Episode 103: UK ETA Update + That’s Immi-tainment Faves
This episode of the BAL Immigration Report is brought to you by BAL, the corporate immigration law firm that powers human achievement through immigration expertise, people-centered client services and innovative technology. Learn more at BAL.com.
In our last episode of the year, Jonathan Nagel provides an advisory update on the new European travel systems, and Gabriel Castro and Kristi Ngo suggest their favorite immigration-themed books, movies and media you may want to explore over the holidays.
From Dallas, Texas, I’m Rebecca Sanabria.
In a follow-up to an earlier episode on the launch of the European Travel Information and Authorization System, or ETIAS, BAL’s Jonathan Nagel, a senior associate in the Boston office, provides a quick update on its rollout continuing into 2025 and discusses the latest developments in the U.K.’s new Electronic Travel Authorization. Both systems were designed with the intent to better document and manage visa-waived citizens.
[The following transcript has been slightly edited from the original audio for clarity.]
Nagel: With regards to the European Union, the ETIAS, which is the European Travel Information and Authorization System, [which was] originally going to come out earlier this year, [it] has been postponed yet again for a mid-2025 rollout. We’re expecting some type of summer rollout and, fingers crossed, we don’t see it punted down the road again for what I believe may be a third time.
Shifting over across the channel, the U.K. has already had a system in place, but it is finally rolling it out to the rest of the world and our clients and their employee population at large. That is the U.K.’s Electronic Travel Authorization [system]. This is their ETA in short.
To compare it to a U.S. immigration system, [it is] similar to the ESTA Visa Waiver Program that we have in the United States. They want all of the originally visa-waived citizens — people that did not need a visa to enter the U.K. for things like tourism or business meetings, such as U.S. citizens, Canadian, German, Japanese — [to] obtain an electronic travel authorization prior to flying to the United Kingdom.
This is a fairly simple concept, but it is an extra step, and this is being rolled out in pieces. It is currently rolled out for a very small subset of the world, but there are going to be two subsequent rollouts.
For non-European citizens around the world that would otherwise have not needed a visa, starting Jan. 8 they will need this ETA. The website and the app have already gone live as of Nov. 27. If you have any eligible non-EU nationals that will be traveling to the U.K. effective Jan. 8, 2025, they will need this ETA. You can already apply for one that went live Nov. 27. It is a fairly simple online process to get that done.
There will be a subsequent rollout later in 2025 targeting the EU citizens that I mentioned before. Come April 2, all European nationals will also require the ETA to enter the United Kingdom. Again, their ability to apply will start before April 2 (so in this case, March 5), but come April 2 that will mean every single visa-waived national traveling to the U.K. as a visitor, be it for business meetings or tourism, will require an ETA prior to travel.
How to get the ETA? That’s very straightforward. The U.K. government has rolled out an app online that they will direct you to download in order to get it because, of course, there’s an app for that. But the actual process [involves] a very short online form that you can fill out yourself, a nominal fee that you’ll pay online, and you should expect the approval fairly quickly, same day, if not a few days later.
Obviously, there’s always the chance that someone somewhere will not be able to take advantage of the app. Something will go wrong. There could be a technical error, or perhaps there’s something flagged on your file for one reason or another and you’re unable to utilize it or get it as quickly as everyone else you might know. But the vast majority of people should be able to simply download this app, go online and get their ETA with relative ease. That said, that doesn’t mean that this is not a concern for companies and our clients around the world.
Although this might be something simple that your employees can manage themselves and something that the rest of the world will obviously have to come to grips with, it is a significant change. We’re talking about visa policies that have been in place for decades having a shift. Again, although the process itself is simple for the individual, the fact that someone has to do anything to travel to the U.K. when they haven’t had to for their entire life at this point, if they’re a U.S. citizen or a Canadian citizen, is going to be a significant change.
