you knows that its free for me (eu citizen) to study in your country and if you could help me with finding potential uni classes and a place for us to live for a few months, and help with other questions/info about the moving process, please let me know.

if anyone has tips on jobs yasmin could apply for in your eu country, pls let us know - stuff like concept artist or other related to illustration, design, graphics. (since shes not an eu citizen your country might require her job to be specialist to get a work visa, aka use her design/art skills.) and if you could help us with questions and information about the move and finding a place to live as i said above, pls let us know too.

i really wish we lived in a world where someone of you just happen to have an uncle who runs a farm and could pay me minimum wage to help out at the farm for 6 months, bc i could do that. but those kind of things are impossible to find. i really dont know if we can succeed with this eu spouse concept, but im just trying to look into it as much as i can bc we have so few options.

the easiest option rn would be if she gets a job with her degree in finland bc its nearby and i dont even need to do anything as a nordic citizen, i can move there no questions asked. and then we would be in a eu country together + i dont have to push my disabled health to work hard + its easier to move there bc its close. but we're gonna try to look into all eu countries, even if nordics (easy move for me) or germany (i speak some german) or ireland (since we both speak english) are the most convenient options.

if my posts seem stressed and unhinged thats bc i am!!! i dont want my fiance to be sent back to a shit country at war where there is danger!!!! i dont want to be separated from her at all for any reason either!!!!! we are just having a really really horrible time about how to solve our near future!!!!