Shorouk Express
From April 2025 the UK will demand European travellers obtain an ETA travel authorisation, but when will the EU / Schengen area finally roll out its own equivalent visa-waiver for non-EU arrivals?
As a reminder, the EU is planning big changes for travel in the near future with its biometric entry/exit system known as EES and its own visa-waiver known as ETIAS.
Both were meant to be in place long before now – and long before the UK rolled out its own travel authorisation scheme – but have been hit by a series of delays after governments and travel companies raised repeated concerns about the impending border chaos they would provoke.
The EU has said the EES system of biometric passport checks could begin its phased roll out in October 2025, but what does that mean for the implementation of the ETIAS visa waiver?
Start date
There is, as yet, no confirmed start date. But travel experts say non-EU travellers like Brits, Americans, Canadians and Australians won’t actually need to worry about getting an ETIAS before spring 2027.
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That date is partly due to the fact ETIAS can’t be launched until EES is fully in place and Brussels has already decided the entry/exit system will be phased in slowly over a number of months.
The EU has said ETIAS is expected to be launched in the final quarter of 2026 – some time from October to December.
But due to the fact the EU will have a long grace or transitional period for travellers after the official launch of ETIAS, it means non-EU travellers won’t actually need to have one until at least April 2027.
For the first six months, if a traveller does not have a valid travel authorisation, border authorities will let them through, as long as they have a valid travel document and fulfil the entry conditions.
After that, there will be a six-month ‘last chance’ grace period, during which travellers without ETIAS entering for the first time the Schengen area will be allowed to cross the border as long as they fulfil all entry conditions.
What is ETIAS and who does it affect?
ETIAS stands for European Travel Information and Authorisation System and will mean travellers to the EU/Schengen area will need to fill out an online application before they travel. Once issued, the authorisation lasts for three years, so frequent travellers do not need to complete a new application every time but it must be renewed every three years.
It is set to cost €7, so cheaper than the €12 the UK is now demanding for its ETA visa waiver, which could soon rise to €16. It also lasts for three years, as opposed to two years for the UK’s ETA.
The main group that this will affect is tourists but it also applies to people coming to France to see family or other short breaks – including second-home owners who do not have a visa.
The European Commission says that applications should be processed within minutes, but advises travellers to apply 72 hours in advance in case of delays.
The EU says the key function of ETIAS “is to verify if a third-country national meets entry requirements before travelling to the Schengen Area.”
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Remember ETIAS will not apply for non-EU residents of EU countries, so for example Britons with a valid residency card for France or Austria will just need to show that at the border. It also isn’t needed for those non-EU travellers who need a visa to travel to the Schengen area, so Indian citizens for example.
Information campaign
EU-LISA, the agency in charge of the technology, confirmed that the public information campaign will be launched six months before the ETIAS becomes operational.
“It will be conducted in 19 languages, including 13 non-EU languages, in third countries, at major travel hubs and at border crossing points in the 30 European countries,” the agency said.
When ETIAS launches, applications will open via an app and on the website https://www.europa.eu/etias. Currently the website only provides information about the scheme.
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“We are also working on a search engine optimisation strategy to make sure the ETIAS website is easy to find in online searches,” Hipper added.
EU authorities specify that it is not possible yet to apply for ETIAS and https://www.europa.eu/etias is the only ETIAS official website. It will be possible to mandate the application to third parties, but Frontex has already issued a warning about the proliferation of unofficial websites and scams.
You can find out more details on EES and ETIAS in our full explainer article.
