UK ETA 2026: Who Needs It, Cost, How to Apply

The UK ETA in 2026: What It Is and Who Actually Needs One

If you already hold a UK visa, settled status, or a British or Irish passport, you can close this page. Nothing here applies to you, and you cannot get an ETA even if you try.

Everyone else flying, sailing or taking the train to Britain now needs a £20 digital permission that did not exist three years ago. The good news is that it usually takes minutes. The trap is the small print about passports, children and transit.

VoyageHacks verified every rule, fee and date on this page against GOV.UK, the Immigration Rules and the Home Office’s April 2026 ETA factsheet on 16 August 2026.

What is a UK ETA? The words you need first

Half the confusion around this scheme is vocabulary. Get these seven terms straight and the rest of the page reads quickly.

• An electronic travel authorisation (ETA) is a digital permission to travel to the UK, Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, held against one passport, for visits of up to six months.
• A visa national is someone whose nationality appears on the Immigration Rules Appendix Visitor visa national list and who therefore needs a visa, not an ETA, for any visit. Both India and the People’s Republic of China are on that list.
• A non-visa national can visit Britain without applying for a visa first, and that is precisely the group the ETA scheme was built for.
• The Common Travel Area (CTA) is, in the Home Office’s own words, “a long-standing arrangement between the UK, the Crown Dependencies (Bailiwick of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Isle of Man) and Ireland”.
• Airside transit means changing aircraft at a UK airport without passing through border control.
• Permission to travel is what an ETA gives you: the right to board. Permission to enter is what a Border Force officer gives you on arrival. GOV.UK states plainly that “an ETA does not guarantee entry to the UK, Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man”.
• An eVisa is the digital record of someone’s existing UK immigration status, viewed through a free UKVI account. If you have one, you do not need an ETA.

Do you need an ETA? Check your situation

The nationality lists are set out in the Immigration Rules, not in guidance, so this table follows Appendix ETA national list and Appendix Visitor visa national list rather than any third-party summary.

The row people get wrong is the dual-national one. GOV.UK does not merely say you are exempt: it says that if you are a dual citizen with British or Irish citizenship, “you cannot get an ETA” at all.

UK ETA vs Schengen ETIAS vs US ESTA

Three schemes, three fees, three sets of rules, and only two of them exist today. Here is the honest comparison as of 16 August 2026.

Two things in that table are worth pausing on. The UK gives you six months per visit where the other two give ninety days, and the American fee is the only one indexed to inflation: the US Government Publishing Office record shows the ESTA fee moving from USD 40 to USD 40.27 on 1 January 2026.

ETIAS remains the wildcard. Our EU Entry/Exit System and ETIAS guide tracks its status, and the short version is that nobody can apply yet.

How to apply for a UK ETA, step by step

Do not pay anyone until you have read step one. The single most expensive mistake on this page is a copycat website.

1. Choose the official route. The Home Office says the easiest way is the UK ETA app, downloaded from Google Play or the App Store, which scans your passport chip and your face with the phone camera. The alternative is the online service on GOV.UK, where you upload a passport photo and a facial photo that meets the digital photo rules.
2. Have three things ready: the passport you will actually travel on, an email address, and a payment method. Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay are all accepted.
3. Answer the questions about your trip and your suitability.
4. Pay £20. GOV.UK is blunt about this: “you cannot get a refund after you apply”.
5. Wait for the decision email. Most app applicants get an automatic decision in minutes. GOV.UK says most decisions arrive within a day and can take up to three working days, and the Home Office recommends applying at least three working days before you travel.
6. Keep the reference number. Approved applicants receive a 16-digit reference by email. Nothing is stamped or stuck in the passport: the ETA is held digitally against that passport number.
7. Repeat for every traveller. You can complete the applications on behalf of family members, but each person, including a newborn, needs their own.

If it is refused, there is no appeal. The Home Office factsheet is explicit: a refused applicant “cannot appeal and instead need to apply for a visa if they still wish to seek permission to come to the UK”. Budget several weeks and a much larger fee for that route.

How the ETA rolled out, and what changed in 2026

The scheme did not arrive all at once. It was added nationality group by nationality group, which is why so many travellers were caught out by a rule that had existed for over a year.

The one number that has moved more than once is the fee, and the Home Office says so itself: “as with all our fees the cost of an ETA is kept under review”. Treat £20 as today’s figure rather than a permanent one.

Travelling to the UK from Europe by Eurostar, ferry or the shuttle

The rule is identical whether you fly into Gatwick or take a train to St Pancras, and the enforcement point is the same too: before you board, not on arrival.

Every carrier now checks. The Home Office confirms that “all carriers (e.g. airlines, maritime and rail) have now been equipped with the necessary tools to verify travel permission via automated digital checks with the Home Office”, and that “visitors without an ETA will not be able to board their transport and cannot travel to the UK, unless exempt”.

Eurostar puts the same point in passenger language on its travel documents page: travellers who need an ETA “cannot travel to the UK without one”, and children need their own regardless of age.

Two practical consequences for a Channel crossing:

• The check happens on the departure side, at the UK controls sitting inside the French, Belgian and Dutch terminals. There is no chance to fix a missing ETA once you are at the gate.
• The return leg is a separate system. Coming back into the Schengen area means the EU Entry/Exit System, with its own biometric enrolment. That is covered in our EES and ETIAS guide .

A UK data plan is the unglamorous half of this. Your ETA confirmation, your booking and your onward ticket all live on your phone, and Heathrow’s free Wi-Fi is not where you want to be discovering that. Our best eSIM for Europe guide compares plans that cover Britain and the continent on one profile.

