Travel Thursday: Veuillez répondre en anglais

Arthur Frommer's Europe on $XX a Day got me through my Europe backpacking trip when I was in university. I still like reading what he has to say, and enjoyed his recent observations on US entry requirements for foreigners.

"The new Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which went into effect last month, requires that those desirable foreign tourists who are permitted to enter our country without a visa (mainly from western Europe), will nevertheless have to send us an e-mail three days in advance of arrival requesting the right to come (see https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov). Such tourists are presented with numerous questions they must answer, which they can access in any of 20 different foreign languages. If they click the word "French," and receive the French-language translation of the instructions, they are then asked: "Veuillez répondre à toutes les questions en anglais" (Please respond to all questions in English). If they click the words "Spanish", they are asked: "Por favor reponda todo en inglés" (Please answer everything in English). And so on."

Frommer has more to say about it in his blog post. While Canadians visiting the US are increasingly faced with more stringest security requirements, we are fortunately exempt from the need for a travel visa.