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Visiting the UK? The Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme is finally launching

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After numerous delays, the UK is finally about to join the United States, Canada and various other countries in launching an Electronic Travel Authorisation programme.

This will force most people visiting the United Kingdom who do not require a visa to apply for entry permission in advance of travel.

The guinea pig is …. Qatar

For reasons unknown – given that Qatar only has around 300,000 passport holders – it has been chosen to pilot the scheme.

UK Electronic Travel Authorisation

From 15th November 2023, any Qatari passport holders who want to visit the UK will need to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation.

The application system does not open until 15th October so it isn’t clear at this point what sort of information will be required.

From 22nd February 2024, the list expands to:

  • Bahrain
  • Jordan
  • Kuwait
  • Oman
  • Saudi Arabia
  • United Arab Emirates

Further countries will be added later.

Who is exempt from an ETA?

You will not need an ETA if you have:

  • a British or Irish passport
  • permission to live, work or study in the UK, or
  • a visa to enter the UK

Confusingly, Irish residents (non passport holders) are only exempt if they enter the UK from Ireland, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. They will need to apply if entering from any other country.

What will it cost and how long will it take?

The Government is promising to turn around applications in three working days.

All travellers, including babies, must have their own ETA.

The cost is £10 per person.

How long will an Electronic Travel Authority last?

Your ETA will last for two years.

However, it is linked to your passport, not to you personally. If you renew your passport, you will need to apply for a fresh ETA.

You can find out more on the ETA website here. Confusingly, the video on that page says that an ETA will be required by anyone in transit through the UK, but I assume this only applies to those who leave the airport. I’m sure British Airways would be up in arms if transit passengers at Heathrow had to pay £10 for the privilege. (EDIT: Apparently it IS true ….)

Category

General

Comments (137)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Blenz101 says:
    16 Jun16 June 04:57

    So presumably a border required in Northern Ireland given it will be possible to enter Ireland without a UK issued ETA but to travel into NI and beyond will require an ETA?

    • LittleNick says:
      16 Jun16 June 07:04

      If your a non-UK/Irish passport holder yes, if you cross into NI from ROI then you will need to complete, in practice not sure how enforceable it would be

    • NFH says:
      16 Jun16 June 07:10

      This doesn’t require a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. For example, several nationalities (e.g. South Africans) can enter Ireland visa-free but need a visa for the UK, and this doesn’t require a hard border.

      However, it is worrying for example that a Spanish citizen living in County Donegal, and flying from PMI to LDY, will have to pay £10 for the UK’s ETA, otherwise the airline will deny boarding at PMI and UK Border Force at LDY will deny entry.

      • John says:
        16 Jun16 June 08:35

        It does require a hard border if they want to enforce it, but the authorities have decided to only enforce it sporadically.

        In practice Northern Ireland is visa-free for South Africans, but if they take a ferry from NI to England or Scotland they may be caught and removed from the UK, and they won’t be allowed back into Ireland either.

        • PeteM says:
          16 Jun16 June 11:38

          If you are banned (and/or even deported) from the UK, particularly as an EU national, re-entering via Ireland – Northern Ireland – ferry is the route to go, virtually no chance of getting caught. Then exit via a ferry to Holland or France, if you so please, or back to Ireland.

          • Brian says:
            16 Jun16 June 13:52

            Pete M – have you taken a ferry from Ireland to the UK? You have to fill in API information. They regularly carry out immigration checks. The risks of you getting caught is not zero.

          • Londonsteve says:
            19 Jun19 June 12:33

            I think he meant taking the ferry back to NI where no immigration checks will be conducted because it counts as a domestic trip, whereafter you cross the border into RoI also without checks. You would appear to have stayed in RoI the whole time as far as the Irish or UK authorities are concerned.

      • Charles Martel says:
        16 Jun16 June 11:59

        If valid for two years it works out at 17p a month, I doubt that’s going to be too onerous for Spanish expats in Ireland needing to fly to NI.

        • Blenz101 says:
          16 Jun16 June 12:21

          The was more that there is an incredibly obvious way around the system rather than the cost. It achieves nothing and presumably inconveniences thousands.

