UK Adds £10 Visa Waiver Fee For Foreign Visitors, Including From US

Traveling to the United Kingdom will soon require an extra step for virtually all visitors, including those from the United States and European Union. While I first wrote about this several months ago, I wanted to provide an update, as travelers can now start applying for this program.

UK rolling out widespread Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA)

As it stands, travelers from many parts of the world are able to travel to the UK without pre-registering, thanks to a visa waiver program. However, that will soon be changing, because as of 2025, virtually all foreign visitors (with the exception of those from Ireland) will need to apply for an ETA prior to visiting the UK.

This is already in place for those coming from select countries in the Middle East, like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. However, soon it will be expanded:

• This will apply as of January 8, 2025, for travelers from many parts of the globe, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and more; applications have opened as of November 27, 2024
• Then as of April 2, 2025, this will be extended to those from the European Union; applications will open as of March 5, 2025

As this rolls out, travelers will need to pay £10 to apply for an ETA, and each ETA is valid for multiple entries across two years (assuming your passport doesn’t expire in that time period), with no stay being longer than six months. Officially, it can take three working days for an ETA to be approved, though in many cases they’ll be approved faster than that, within minutes or hours.

The process of applying for an ETA should be done through the UK ETA app (which can be downloaded in the app store), and requires providing your passport information and contact details, uploading a photo of yourself, answering questions, and paying a fee. However, if you’re not able to download the app, the process can also be done online.

Officially, these kinds of pre-travel authorizations are intended to give the country a better understanding of who is traveling to the country, to potentially stop any high-risk travelers in advance.

This is annoying, but not a huge deal

The United Kingdom is hardly the first place to require an ETA for travelers from visa waiver countries. It’s something the United States has required from visa waiver country visitors for years, and for that matter, the European Union is rolling out a similar initiative in 2025 (though there’s no official launch date, as the program has been delayed).

£10 isn’t a huge amount of money, and it’s even valid across multiple entries. It pales in comparison to the UK Air Passenger Duty that passengers pay.

However, there’s no denying that it’s mildly annoying to increasingly have to pay these fees and fill out forms before travel. Sometimes traveler forget to do this in advance, and that can cause some serious issues, especially when an instant approval doesn’t come through.

Bottom line

As of early 2025, the United Kingdom will be rolling out an electronic travel authorization requirement for virtually all travelers from visa waiver countries. This can be done by downloading the UK ETA app, and then completing an online form in advance of travel, and paying a fee of £10. Applications are now open, for those who have any trips coming up.

While this isn’t a huge deal, it’s just another minor inconvenience that travelers headed to the UK will have to deal with.

What do you make of the UK rolling out an ETA requirement on a widespread basis?