What we recommend is any signposting you can around this topic will be beneficial to your population, be that white papers, be that referencing the publications we put out or be that even including it in an all-hands [meeting]. We do not want your employees to be surprised and showing up at an airport on Jan. 9 having not obtained their ETA, only [to be told] they cannot board their flight to the U.K. and a panicked email goes out to everyone that they know about what they can do to get this in the next two hours.
The two takeaways are: It’s a simple process that your employees can manage, but it is a very large global shift in how travel is done to the U.K., which means we need to repeat, repeat, repeat that this is coming down the road and that your employees and your population need to be aware of it.
It is not meant to be a visa. It is not meant to somehow force U.S. citizens to get a consular visa to go to the U.K for the first time in what would be decades. It is truly meant to find a way for these governments to get a better handle on populations that are moving in and out of the country, especially those visa-waived citizens who have historically not had to take any action prior to travel.
Get more travel advisory updates affecting foreign national employees at bal.com.
In a special holiday segment we’re calling “That’s Immi-tainment,” BAL’s Gabriel Castro and Kristi Ngo in the Los Angeles office discuss their favorite immigration-themed books, movies and other media.
[The following transcript has been slightly edited from the original audio for clarity.]
Castro: We’re here, the BAL Sports and Entertainment team, and we are talking about immigration and entertainment. Typically, I don’t consider my work to be that entertaining, but I do — I have found many instances of interesting immigration stories in popular media.
If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably like me and Kristi. You’re an immigration nerd and you want to get into diving deeper into the world of immigration. So we have some recommendations for you.
Kristi, you excited about this?
Ngo: Yeah, I’m excited. I don’t know about you, [but] I find our work to be so entertaining, and it’s very appropriate that we’re part of the entertainment team, not only providing entertainment ourselves but also doing the entertainment visas.
Castro: Well, I’ll tell you one thing I’m excited about is that I love the BAL Immigration Report. I love coming on and talking about the things that we know so much about, like O-1 visas and the mix. But I think we’re going to have more fun with this. I’m so excited to talk about movies, books, podcasts, kids’ movies.
Let’s go ahead and get started. We’ll go back and forth in each of these categories. Where do you want to start? What are you excited about?
Ngo: I think we’re both big movie nerds, so let’s start with the movies. I have some thrillers in here.
Castro: All right. Tell me about tell me about an immigration thriller.
Ngo: One of the ones that I picked was “Upon Entry,” which is Spanish. I would call this a suspense film, which follows a couple on their immigrant entry into the U.S. They have their visas. They’re trying to get in and they are taken into secondary inspection.
Castro: This is a real movie?
Ngo: This is a real movie. I think it’s based on the theater’s experience with the U.S. immigration process. This may be more for people who are trying to empathize and understand the immigrant perspective rather than the potential green card applicants, [who] maybe [shouldn’t] watch this. It will give you nightmares. It’s a tense movie. There [are] not that many settings, but it’s a very intimate experience about how that feels. [It’s a] very cool and unusual film.
Castro: So the plot of the film is a couple gets put in secondary inspection? Kristi, this sounds like the most boring movie ever.
Ngo: And there’s twists. I’ll add that it won some kind of award.
Castro: All right, Kristi starting us off strong with a very indie film. I think we can get into some more fun stuff. I want to see something more allegorical. This is actually a very interesting sci-fi film that came out a few years ago, “Elysium” starring Matt Damon.
This is a very interesting movie. The entire story is about the immigration process. Matt Damon was wearing some sort of mech suit that he’s fighting in. He’s fighting to immigrate, actually [gain] an illegal entry into a moon of the Earth somehow for the purposes of getting better medical care. Very, very interesting allegory, but also kind of a fun watch.
What else do you have in movies, Kristi?
Ngo: My next one is “Brooklyn.” It’s an adapted movie from a book about Irish immigrants. I think it was like in the 1950s. I think it was interesting because it deals with juggling your multiple identities and lies between the U.S. and then your home country. Although we say home country, as the movie says over and over, “home is home” and establishing like where that could be and how you could have more than one home and feel loyalty, identity in multiple places.
