How to Handle Uk Eta Application Online

Applying for a UK ETA online is one of the fastest travel formalities you'll ever complete. Most people are done in under 10 minutes, and a good chunk of them get their approval before they've finished their coffee.

But the small print still matters. Apply through the wrong website and you'll pay three or four times what you need to. Get a passport number wrong and you could be turned away at the boarding gate.

Assume you don't need one because you're only changing planes at Heathrow, and your trip ends before it starts.

This guide walks through the real application, field by field, using the official channels only. It covers what it costs, how long it takes, what trips people up, and what to do if your application isn't approved. Everything here reflects the scheme at the time of writing — fees and rules do change, so check the official gov.uk ETA page before you travel.

This is general information, not immigration advice.

What the UK ETA actually is — and what it isn't

Short answer: it's a digital travel permission, not a visa.

The ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) is a pre-travel check for people who don't need a visa to visit the UK. It links electronically to your passport. There's no sticker, no card, no stamp in your passport.

Border Force staff see it when they scan your passport at the desk.

It isn't a visa. It isn't a guarantee you'll be let in. And it isn't permission to work or study in the UK.

• What it lets you do: visit for up to 6 months at a time for tourism, business meetings, short study, or visiting family.
• What it doesn't do: let you take a job with a UK employer, settle, or claim benefits.
• Who it's for: visa-exempt nationals — US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Japanese, and since April 2025 EU/EEA passport holders too.

If you hold a passport that requires a visa for the UK, you need a visa — not an ETA. Indian, Chinese, Nigerian and South African passport holders, for example, still apply for a Standard Visitor visa, including for most transits.

Not sure where you sit? The rules depend on your nationality, any other nationalities you hold, and whether you already have UK immigration permission. Our guide to who needs a uk eta breaks that down passport by passport.

Before you start: the 8 things to have in front of you

Ninety per cent of abandoned ETA applications are abandoned because someone didn't have their passport to hand. Gather these first and the whole thing takes minutes.

1. The passport you'll actually travel on. Not a different one. The ETA is linked to one specific passport number.
2. Your phone, if you're using the app — it needs NFC to read the chip in your passport.
3. An email address you can open on your phone. Your decision goes there.
4. A mobile number.
5. A debit or credit card, or Apple Pay / Google Pay.
6. Your UK address — hotel, Airbnb, or a friend's house. If you haven't booked yet, use the address of your first night's stay.
7. Employment details, including your employer's name and address if you're employed.
8. A recent photo of yourself if you're using the web form (the app takes one live).

Allow 10 to 15 minutes of quiet time. Don't do this on airport wifi at 5am. We'll come back to why later.

One more thing worth checking before you pay: whether you need an ETA at all. Someone with a UK visa, indefinite leave to enter, or a student or work visa doesn't need one, and neither do British or Irish citizens. Our rundown of the uk eta application requirements covers the exemptions in detail.

UK ETA application online: the step-by-step

There are two official ways to apply. Both cost the same. Both lead to the same result.

Step 1: Pick your channel — the UK ETA app or the gov.uk form

The UK ETA app is free on iOS and Android. It scans the chip in your passport, which means fewer typing errors, and it's the faster route for most people. The gov.uk web form is the alternative.

Use it if your phone can't read chips, your passport isn't biometric, or you're applying on behalf of someone else.

Anything that isn't those two is a third party. Some charge $75–$100 for the same £16 application. They don't get you a faster decision, because there's no fast lane to buy.

Step 2: Scan or type your passport details

In the app, you hold your phone flat against the photo page of your passport until it reads the chip. It takes a few seconds and you'll hear a confirmation tone. In the web form, you type the details in yourself.

Type them exactly as printed. Given names go in the given names field — middle names included. No nicknames, no shortened versions.

If your passport says "William", don't write "Bill".

Step 3: Answer the personal details questions

The form asks for your name, date of birth, place of birth, sex as shown in the passport, your nationality, and any other nationalities you hold.

The "other nationalities" field is where dual nationals get stuck. Declare all of them. Holding a second passport doesn't disqualify you — hiding it can cause problems later.

