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Comment by DSingularity | Hacker News Reader

Why do you think Eric has problems traveling?

It's not about traveling. It's about staying as long as he wants to and whenever he wants to. American citizens are limited to staying 90 days (in any 180 day period) in the EU as tourists. An EU passport would allow him for example to take a 6-month vacation in France.

EDIT: The 90/180 rule is for the Schengen area, not the whole EU, and, yes, that includes Switzerland, which is not in the EU. Not sure what the rules are for the rest of the EU, but he probably cares about Schengen anyway.

Americans are currently blocked from travel to many countries, European included, due to the bungling of their Covid 19 response.

> Americans are currently blocked from travel to many countries, European included, due to the bungling of their Covid 19 response

These rules are littered with loopholes. If you work media, you (and your staff and family and apparently girlfriend) get a free pass in Portugal and Italy.

I just got back from a wedding in Germany—just had to quarantine in London for two weeks first.

Link? I'm trying to get to Germany and would like to avoid 2 weeks in Mexico first if possible

They tightened the rules on 2 November [1]. (I flew back that day.) U.K. is still on a preferred list.

[1] https://www.germany.info/us-en/coronavirus/2317268

Please don’t try to find loopholes in the quarantine rules. They have been put in place for a reason.

To be clear, I'm not looking for a loophole. If I wanted to break the rules that's easy enough. I only want to understand the full slate of rule-abiding options available to me. Is that unreasonable?

edit: I guess it must be since I got downvoted. Wish they would explain their reasoning

The US is a big place, more akin to the entire EU than any one European country. Certain regions and states in the US have handled Covid much better than certain regions and states in the EU, and vice versa.

But on aggregate, Europe and the US have both massively bungled their Covid responses.

For what it's worth, the US is outperforming several EU member states with fewer deaths per population.

Overall the US has double the Covid infection rate and double the Covid death rate of Europe. Cherry picking doesn't matter because you could do the same with certain states.

Outperforming indeed.

How is musk traveling to germany. I guess he is taking interviews in Berlin

I’m sorry, but this is missing the point. You’re forbidden from traveling FROM a country on whatever list (some are outright lists, some are based on the infection rate, etc.).

Traveling FROM the US is the problem, regardless of where your passport is from. Getting a passport (or even a residence card) from an EU country would only allow you to get back to THAT country, it doesn’t just suddenly open up the world to you.

Well, yes, but if you are traveling to a country where you have a citizenship, it's considered repatriation, so travel rules do not apply (but you usually have different set of rules to abide). And a completely different set of rules also applies for international truck drivers, another for cross-country commuters, etc.

With a dozen or so asterisks, you are correct. Poland stopped all traffic at its border during the last lockdown, for instance.

You mean this https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fco-statement-on-poland-t... ?

Slovakia had a similar traffic stop. People had to cross the border crossings on foot - and international trade was exempt from this.

Also, when they crossed, they were loaded on buses and sent to mandatory 14 day quarantine to state facilities.

AFAIK only Belarus forbids repatriation, and it has more to do with the demonstrations against the regime than COVID.

The Schengen Area ( /ˈʃɛŋən/) is an area comprising 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement signed in Schengen, Luxembourg. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

I’m sorry, have you lived in Europe recently? Paid any attention to the news this year? Every country in that agreement reserves the right to restrict travel in times of emergency. Pandemics apply. For instance:

Estonia forbids travel from any country with an infection rate higher than x/100k (x keeps changing...)

During the first pandemic lockdown the Baltics were open at first, then Finland shut their borders, then they all shut their borders.

Poland agreed to let people traverse the country... then decided not to. Estonia had to send a ship to rescue citizens from the Polish border.

For a while a few months ago you couldn’t come to Estonia from the UK, but if you flew into Helsinki and then flew to Estonia it was fine.

Know your facts.

Hum yes, I'm French and have lived here for about 30 years or so. Travel across the EU is much much easier if you're a EU citizen, ceteris paribus.

It's actually pretty funny that you would refer to that convoluted situation where one would have to fly first to Helsinki then to Estonia, considering both Finland and Estonia are in Schengen so no document would be required of an EU citizen to adapt their travel plans at the last minute.

Well then you haven’t paid attention to anything this year. Schengen means nothing during Corona.

> Traveling FROM the US is the problem, regardless of where your passport is from.

Which is why he would be traveling from Cyprus

No... if he flies from JFK to Cyprus he’ll be allowed. That doesn’t mean that he can connect through to London or Dubai without being stopped. It also doesn’t mean that spending the night there suddenly opens up the world to him - if you’ve been in a (for lack of a better term) “blacklisted” country in the last 14 days you still have to quarantine.

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