Castro: It’s great. Who’s in that?
Ngo: Saoirse Ronan.
Castro: I was hoping you wouldn’t know how to say her name.
Ngo: I know how to say “Elysium.” Yeah, I did say dammit there. I don’t think they include that on the podcast.
Castro: I want to do one more movie and then we can move on to another category. I do want to call out some of my honorable mentions, particularly “The Godfather 2,” which is a great story. I mean, obviously it’s a great movie on its own, but it does tell the immigrant story of Vito Corleone. That’s sort of a prequel for his character in the first “Godfather.”
And then one of my favorite movies of all time is “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which is about so many things, about so many things, but at its heart, it’s the story of an immigrant family trying to make it in the U.S.
But what I really want to talk about is a movie that came out in 2024 called “Problemista.” This is from Julio Torres of Saturday Night Live fame. He has an HBO show called “Los Espookys.” [“Problemista” is] kind of a surrealist take on the U.S. immigration system. This is the only one out of everything that we’ve talked about where it’s actually employment-based immigration that we’re talking about. He is looking for a sponsor for his visa.
The sponsor in the movie, the potential sponsor, is played by Tilda Swinton, who’s kind of just a nightmare to deal with. Very funny. Very interesting. It sort of shows what kind of surrealist nightmare the U.S. immigration system can sometimes feel like, which is not what it feels like when you’re working with BAL because we have such great customer service that can help solve problems.
Kristi, you got any honorable mentions before we move on?
Ngo: It’s not an honorable mention. I was going to save this for my last — “Minari.” This is a really, really great one. It’s an A24, apparently semi-autobiographical movie about a family of South Korean immigrants who moved to rural Arkansas. It’s had numerous movie nominations and won a Golden Globe Award for best foreign language film.
It’s a really tender, pretty realistic portrayal of the struggles immigrant families [have] adjusting to life in the U.S. [It] explores economic difficulties they experience, cultural differences, generational conflicts, and then working through the desire of assimilating to the U.S. and retaining your cultural heritage.
As a first-generation Asian American, this particularly resonated with me. I particularly identified with the young boy in the movie with the introduction of the grandmother character who really represented the cultural heritage while he’s struggling with that in the U.S.
Castro: That’s great. I still haven’t seen it. I know it was well regarded, very many Oscar noms. I like Steven Yeun.
Okay, so let’s talk books. I got one, a book that I really love. It was called “Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success.” This was a very interesting book that actually broke down the data of U.S. immigrants throughout time to look at different either stereotypes or mythologies about the immigrant process in the United States.
They really tackled some of the ones that were most commonly held, like, for example, people changing their name at Ellis Island or the idea that immigrants are more successful in America or anything like that. They look at these ideas and they take the data and apply it.
If you’re like me and you read FiveThirtyEight or [listen to the] “Freakonomics” podcast or whatever, this is a good book for you.
All right. Podcasts. Kristi, do you have a good podcast for us?
Ngo: If you’re like me who likes being told rather than reading the books, then a podcast is the way to go. First, shout out to the BAL Immigration Podcast. You’re already listening to it, but making sure that you remember we have regular podcasts, always about very interesting immigration subjects, where you also get to hear from people like us, immigration specialists.
So podcasts. I think there’s multiple kinds dealing with the history of U.S. immigration. “Freakonomics” did a fantastic four-parter called “The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System.” As the title suggests, it’s supremely messed up. They not only go over the history but also what are the obstacles preventing the immigration system from being improved. There’s been no meaningful regulations since the 1990s, even though evidence shows that immigrants benefit from immigration, the United States benefits from immigration.
And that is supported by the other podcasts I listen to, which includes “Code Switch: 100 Years of Immigration Policies” and “Science Vs.” I just like “Science Vs” because she is hilarious.
So those are some podcasts to catch. Another one I’d like to give a shout out to is “Throughline: By Accident of Birth,” which goes over the historical case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark. If you are an immigration nerd, you should already know that case. But if not, it deals with an Asian American who had difficulty confirming his U.S. citizenship, even though he was born in the United States, because of his race. So interesting story to know.