One hard stop here: if you're a British or Irish citizen, you can't get an ETA and you don't need one. The app will reject your application.

Step 4: Add contact details and your address in the UK

You'll enter an email address, a phone number, your home address, and the address where you'll stay in the UK.

Check the email character by character. It's the only place your decision is sent. A typo here means you're waiting for an email that will never arrive, and reapplying costs another £16.

Don't have a UK address yet? Put your first night's accommodation. If you genuinely haven't booked anything, that's a sign to book at least one night before you apply.

Step 5: Employment and purpose of visit

You'll be asked for your occupation, plus your employer's name and address if you're employed. Then your purpose of visit: tourism, business, visiting family, transit, or short-term study.

Answer honestly. Attending meetings or a conference counts as a business visit and is allowed under an ETA. Taking a paid job with a UK employer is not — that needs a work visa.

Step 6: The criminal convictions and immigration history questions

This is the section people worry about most, and it's the one where honesty is genuinely the safest policy.

The form asks about criminal convictions — including convictions that are "spent" under UK law — and about previous UK immigration problems such as refusals, overstays, deportations or breaches of visa conditions. You must declare all of them.

Declaring something doesn't automatically mean refusal. Each application is assessed on its own facts. Not declaring something is treated far more seriously than the conviction itself, because it's a deception issue.

Step 7: Take or upload your photo

The app takes a live photo of you during the application. You can't upload an old selfie from your camera roll. On the web form, you upload a digital photo instead.

Either way, the requirements are the same: plain background, face fully visible, no sunglasses, no filters, no hats. Glasses are best removed to avoid glare.

Step 8: Check the declaration and pay

Before you pay, the app or form shows a summary. Read it properly and compare your name and passport number against the actual passport in your hand. This is 30 seconds that saves you £16 and a lot of stress.

Then pay. Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay all work. The fee is £16 per person.

There's no refund if you're refused, and no refund if you made a mistake and need to apply again.

Step 9: Save your reference number immediately

You'll get a reference number at the end of the application. Screenshot it. Screenshot the confirmation email too.

The ETA itself doesn't arrive as a document — it lives electronically against your passport — so the reference is your proof that you applied.

Step 10: Wait for the decision

Most decisions arrive within minutes to a few hours. Official guidance says to allow up to 3 working days, so apply at least 3 working days before you travel.

If you're approved, you'll get an email saying so, with your ETA reference and passport number. That's it. Nothing else to download or print.

How long does a UK ETA application online take to process?

In practice, the vast majority of straightforward applications are approved in under an hour — often in 10 to 20 minutes. The official service standard is up to 3 working days.

Applications that take longer tend to be ones where something needs a manual look:

• A declared criminal conviction.
• A previous UK refusal, overstay or removal.
• Name mismatches or spelling errors picked up by the system.
• An unclear photo.
• A passport number that doesn't match the chip or the typed details.

So don't book non-refundable hotels and flights on the assumption you'll be approved instantly. Apply first, then book. It's a boring rule that saves real money.

How much does the UK ETA cost — and which "fees" are a scam

The fee is £16 per person. That's it. One payment, covering the full 2-year validity.

The fee went up from £10 to £16 on 9 April 2025. Plenty of guides written in January 2025 still quote £10, which is why you'll see conflicting numbers in search results. If a page hasn't been updated since early 2025, treat its figures with suspicion.

We go through the fee history and what's included in our breakdown of how much does a uk eta cost.

Now the scam part. Search "UK ETA" and you'll find sites charging £60 to £90 for "express processing", "document checking" or "guaranteed approval". None of that exists.

The Home Office has no commercial partners for ETA applications. There is no express lane.

What those sites actually do is take your details, submit the same £16 application on your behalf, and pocket the difference. Some aren't even that useful — they just send you a PDF that isn't an ETA.

The transit rule most travellers get wrong

Here's the one that catches people out at check-in desks. The Home Office position is that you need an ETA if you're transiting through the UK — including when you stay airside and never pass through UK border control.