          I know during covid I avoided countries with onerous forms and hoops to jump through. Skipped Seychelles because of the nonsense required beyond test result.

          • PeteM says:
            16 Jun16 June 14:27

            I said Northern Ireland, Brian, not Ireland. Are you suggesting immigration checks are being carried out inside UK territory?

        • NFH says:
          16 Jun16 June 15:25

          You’re missing the point. It’s not about the £10 fee, but an impediment to EU/EEA/CH nationals exercising their freedom of movement between Ireland and Spain and transiting Northern Ireland in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. This is very different from South Africans straying across the border into Northern Ireland, because this concerns EU/EEA nationals and Ireland is an EU and EEA member.

  • BJ says:
    16 Jun16 June 05:25

    TBC –

    Taking Back Control, To Be Confirmed,
    To Be Chaotic,
    To Be Cancelled?

    Any combination of the above, or all of the above – take your pick.

  • Linda says:
    16 Jun16 June 05:27

    You do need an Esta if transmitting through the US so maybe an ETA will be required when transmitting through the Uk. Interesting!

    • CamFlyer says:
      16 Jun16 June 05:37

      I don’t think Heathrow is set up for immigration checks during airside transfers.

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        16 Jun16 June 05:43

        The ETA will be enforced I presume as part of APIS so would be required before departure

      • LittleNick says:
        16 Jun16 June 07:06

        If you haven’t done an ETA then presumably you will be denied boarding at the departure airport, which is why transit passengers need to complete

      • LittleNick says:
        16 Jun16 June 07:06

        If you haven’t done an ETA then presumably you will be denied boarding at the departure airport, which is why transit passengers need to complete

      • John says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:54

        T2 and T5 are set up for immigration, as you can transfer from an international inbound to a domestic flight.

        But “airside transfer” doesn’t truly physically exist in the UK. Only LHR, LGW and MAN can do it anyway, using the stupid “biometrics” system to stop people who didn’t pass through immigration from boarding a domestic flight.

        Other UK airports are like the US, you have to be inside the UK before you can depart from them.

        This might catch out some people who are self-connecting on easyjet through airports like LTN – they already get caught out by having to go through UK immigration but in the future they won’t be able to board the first flight.

    • Kwab says:
      16 Jun16 June 05:40

      It does say though even if not going through border control. They will probably ask airlines to check.

    • riku says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:17

      can you really transit (or transmit) at a US airport without ESTA? Since they do not have the concept of airside transfers for international flights you must go through immigration and the back through security even if flying something like LHR-DFW-GRU. From what I read you need an ESTA for transit in the USA. Otherwise you could just walk out of the airport and be in the USA without needing an ESTA.

      • John says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:37

        The airside departures areas of all US airports are “inside the USA”, so yes, anyone who wants to take a flight out of the US, who is not already inside the US, has to pass through immigration first.

  • Adam says:
    16 Jun16 June 05:46

    Website quite clear on needing one:

    *transit through the UK – including if you’re not going through UK border control

  • Chas says:
    16 Jun16 June 06:10

    “For reasons unknown – given that Qatar only has around 300,000 passport holders – it has been chosen to pilot the scheme.“

    I think that they have so few passport holders is exactly the reason why they have been chosen for the pilot.

    • zapato1060 says:
      16 Jun16 June 06:20

      There’s 510 peeps in Vatican City, maybe they could have trialled with them.

      • AJA says:
        16 Jun16 June 08:41

        How many of those 510 Vaticani* travel to the UK on a regular basis?

        * what is the collective term for Vatican City citizens? Cardinals or bishops perhaps?

      • John says:
        16 Jun16 June 08:47

        Almost all of them have Italian, Swiss or other country passports, and if they use Vatican passports they are mostly diplomatic / official

    • Bagoly says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:37

      Makes a lot of sense – rolling out by starting small is a good idea which should be applied to many more projects.

  • NFH says:
    16 Jun16 June 07:16

    I don’t like this trend by developed countries of introducing chargeable e-visas for visitors from other developed countries. It’s a shame that the UK has jumped on this silly bandwagon. Being Irish, I’m lucky to be the only nationality that will be exempt from both the EU’s €7 ETIAS and the UK’s £10 ETA.

