Answer 5 questions to find out if you'll need ETIAS, your fee status, and exactly what to prepare. All processing is done in your browser — no data is collected.
Based on EU Regulation 2018/1240. No personal data stored.
Select the country that issued your passport. If you hold multiple passports, choose the one you'll travel with.
Enter your total intended stay in the Schengen Area (combined across all European countries on this trip).
ETIAS permits stays of up to 90 days within any 180-day period.
ETIAS covers specific travel purposes. Select the one that best describes your visit.
Select your primary destination type.
Age determines your fee status. The ETIAS regulation exempts travellers under 18 and over 70 from the €20 fee.
Based on the information you provided
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This tool is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. Eligibility rules may change. Always verify requirements via official EU sources before travel.
The checker above runs five questions through a simple decision tree built from EU Regulation 2018/1240 and the publicly announced ETIAS rules. It is designed to give you a fast, honest answer to three practical questions: does ETIAS apply to me at all?, what fee bracket do I fall into?, and what should I have ready before I apply? What it deliberately does not do is predict whether your specific application will be approved — only the EU’s ETIAS Central Unit and the relevant ETIAS National Units can do that, after running checks against security databases that no public website has access to.
If the result tells you ETIAS will apply, treat that as a planning signal: book your trip if it makes sense, and apply for the authorisation as soon as the official portal at europa.eu opens for your nationality. If the result says ETIAS does not apply, the most common reasons are that you hold a passport from a country whose nationals already need a Schengen visa (a different and stricter process), or that you are travelling on a long-stay visa or residence permit that supersedes ETIAS for the duration of your stay. In either case, our checker will name the alternative process you should be looking at, but the official source for visa-required nationals is your destination country’s consulate.
ETIAS is keyed entirely off the passport you travel on. If you hold dual nationality, the answer can change depending on which passport you present at the border, so the checker asks for the one you actually intend to use. Citizens of around 60 visa-exempt third countries — including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Singapore, and New Zealand — will need ETIAS. Citizens of EU/EEA member states and Switzerland do not need ETIAS at all when travelling within the Schengen Area.
ETIAS is a short-stay authorisation. It permits stays of up to 90 days within any rolling 180-day period across the entire Schengen Area combined — not 90 days per country. If you intend to stay longer than 90 days, ETIAS is the wrong instrument and you will need a national long-stay visa or residence permit from the country you are going to. The checker flags this so you do not waste an application fee on the wrong product.
ETIAS covers tourism, business meetings, short courses, transit, and most family visits. It does not cover paid employment in the Schengen Area, long-form study, or activities that require a national work or study permit. If you select a purpose that ETIAS does not cover, the checker tells you which national permit category you are likely looking at instead.
Not every European country is in the Schengen Area, and not every Schengen country is in the EU. The checker distinguishes between a true Schengen destination (most of mainland Europe), non-Schengen EU members like Cyprus or Ireland (which run their own entry rules), the United Kingdom (which uses its own ETA, separate from ETIAS), and microstates such as Monaco, the Vatican, and Andorra (which are reached through Schengen territory and so are covered by your ETIAS in practice).
The published ETIAS rules exempt travellers under 18 and over 70 from the €20 fee. The authorisation itself is still required, but no payment is taken from these brackets. Adults aged 18–69 pay the standard fee. Family groups should apply individually for each member, including children, because the authorisation is linked to a specific passport.
I have an ESTA for the United States — will my ESTA work for Europe? No. ETIAS and ESTA are separate systems for separate destinations. Holding one does not affect the other. Most US citizens already familiar with ESTA will find the ETIAS process similar in spirit but tied to a different government and a different fee.
I am transiting through a Schengen airport without leaving the airport — do I need ETIAS? If you are a visa-exempt national and you remain airside in international transit, the published rules indicate that ETIAS is not needed. If you cross into the Schengen Area — for example, to clear immigration, change terminals via landside, or stay overnight in a hotel — you do need ETIAS. When in doubt, the conservative answer is to apply.
My passport expires soon. Can I still apply? ETIAS is linked to the passport you apply with, and authorisation lapses when the passport expires. If your passport is close to expiring, renew it first and apply for ETIAS using the new document. Most airlines and most Schengen border officers expect at least three months of validity beyond your intended exit date in any case.
I am a refugee or stateless person travelling on a Refugee Convention or stateless travel document. The eligibility rules for travel documents issued under the 1951 Refugee Convention or 1954 Statelessness Convention follow national rules of the issuing country and are outside the scope of our generic checker. Contact the consulate of your destination country directly — they will tell you whether ETIAS or a national visa applies to your specific document.
If the checker has confirmed that ETIAS applies to your trip, you can save time on application day by having the following ready:
The ETIAS portal at europa.eu is the only place to apply. It will be free to access and free to read; the only money that should ever leave your account is the €20 fee paid directly to the EU. There is no “authorised intermediary” programme — any site claiming to expedite your ETIAS, hold your place in a queue, or guarantee approval is unofficial. Most are simply paid form-fillers that resell your data and add a markup of €30–€100. A handful are outright phishing operations. If a website asks you to pay more than €20 for a single application, close the tab. Our guide to ETIAS scams covers the warning signs in detail.
Applications are processed in minutes for the majority of travellers, but a small percentage are flagged for manual review by an ETIAS National Unit. Reviews can take up to 30 days under the regulation, with extensions in rare cases. The single best way to avoid a stuck application is to apply early — ideally as soon as you have booked your trip, and not in the airport queue.