ETIAS Visa Waiver for Travelers from Guatemala

Despite the two-decade-long war on terror and lengthy struggles for peace, the world is a more dangerous place than ever. It is a difficult time for the movement of people, with every individual being treated as a potential threat to their destination nation. Like most other administrations, the EU has had to implement new immigration rules for their security.

The EU has followed the lead of nations like the USA, to create a visa waiver program to screen visitors more thoroughly. The program is offered to "safe" nations as a simpler alternative to a visa for short-term travel.

The EU's visa waiver system is the planned ETIAS (European Travel Information Authorisation System), which will apply to the citizens of 60 nations, including Guatemala. Guatemalan applicants will have their data cross-referenced with Interpol databases to ensure that it is safe for the EU to grant them entrance.

The ETIAS visa waiver is aimed at Guatemalans who are planning short-term travel to the EU, and they will have the right to make their planned trip any time within three years of making their application.

The ETIAS visa gives Guatemalans the right to visit all the nations listed below.

The listed nations feature all the Schengen states, both EU and non-EU, and the micro-states that are unofficially part of the area. These nations have not signed the agreement, but their territory is within Schengen Etias countries.

Any travel into the Schengen area will necessitate an ETIAS visa waiver, regardless of the age or status of the Guatemalan.

However, if the Guatemalan is an older individual or a minor, they will not have to pay an application fee. Perhaps the EU assumes that the old and the young pose less of a threat.

The ETIAS visa waiver is only required if a Guatemalan is visiting the Schengen area for a short period of less than 90 days. That does not mean Guatemalans are free to travel without any documentation, and they should be careful to make sure they have the necessary visas in place.

Guatemalans should remember that the launch date of the ETIAS visa waiver is January 2023, and they will need to arrange the usual documentation for travel into the Schengen area until then.

Guatemalan's have to carry out fairly substantial preparations to apply for ETIAS visa, including some documentation and thorough questions. They must be careful to complete their application properly and truthfully, because if falsified information is found during the cross-check with Interpol's database, then the Guatemalan's application is unlikely to be successful. The required documents are...

The question subjects are...

Additional information may be requested to clarify discrepancies, but this does not suggest that an application is headed for rejection. Usually, this will only delay an application by three days, and the Guatemalan will still have a 95% chance of their application being approved.

ETIAS will have an inbuilt appeal process, whereby rejections will often come with a request for more information or documentation.

Once the request is in place, the Guatemalan will have 96 hours to supply the requested documentation, and then the receiving nation will have four weeks to come to a decision.

Suppose that a Guatemalan has their ETIAS applications repeatedly rejected. They may have more luck making an application for a standard visa, available for stays of longer than 90 days.