Common mistakes that cost travellers money

Five of these six cost cash. The last one costs the trip.

• Paying a copycat site. GOV.UK warns that “other websites may charge more to apply” and tells travellers to “avoid websites that imitate government services”. The real price is £20, in the UK ETA app or on gov.uk/eta, and unofficial resellers have charged multiples of it.
• Applying with the wrong passport. The ETA is tied to the passport number you enter. A second nationality’s passport left at home is a useless ETA.
• Renewing your passport after approval. Validity ends when that passport expires, so a renewal means a new £20 application.
• Forgetting the children. There is no family or group ETA. A baby needs one.
• Assuming Ireland is included. Dublin is not covered, in either direction.
• Leaving it to the airport. With automated carrier checks in place, an approved ETA is now a boarding requirement, not a document you talk your way past at the desk.

What can go wrong, and what to do

• Dual British nationals. You cannot hold an ETA. Travel on a valid British passport, or another passport carrying a certificate of entitlement proving right of abode. The Home Office’s April 2026 factsheet also sets out temporary arrangements covering expired British passports issued in 1989 or later, so check the current wording with the Home Office rather than assuming.
• Non-Irish residents of Ireland. Legal residents of Ireland from a nationality that does not usually need a UK visa are exempt when travelling within the Common Travel Area, but only if they can show proof of that residence. Carry it.
• School groups from France. A child travelling on the France-UK school trip travel information form is exempt. That form does the job of the ETA, and only for that trip.
• Cruise passengers. The only transit exemption GOV.UK lists is airside at an airport. A shore call means clearing UK border control, so the ordinary rules apply at a cruise terminal exactly as they do at Heathrow.
• Connecting through the UK with a change of terminal or airport. Passing border control ends the exemption. If your itinerary moves you from Heathrow to Gatwick, you need an ETA.
• An approved ETA and a refusal at the border. These are different decisions. An ETA is permission to travel, and Border Force still assesses your purpose and funds on arrival.
• Missed connections while you sort any of this out. Read what your policy actually pays for before you rely on it: our travel insurance comparison covers the missed-departure clause in plain terms.

Sources

• GOV.UK, Electronic travel authorisation (ETA) , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, Who needs an ETA , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, When you do not need an ETA , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, Apply for an ETA , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, After you apply for an ETA , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, Immigration Rules Appendix ETA national list , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, Immigration Rules Appendix Visitor: visa national list , checked August 2026.
• Home Office, Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) factsheet, April 2026 , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, Home Office immigration and nationality fees , checked August 2026.
• Home Office, Common travel area guidance , checked August 2026.
• GOV.UK, eVisa: view and prove your immigration status , checked August 2026.
• Eurostar, Travel documents , checked August 2026.
• European Commission, European travel authorisation ETIAS will cost EUR 20 , checked August 2026.
• US Government Publishing Office, Certain DHS Immigration Fees Required by HR-1: Fiscal Year 2026 Adjustments for Inflation , checked August 2026.
• US Government Publishing Office, Hungary Electronic System for Travel Authorization Validity and Eligibility , checked August 2026.

What changed

• 2026-08-16: first published, with the ETA fee at £20 under the Home Office fee table effective 8 April 2026, and airside transit at Heathrow and Manchester still exempt.
• Expected next: the Home Office states that the fee is kept under review, and describes the Heathrow and Manchester transit exemption as current rather than permanent. Those are the two lines to re-check before you book.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do EU citizens need an ETA to visit the UK?

Yes. Citizens of EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland have needed a UK ETA since 2 April 2025, when they were added to the Immigration Rules Appendix ETA national list. The exceptions are Irish citizens, who never need one, and anyone who already holds a UK visa or permission to live, work or study in the UK.

How much does the UK ETA cost and how long is it valid?

A UK ETA costs £20 on GOV.UK and is valid for two years or until the passport it is linked to expires, whichever comes first. Inside that period it allows multiple journeys and stays of up to six months at a time. GOV.UK is clear that you cannot get a refund after you apply, so check the exemption list before paying.

How long does a UK ETA take to be approved?

Most applicants get an automatic decision within minutes when they apply through the UK ETA app, according to the Home Office. GOV.UK says most decisions arrive within a day and can take up to three working days, which is why the Home Office asks travellers to apply at least three working days before departure. VoyageHacks checked both figures on 16 August 2026.

Do you need an ETA to transit through Heathrow?

Not if you stay airside. GOV.UK lists transiting through a UK airport without passing through border control as an exemption, and the Home Office factsheet of April 2026 states that passengers transiting Heathrow and Manchester who do not go through UK passport control do not currently need an ETA. The word currently is doing real work there.

Does the UK ETA cover Ireland?

No. An ETA covers the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man only, so a trip to Dublin needs Ireland’s own entry permission. Ireland sits inside the Common Travel Area alongside the UK and the Crown Dependencies, but it runs a separate visa system, and legal residents of Ireland travelling within that area do not need a UK ETA.

Sort the £20, Then Book the Trip

The paperwork for a British holiday is now one app, one photo, one payment and usually one coffee’s worth of waiting. Everything after that is the fun part.

Plan the rest with the Europe destination hub , the cheapest European countries to visit in 2026 , the Schengen 90/180 rule explained for the days you spend on the other side of the Channel, and the route pages for New York to London and London to Dublin . If you are pricing the flight itself, the cheapest airlines from London and our British Airways review do the comparison, and flights and hotels are where the booking starts.