Country Overview

Together with other European nations like Belgium and Germany, the Netherlands founded the European Union in 1958. In 1995, the Netherlands joined forces with France, Luxembourg, Germany, and Belgium to create the Schengen Area.
Being a founding nation of both the Schengen and EU, the Dutch government has occupied an influential post in all EU-related discussions. As of lately, one of the major concerns of the government of the Netherlands and the other Member States has been the security of the European community. This is due to a series of terrorist attacks that hit France, Belgium, and Germany in 2015 and 2016, as well as an uncontrolled number of illegal immigrants in European territory.
Hence, EU member countries began to discuss ways to redesign their immigration policies and entry/exit systems. One of the alternatives proposed by the European Commission was the introduction of an online pre-travel authorization system that would give EU authorities more information about people coming in and out of Europe. The EU commission named this new program ETIAS, or European Travel and Information Authorization System, and has planned to implement it as of 2021.
EU nationals don’t need to worry about the ETIAS as it won’t affect travel regulations between the Schengen Member States. However, countries which are part of the Schengen visa-waiver agreement – like Canada, Australia, or Japan – will need a valid ETIAS in order to travel to the Netherlands after 2021. With the ETIAS, the period of stay in the Schengen territory for visa-exempt countries will remain 90 days in every 180 days. The difference will be that they will have to submit an application and pay a fee before boarding an international carrier.