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ETIAS Reference

An independent reference for ETIAS, the EU travel authorisation for visa-exempt travellers, and for the EU Entry/Exit System. Every date, fee and count here carries its source and the date we last read it.

Check eligibility Launch status

Status as at 10 September 2026

  • ETIAS

    ETIAS is not yet in operation, and no applications for a travel authorisation are being taken.

    No start date has been published. See the tracker

  • Entry/Exit System

    Fully operational since 10 April 2026, in 29 countries.

    This one affects travel now. What it means

Official source Checked 10 September 2026 EU or national government source. Source

If you want to know whether the ETIAS requirement will apply to you, you can check eligibility. It runs in your browser and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

Start here

Tracker Launch status tracker What the EU has published about timing, and what has only been reported. The one page here that deals in dates. Guide What is ETIAS What it will be, what it will cost, how long it will last, and what it is not. Guide What is the EES The system that is already running, and what happens at the border now. Tool Check eligibility Four questions, answered in your browser, on whether the requirement will apply to you.

Guides

The fee and who will be exempt What it will cost, the three exemptions, and how it compares with the UK and Canadian systems. ETIAS and EES compared Two systems, two regulations, and only one of them operating. The 90 in 180 day rule How the rolling window works, and why the EES made it stricter in practice. Countries and territories Which countries will require it, which nationalities will need it, and where the EES operates. How the application will work What will be asked, how long a decision will take, and what happens after one. Avoiding ETIAS scams Why nobody can legitimately sell you an application today, and the patterns to recognise. Carrier obligations For airlines, coach and ferry operators: what will have to be verified before boarding.

By nationality

The requirement is the same everywhere; what differs is the system you are comparing it against, and that is what these are for. A reader who already holds one kind of authorisation mostly needs to know where the analogy breaks.

United States ETIAS for US citizens Compared with ESTA, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a United States passport. United Kingdom ETIAS for UK citizens Compared with the UK ETA, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a United Kingdom passport. Canada ETIAS for Canadian citizens Compared with the Canadian eTA, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a Canada passport. Australia ETIAS for Australian citizens Compared with the Australian ETA, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a Australia passport. New Zealand ETIAS for New Zealand citizens Compared with the NZeTA, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a New Zealand passport. Japan ETIAS for Japanese citizens Compared with Visit Japan Web, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a Japan passport. South Korea ETIAS for South Korean citizens Compared with K-ETA, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a South Korea passport. Singapore ETIAS for Singaporean citizens Compared with the SG Arrival Card, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a Singapore passport. Brazil ETIAS for Brazilian citizens Compared with Brazilian visa reciprocity, with the entry rules and the travel document rule for a Brazil passport.

Nationalities without a guide appear in the data table on countries and territories. A country is listed once and accurately rather than given a thin page of its own.

Updates

A dated record of what actually changed. It is short on purpose: in this subject the coverage is enormous and the change is small, and most of what circulates restates a position that has not moved.

7 July 2026 The EU stops publishing an ETIAS launch window The ETIAS section pages no longer state a start date or a quarter. Press reporting the same month said a delay was coming. Neither of those is an announcement, and the difference matters. 10 April 2026 The Entry/Exit System becomes fully operational The phased deployment that began in October 2025 completed across all Schengen countries. This is the one border change on this site that affects travel today. 12 October 2025 The Entry/Exit System begins its phased rollout Biometric registration started at a limited set of border crossings and expanded from there over roughly 180 days. 16 July 2025 The ETIAS fee is set at EUR 20 A delegated act replaced the fee in the 2018 regulation. Sources still quoting the original figure are reading the unamended text, and many still are.

The index, and what we chose not to log, is on updates.

How this site works

This is a pre-launch subject full of pages still stating windows that passed. We try not to become one of them by keeping every figure in a sourced data layer with an expiry date attached. When a claim goes past its expiry, our build fails until somebody re-reads the source.

Claims are labelled by how strong the evidence is: regulation, official source, reported, or expected. Press reporting is never presented as an EU announcement. The full explanation is on sources and method, and about this site covers who runs it and how it is funded.

What this site does not do

  • It does not process, submit, track or expedite applications.
  • It does not predict individual approval outcomes.
  • It does not state a start date the EU has not published.
  • It has no affiliate or referral arrangements with any travel service.

For the EU's own material, see the EU travel portal.

Last verified 10 September 2026. How we verify