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

Timing is not on this page. The EU has published no start date, and the one page here that deals in launch timing is the launch status tracker.

The unusual thing about this, for an American reader

Most nationalities meeting ETIAS are meeting the idea of a pre-travel authorisation for the first time. Americans are not. The United States runs one of its own, and a European visiting New York has been filling in the mirror image of this form for years. That familiarity is useful and it is also where the mistakes come from, because the two systems differ on the points people assume they share.

ETIAS and ESTA, side by side

Each figure below comes from the government that sets it, in the currency that government charges in. We do not convert between them, because a conversion needs an exchange rate that no government publishes and that is wrong again within days.

Point of comparisonETIAS, for Americans visiting EuropeESTA, for visitors to the United States
Fee EUR 20 USD 40.27
How long it lasts Three years, or until the travel document used in the application expires, whichever comes first. Typically two years, or until the applicant passport expires, whichever is sooner.
Who is exempt from the fee Applicants under 18 years or above 70 years of age at the time of the application. No age exemption is stated at the source we could read.
How you can arrive Air, sea and land borders. Air and sea. A land crossing from Canada or Mexico is a different process.
Passport type Your travel document should not expire in less than three months and it should not be older than 10 years. You must have an e-Passport to use the Visa Waiver Program. An e-Passport is an enhanced secure passport with an embedded electronic chip.

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

Two of those rows deserve saying out loud. The ESTA fee moved recently, and plenty of comparison pages, including the previous version of this one, still quote a figure roughly half the current one. And the modes of travel row is the one that catches Americans out: ESTA does not apply at a land border, so an American who reasons by analogy will assume ETIAS does not either. It will. Driving into France through the Channel Tunnel is a land crossing into a country that will require an authorisation.

Your passport, and the ten year trap

The EU applies two conditions to the travel document, not one: Your travel document should not expire in less than three months and it should not be older than 10 years.

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

The first condition is the familiar one. The second is not, and it is not the same as the first: in general a passport can be comfortably inside its printed expiry date and still have been issued more than ten years ago. That is what catches people out, and it is worth knowing why it is unlikely to catch you.

US passport validity is fixed in regulation rather than in guidance: A regular passport or passport card issued to an applicant 16 years of age or older is valid for ten years from date of issue unless the Department limits the validity period to a shorter period. One issued to an applicant under 16 years of age is valid for five years.

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

Read the two rules together and the trap closes. The American period runs from the date of issue and never exceeds ten years, so an unexpired US passport cannot be more than ten years old. A passport with three months left to run is at most nine years and nine months old. For a US passport, satisfying the EU expiry condition therefore satisfies the age condition automatically, and the three month rule is the only one you need to count against. That is a property of how the United States issues passports, not a general rule, which is exactly why the age condition exists and why holders of other passports do get caught by it.

Two qualifications, neither of which reopens the gap. The Department may issue a passport for a shorter period than the normal one, and a passport issued before the holder turned 16 runs for five years rather than ten. Both shorten the period, so both leave the conclusion above intact.

Separately, US Customs and Border Protection requires an e-Passport for its own Visa Waiver Program, so an American reading this almost certainly already carries a chipped passport, which is the document type the EU expects too.

How long you can stay, which ETIAS does not change

An authorisation is permission to ask to enter. It is not permission to stay longer. The limit is 90 days in any 180 day period, counted across all the countries together rather than per country, and it applies now, before ETIAS exists.

What has changed already is enforcement. The Entry/Exit System is operational, and every entry and exit is recorded digitally rather than stamped by hand. For an American on a long trip, that is the practical change of the last year, not ETIAS. The mechanics are in the 90 in 180 day rule and what the EES is.

Dual nationals and Americans living in Europe

An American who also holds an EU passport travels on the EU passport and the requirement does not arise: free movement is a different legal basis entirely, and the short-stay limit does not apply to it either. An American holding a residence permit issued by a European country is in a different position again, and it is the residence document rather than the authorisation that governs the trip.

Holding a Schengen visa already also puts you outside this. ETIAS is for travellers who do not need a visa. If you hold one, it is the visa that governs your entry.

Common questions

I renew my passport next year. Does that break the authorisation?

It will. The authorisation will be tied to the specific travel document it was issued against, and Three years, or until the travel document used in the application expires, whichever comes first. The practical consequence is ordering: renew the passport first, then obtain the authorisation against the new document, rather than the reverse.

Does a Mediterranean cruise need one for every port?

No. One authorisation will cover every participating country on the itinerary, and sea arrivals are inside its scope. The thing to watch on a cruise is not the authorisation but the day count, because each port call inside the area is a day inside the area.

Can I get one now to be safe?

No, and nobody can take that payment legitimately. ETIAS is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorisations are collected at this point. A site charging for an application today is charging for something it cannot deliver, and the patterns to recognise are on avoiding ETIAS scams.

Will approval be automatic?

We do not predict individual outcomes and no site honestly can. What the process will involve, including what happens when an application is not decided immediately, is set out in how the application will work. If you want a personal answer on whether the requirement will apply to you at all, you can check eligibility in your browser.

Guides for other nationalities

Each of these covers the same requirement from a different starting point, because the comparison that makes it clear is different in each country.

Nationalities without a guide are listed in the data table on countries and territories. We would rather list a country once, accurately, than write a thin page about it.

Last verified 10 September 2026. How we verify