Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

  • NFH says:
    16 Jun16 June 08:13

    One upside is that UK residents with EU Settled Status will be able to board UK-bound flights with their EU/EEA/CH national identity cards without the current hassle imposed by airlines, because advance passenger information will confirm to the airline that the travel document is exempt from ETA because of the passenger’s EU Settled Status. Despite the UK’s post-Brexit decision to cease accepting EU/EEA/CH national identity cards with effect from 1st October 2021, those with EU Settled Status can continue to enter the UK with biometric identity cards indefinitely, and with non-biometric cards at least until 2025, but many airlines don’t respect this and their staff are pooly trained.

  • JimmyJimmy says:
    16 Jun16 June 08:42

    Does anyone know of a US Esta is also linked to your passport rather than the individual? I have about 18 months on my Esta but renewing Uk passport soon.
    Thanks
    J

    • Mike says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:52

      I believe it’s linked to your passport so you’ll need to reapply.

    • Gordon says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:06

      If you change/Renew or alter information on your passport you will need to apply for a new ESTA.

    • chris1922 says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:30

      Yes, linked to passport. New passport = new ESTA

    • Philondon says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:43

      Does anyone know about the tourist visa? Upto 6 months stay for 10 years? Will it get replaced when my passport expires or will the visa expire with the passport?

      • A350 says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:47

        With a traditional paper visa, most governments allow you to carry your old expired passport (which still has a paper sticker visa in it) for visa purposes whilst travelling with your new passport.

      • KK says:
        16 Jun16 June 13:12

        US 10 year visas can be used along with another passport (technically speaking it’s normally an old expired passport with the visa and an up to date passport of the same country… but not necessarily)

    • sayling says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:45

      I believe you can travel with both until the ESTA expires?

      • lumma says:
        16 Jun16 June 12:05

        No, with a new passport you’re treated as you’ve never visited the USA before with a lot more questions.

        • NorthernLass says:
          16 Jun16 June 13:12

          Yes, I think they re-take your fingerprints as well!

        • dougzz99 says:
          16 Jun16 June 15:47

          Yep, new ESTA is a pain as you frequently end up in a bigger queue that with an ESTA used previously.

  • Philondon says:
    16 Jun16 June 08:52

    Bit sleepy this morning but what about the opposite scheme of Brits travelling to the EU?

    • Icewhite says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:19

      It’s little reported on in the UK press for some reason.

      • Rob says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:21

        They keep pushing the date back. We have mentioned it – it will be total chaos, especially at Eurostar where they are factoring in 3-4 hours check-in times due to the need to fingerprint all UK leavers and the inability to increase the number of desks.

        • NFH says:
          16 Jun16 June 09:33

          Fingerprints and photographs are EES (Entry/Exit System), whereas the EU’s equivalent of the UK’s ETA is ETIAS. Although EES and ETIAS are related with interdependencies, they are separate with different implementation dates. EES, which replaces passport stamping of non-EU/EEA/CH nationals, is due to be implemented before ETIAS.

          • Bagoly says:
            16 Jun16 June 09:58

            And for both EES and ETIAS, the countries are those in either Schengen or (EU other than Outermost Regions) except for Ireland.
            So Romania (EU “mainland”), Iceland (Schengen), Azores (Schengen), but not Reunion (OR and not in Schengen) Saint-Martin (OR and not in Schengen) or Sint Maarten (not in EU or Schengen)

            https://www.etias.info/etias-eu-outermost-regions/

  • Tiger of ham says:
    16 Jun16 June 08:56

    Just a travel tax then.

  • Gordon says:
    16 Jun16 June 09:09

    If this ETA speed up processing at border control I am in favour….

    • A350 says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:51

      It shouldn’t really make any difference IMO. It might mean all ETA nationalities will be able to use e-Gates who aren’t eligible to do so at present. However that just means the queues will be redistributed at the e-Gates instead (unless the number of e-Gates physically increases and even if they do, half of them are seemingly always closed anyway!) and the physical check lines might be shorter. Tbh, the number of people I’ve seen who don’t put their passport in correctly at the e-Gates and take up a solid few minutes to figure it out, can add up and be slow also!

      • Gordon says:
        16 Jun16 June 10:15

        I have used the e-Gates four times this year at LHR also LGW and only twice have I managed to gain entry on the first attempt? The other two times on the second attempt,
        The passport is inserted correctly but the readers are temperamental which can be frustrating for other passengers as it looks like people are not using them correctly!!!!
        But I realise that there is a percentage of passengers that do not use them correctly….

        • lumma says:
          16 Jun16 June 12:12

          The problem with the egates is that they don’t tell you what’s wrong, just to try again, two more times before they send you to “seek assistance”. Some I’ve encountered in other countries tell you to move the passport left or right if it’s not in the exact spot. One time if went to the manned desk and it had failed due to a greasy fingerprint on the passport page

  • Hilda M says:
    16 Jun16 June 09:15

    Are you sure an Irish passport holder is exempt only when travelling from Ireland – I read the Gov website as saying that condition applies to a legal resident of Ireland ??

  • Yona says:
    16 Jun16 June 10:20

    Lovely that they named it as the Basque terrorist group.

    Makes sense … both are the result of people wanting to leave a wider community.

    • NorthernLass says:
      16 Jun16 June 13:15

      What a stupid comment. ETA stands for all sorts of things, Estimated Time of Arrival for one …

      • Rob says:
        16 Jun16 June 13:28

        Reminds me of all those ‘IRA’ posters you get in the windows of US banks.

    • KK says:
      16 Jun16 June 13:16

      technically speaking canada uses the same letters….

  • Derek Broughton says:
    16 Jun16 June 10:32

    The requirement for transitting passengers to have an ETA is quite simple: airlines need to know you have one before they let you onto the plane TO the UK (I had that problem going to Canada via Reykjavik before Brexit–I thought it would be easier to use my UK passport, since… EU, but then at checkin it was “where’s your ETA?” I sheepishly pulled out the correct passport). BA might not like their passengers having to pay the fee, but they’d like less the fines for letting someone on the plane without one.

    • Yakov says:
      16 Jun16 June 11:00

      At the moment the ground crew is definitely trained to handle transit passengers from countries that need visas to enter the UK. Most airlines (except some low-costers) can even figure out how to use the visa concession – a.k.a. transit without a visa – for land transit in under 24 hours.

    • SamG says:
      16 Jun16 June 11:21

      In practice though at Heathrow your passport isn’t checked by UK BF during a transit. But it closes a loophole of someone booking a transit flight and then presenting at the border without authorisation so it makes sense & it does keep things nice and simple for ground crew at outstations – no UK/Irish passport, no visa, no ETA? No boarding.

      Not sure if the EU one is planning to do the same

      • Londonsteve says:
        19 Jun19 June 14:48

        But one would one get an ETA if you don’t have a visa and you’re a passport holder of a country that requires visas to travel to the UK? I can see this complication (if they choose the simpler option of requiring all London-bound passengers to have an ETA) will result in a reduction of transit passengers using BA or choosing to connect between two different airlines at Heathrow.

    • KK says:
      16 Jun16 June 13:18

      Your destination is Canada (assuming a KEF transit) and you didn’t show a Canadian passport?

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points (converts to 20,000 Avios) with 'first year free' American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!