    • NorthernLass says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:17

      Presumably only if you hold both Irish and UK passports though? As noted, Irish passport holders will need an ETA to enter the UK from outside the CTA.

      • Brian P says:
        16 Jun16 June 08:31

        Irish residents not passport holders .. Irish are treated as British by UK government.

        • Michael says:
          16 Jun16 June 21:28

          Yes, Irish are not treated as aliens by UK government. The advantage is right to enter, work etc. The disadvantage is no rights to diplomatic assistance etc….

          • ADS says:
            17 Jun17 June 01:23

            there is no “right” to diplomatic assistance … but if you visit a British embassy in a city without an Irish embassy … I’m pretty sure they will help most Irish passport holders as much as they can (obviously unable to issue you a passport) … unless you’re really annoying !

      • A350 says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:43

        It’s only Irish residents (not Irish citizens) who will require this if travelling from outside the CTA. Irish citizens remain exempt irrespective of where they’re travelling from/to.

      • KK says:
        16 Jun16 June 13:07

        Irish passport are exempt – pretending that to be a UK passport…

  • Kwab says:
    16 Jun16 June 07:46

    What about the countries like Japan, Canada, etc who can currently use the e-gates? Will they now need an ETA and would the e-gates recognise that?

    • John says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:50

      They will need it eventually, and it’s not really the egates that need to recognise it, it gets checked at check-in and boarding. But you do raise a question, if you have your ETA linked to say a US passport but then use your Canadian passport at the egates, will it work?

      • Bagoly says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:37

        Presumably not. And even more reason to enter-and-leave a country on the same passport.
        You show the airline the passport, and not ESTA/ETIA/ETA etc for the destination airport.
        At exit check (most countries except the UK) you show the one on which you came in.

        • John says:
          16 Jun16 June 09:45

          Well yes you show the airline the passport, but it has to be the one with the electronic authorisation attached.

          I wonder if the UK ETA application will require you to declare you are not British or Irish, which could mean that an Irish/American citizen who only has a US passport may be forced to get an Irish passport in order to fly to the UK from outside the CTA.

          However US citizens have been able to get ESTAs on foreign passports and Australian citizens have been able to get ETAs/eVisitors on their foreign passports by falsely declaring they are not citizens. They present their (usually recently expired) US/AU passport or other proof of citizenship to immigration.

        • Derek Broughton says:
          16 Jun16 June 10:43

          It’s not even _possible_ to enter and leave on the same passport. To enter the UK, where I work, I must use my UK passport. To enter Canada, which is home, I am legally required to use my Canadian passport. Since both have ETAs (or will), I have to leave Canada using my British passport, and vice versa.

          • Jane says:
            16 Jun16 June 10:59

            But surely you are entering and leaving on the same passport? You are entering and leaving Canada on the Canadian passport, and entering and leaving the U.K. on the British one.

          • KK says:
            16 Jun16 June 13:10

            na. In canada, you show airline staff your UK passport, then exit with Canadian
            In UK, you show airline staff your Canadian passport, then board the plane.

          • jjoohhnn says:
            16 Jun16 June 14:30

            Leave Canada on UK passport, arrive UK, present UK passport. Leave UK on Canadian passport, arrive Canada, present Canadian passport. Seems like that would work ok?

          • Rhys says:
            16 Jun16 June 14:56

            I always take my UK anf Ferman passport with me for this reason. It’s no real hassle.

          • Londonsteve says:
            19 Jun19 June 12:46

            I’m a UK/EU dual national, I have my UK passport details registered with the airlines so I show this at check in no matter where I am and enter the EU with my EU passport to pass arrival immigration. Naturally, I again present the EU passport to border officials when exiting the EU but check in with my UK passport. Airline staff are solely interested that the details between the passport and ticket match and you’re allowed to travel to your destination country without a visa (or you have one), not the immigration status of the passport in the country you’re departing from.

  • Gagravarr says:
    16 Jun16 June 08:07

    Qatar was chosen for the pilot because it replaces the current Electronic Visa Waiver (EVW) scheme where visitors to the UK from GCC states pay for a single-use visit waiver. So, it’s actually an improvement for what they have now!

    Less so for almost everyone else when it gets more rollout…

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