Castro: I was going to try to break in — “Science Vs” or “Science Vs Immigration”?
Ngo: The podcast is called “Science Vs.” The episode is about immigration, titled “Immigration.”
Castro: We’re almost done. I want to talk about kids’ movies. We’re talking about “American Tail,” Fievel. This is a classic, classic kids’ movie all about moving to the U.S. and the immigrant story, especially from a 1900, early 1900s, late 1800s perspective.
It’s a sweet story about Fievel trying to find his family. I haven’t seen it a long time, so don’t ask me for the synopsis, but I do remember crying as a child. I also like the sequel, “Fievel Goes West,” where [he] becomes a cowboy. But I don’t think it tackles the same serious issues in that one.
Something that I didn’t even realize was an immigration story, and that’s the Pixar film “Elemental.” Really beautiful movie about a city where all the different elements live together: water, fire, grass, ground, dirt. But it actually, it tells it from the perspective of an immigrant family that moves into Element City. It’s sort of a classic love story, but also with the beautiful design that comes with watching a Pixar film. They really make the colors pop when they’re showing the different elements and everything. I really appreciated it.
Ngo: You cannot go wrong with a Pixar movie.
Castro: That brings us to our next topic, and that is TV.
I do want to talk about a show that I love. I will disclaim it’s quite a rated R show, listeners, but if you’re if you’re up for that, FX has a show called “Ramy” starring the comedian Ramy Youssef. Most of the show talks about his experience being an Egyptian American living in New Jersey.
But there’s one show in particular, one episode in particular, that really struck me. I mean, just an amazing, amazing episode. In this episode, his mother is applying for citizenship. And just seeing her and the stress that she’s going through on this day where she’s going through the process that she’s so close to her final, final step in her immigration journey that she’s worried about. At the very end, you do get to see her and her oath ceremony.
It’s a really special moment. And it’s not exactly sweet — it’s actually kind of really bittersweet. She’s very angry about it. It is an episode of the second season, season two, episode six. It’s called “They.” A very, very powerful episode, one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen on immigration. But again, very rated R. So listeners, just be aware when you’re listening to it.
Anything else? Is there another television show we want to talk about?
Ngo: “Mork and Mindy” was my first thought.
Castro: “Mork and Mindy,” great immigrant story.
There’s a show, very, very important show, about a house of immigrants living in Staten Island. They’re also vampires, but they’re primarily immigrants for the purpose of this story. It’s called “What We Do in the Shadows.” Very fun show.
All right. Well, on to the next one where we will be talking about things we saw in the park that reminds us of immigration.
Ngo: Spoiler—it’s birds.
And now, the top U.S. and global immigration news.
This week, the Department of Homeland Security issued final rules modernizing the H-1B visa program and amending regulations to H-2 programs. Both rules include clarification of program requirements, more flexibility for petitioners and beneficiaries, and substantive measures to strengthen program integrity.
DHS also announced a final rule which permanently increases the automatic extension period for certain renewal applicants with expiring Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) up to 540 days.
The January 2025 Visa Bulletin was released with Dates for Filing remaining the same for EB-1, 2 and 3 categories.
In global news, the European Commission proposed a progressive start of operations for the new digital border Entry/Exit System. The proposed plan still needs to be approved, and then a date for the start of the system will be set by the Commission.
The U.K. government announced expired physical documentation will be accepted for international travel after Dec. 31 until March 2025 for visa holders making the transition to the new eVisa system.
Find all of our news at BAL.com/news. Follow us on X at @BAL_Immigration. And sign up to receive daily immigration updates in your inbox at BAL.com/newsletter.
We’ll be back on Jan. 9 with more insights from the world of corporate immigration.
I’m Rebecca Sanabria. Thanks for listening and have a wonderful holiday.
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The BAL Immigration Report is provided by BAL. Copyright 2024 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. This report does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Visit bal.com for more information.