UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) For Travel From 2025

If you plan on visiting the UK, from 2025 you will need to have a Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) which costs £10 per person, which includes babies and children.
You must apply for this in advance.

Read this post for advice on who needs a UK ETA, how to get one and more advice for anyone visiting the UK from 2025.

The UK government has now opened the system to non-Europeans for travel from 8th January 2025.
Meaning if you are from outside of Europe and are planning to visit the UK from 8th January 2025, you must have a UK ETA.

For Europeans, you will be able to apply from 5th March 2025, and will need a UK ETA to travel to the UK from 2nd April 2025.

All visitors to the UK who do not need a visa for short stays and who do not have a UK immigration status must have an ETA.

Do you need a UK ETA?

You do not need an ETA if you:

• a British or Irish citizen
• have a visa
• are allowed to live, work or study in the UK
• are using a British overseas territories citizen passport
• live in Ireland and you are travelling from Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man

When can you use a UK ETA?

You can use a UK ETA for:

• transiting through the UK to another country
• visits to the UK for up to 6 months as a tourist
• visits to the UK for up to 6 months to visit family and friends
• visits to the UK for up to 6 months for business or short-term study
• visits to the UK for up to 3 months with a Creative Worker visa
• visits to the UK for paid engagement
• to volunteer for up to 30 days with a registered charity

Do you need a visa instead?

You can check if you need a visa using the UK government’s simple visa checker tool.

How to apply for a UK ETA

To apply for an ETA, you can use the UK ETA app or if you do not have a device you can use, you are able to use the UK Government website to apply.
Here is the app for Apple and Android.
Make sure you are using the official app or UK Government website and not a third party site or app!

Make sure you check first if you can apply yet!
Remember only non-Europeans can apply right now, for travel from 8th January 2025.
If you are from Europe, you can apply from 5th March 2025, for travel from 2nd April 2025.

It will cost £10 per person for everyone including babies and children.
Each person in your party MUST have an ETA. Age does not matter.

To apply, you will need to take a photo of the SAME passport that you are using to apply for a UK ETA with.
You can pay with cards or Apple Pay/Google Pay.

The app will prompt you on what to do following simple steps, and is the fastest and easiest way to apply.

iPhone users
The iPhone UK ETA app is available for iPhone 7 and newer models running iOS 15 or later.

Android users
The iPhone UK ETA app is available for Android 8.0 and above and needs NFC (Near-Field Communication) so the app can scan your passport.

Once you have applied, you will get a decision within 3 working days.

If you want more help, check out the UK Government website page for UK ETA’s.