Since 2 April 2025, European travellers need an ETA or UK visa to travel to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Applying for an ETA is easier, quicker and cheaper than applying for a visa. To qualify for the ETA, you must meet all the requirements mentioned on this page.

The ETA UK: a mandatory travel authorisation

If you are travelling to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you must apply for an ETA UK or visa before departure. The UK ETA is a mandatory electronic travel authorisation for all continental Europeans intending to travel to the UK without a visa. Under certain conditions, it is possible to make a stop over in the UK without an ETA or visa. Formally, the ETA UK is not a visa, but a special travel authorisation. You have to apply for the ETA UK beforehand, as you need produce your travel authorisation upon departure. You can easily submit your application in only a few minutes via this website. You don't need to download any app.

Apply for your UK ETA for the United Kingdom here

In which cases is the ETA UK not necessary? If you already have a valid UK visa, you don't need to apply for an UK ETA. Residents of Ireland, Irish passport holders and holders of passports issued by one of the UK nations don't need to apply for a UK ETA either. Furthermore, there is an exception for people who have a UK residence permit (pre-settled or settled status). In all these cases, an ETA is not required to travel to the British Isles.

The King's Guard at Buckingham Palace in London

Passport requirements

A valid passport is needed to apply for an ETA UK to travel to England or any other part of the United Kingdom. It must be a passport issued by a Euroepan Union country, or by an extraeuropean country having signed a special agreement with the UK, such as Switzerland or Norway. As mentioned above, residents of Ireland and travellers with an Irish passport or a passport issued by one of the UK nations may travel to the UK without a UK ETA.

To apply for a UK ETA and travel to the country, you can use either a regular passport or an emergency passport. Your passport must be valid for the entire duration of your trip. You cannot apply for an ETA UK with another travel document, such as an ID card. An ID card is not a valid travel document to travel to the UK.

Requirements regarding your travel itinerary

You can use the UK ETA to travel to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The validity period of the UK ETA is 2 years. You may travel to the UK multiple times within this validity period. Each individual stay may last up to 6 months. As long as you respect the maximum length of stay and the validity period of your ETA, you may decide which UK nations you want to visit during these 6 months and how much time you will spend in each nation.

Besides the requirements regarding the validity and the length of stay, there are also other requirements, related to your travel purpose. An ETA UK allows you to travel to the UK for a holiday, to visit friends or family, for business or for a short course. It is often possible to make a stop over at the airports of London and Manchester without an ETA or a visa. A UK ETA is not enough for other travel purposes, such as working for a UK company. Special arrangements do apply to work in the creative sector. For instance, actors, dancers, performers and artists, among others, can stay in the UK for up to 3 months with an ETA UK. Besides meeting all the ETA requirements, their work must make a unique contribution to the country, they need to have a sponsor, and also be paid at least the minimum salary.

Security questions in the ETA UK form

Besides the passport requirements and the conditions regarding the travel itinerary, travellers themselves must also meet a number of requirements. The UK ETA application form is used to check whether the traveller in question meets the requirements and is eligible for visa-free travel. You must first fill the contact and travel details in the UK ETA application form. Then, you need to enter certain data, such as the passport details, for each traveller. You will need to indicate the employment status of each traveller, and if they have ever faced criminal charges. If this is the case, you will need to provide further explanation. Traffic offences or non-punishable crimes in the UK do not need to be declared. That being said, you should always declare if a traveller has a criminal record.

Based on the filled in information, the immigration service decides if travellers are eligible for the UK ETA and are therefore allowed to travel to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland without a visa. The fact that a traveller is unemployed at the moment they apply for an ETA does not automatically mean that the application will be rejected. However, under certain circumstances this may have an impact into the assessment of the application. If you have knowingly or unknowingly filled in security questions in the application form incorrectly, there may be criminal prosecution. The traveller in question may also be denied entry to the UK for an extended period.

Open the ETA UK form

If you are not eligible for the UK ETA

If you do not meet the requirements listed on this page, you cannot apply for an UK ETA to travel to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. If you still want to travel to one of these nations, you will need an UK visa. You can apply for an UK visa via the UK immigration website. Expect processing times of at least three weeks to obtain a standard visitor or student visa. Processing times for work visa applications depend on the type of work visa you apply for.