Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links below. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) will require visitors who are not EU Nationals and are ages 18 to 70 to pay around $8 (it’s valid for three years or until a passport expires, whichever is first) to enter the European Union. ETIAS was originally supposed to be in place in 2021, bur it slipped to 2024, 2025, and is now targeting a late 2026 date.
There are 30 countries where this authorization will be required, including: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. This will impact around 1.4 billion travelers from 60+ visa waiver countries (including the United States) as they will need to obtain this electronic travel authorization prior to traveling to the EU.
The good news is that once this is implemented that it seems pretty straightforward. You handle the application and pay online. You’re then given a confirmation number. There are no additional forms and it’s linked to your passport electronically.
The UK rolled out its own program called the Electronic Travel Authorization. Both of these seem to be in response to the US program known as the Electronic System Travel Authorization, which has been in place for several years. In my opinion, these are cash grabs. I can’t see anyone being deterred by paying around $8 and see lots of issues arising from people that forget to apply before travel. Imagine getting to the airport (without having completed this program) and being told that you can’t fly. I expect we’ll see a lot of that and the poor airport employees will face backlash.
Anthony’s Take: I’ve said it before, but I feel like this is a cash grab. I don’t blame the EU for adding these fee as the US has been doing it for some time. At least I’ll only have to do this once every few years.
(Featured Image Cresit: Dmytro Yarmolin via iStock.)
User Generated Content Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