In other words: a 90-minute connection at Heathrow, Manchester or Edinburgh still needs one. You're not entering the UK in the immigration sense, but you're still being checked at the boarding gate against the ETA system.

Flights between the UK and Ireland are the Common Travel Area exception, and there are narrow concessions for some legal residents of Ireland. If your itinerary starts in Dublin, check the current position on gov.uk before you assume anything.

And a reminder that gets missed constantly: if you hold a nationality that requires a visa for the UK, an ETA won't help you transit. You need the correct transit visa.

A worked example: Priya's Heathrow connection

Here's how this plays out in real life. Names and dates are illustrative, but the mechanics are exactly what happens.

Priya, a US citizen living in Chicago, booked Chicago O'Hare → London Heathrow Terminal 5 → Dubai in March 2026, with a 4-hour connection at Heathrow. She wasn't planning to leave the airport. She assumed that meant she didn't need anything.

She was wrong. Her airline's check-in system flagged the missing ETA when she checked in at O'Hare.

What actually happened, in order:

1. She downloaded the UK ETA app three weeks before departure, after reading the airline's pre-travel email properly.
2. She scanned her passport chip, took a live photo, and answered the questions in about 8 minutes.
3. She put her Dubai hotel as her "address in the UK" — wrong, but not fatal. Border Force cares that the address is plausible, not that it's in the UK for a transit passenger.
4. She paid £16.
5. The approval email arrived 12 minutes later.

Her brother-in-law took a different route. He searched "UK ETA fast track", paid $89 to a third-party site, and received a PDF that looked official but wasn't an ETA. Days later, he applied properly on the app, six hours before his flight, and was approved in 40 minutes.

He got lucky. His £64 total for the family of four would have been $356 through the broker.

The lesson isn't complicated. Apply early, apply officially, and don't assume airside transit exempts you.

Do children and babies need their own UK ETA?

Yes. Every traveller needs their own ETA, whatever their age. There's no family ETA and no exemption for infants.

A newborn baby travelling on their own passport needs their own ETA at the full £16 fee. A family of four pays £64.

You'll need the child's passport in front of you to apply — their passport number, their date of birth, and a photo of their face. Babies' photos are accepted with eyes open; the usual rules about plain backgrounds and no hats apply, and a parent's hands supporting the baby are fine as long as they're not covering the face.

The good news: the UK ETA app supports group applications, so you can work through several family members in one session without re-entering all your own details each time. Check the current group limit in the app itself.

Do you need to print your ETA? What airlines actually check

No printout is required, and no printout is checked at the border. The ETA is held electronically against your passport number.

When you check in, the airline sends your passport details to the UK's advance passenger information system. The system responds with a yes or a no. That's why you can be refused boarding even though you "have your ETA" — the airline is checking a live database, not looking at a piece of paper.

That said, keep a screenshot of your approval email on your phone. It's not required, but it's useful if a check-in agent's system is slow and you want to show you've applied.

What happens if you get a new passport?

Your ETA dies with the old passport. It's linked to a specific passport number, so a new passport means a new ETA and another £16.

This catches out people who renew early for a big trip, apply for the ETA before the renewal comes through, and then travel on the new document. If you're renewing your passport before a trip, wait for the new one, then apply.

What happens at the UK border with an ETA

An approved ETA means you can board and present yourself at the border. It doesn't mean you're automatically admitted.

A Border Force officer can still refuse you entry. The questions they ask are the usual ones: why are you here, how long for, where are you staying, and how are you funding the trip.

Be ready for them:

• Return or onward ticket. They may ask to see it.
• Address in the UK. Have it on your phone, not buried in an email.
• Proof of funds. Rarely requested for a short tourist trip, but useful if you're staying months.
• Travel insurance. Not a legal requirement for visitors, but strongly sensible.

Some ETA holders are eligible to use the ePassport gates rather than queue for a desk. Eligibility depends on nationality and age, and there are staff on hand to direct you. If you're not sure, just join the normal queue.

If your UK ETA application is refused — what now?

The fee isn't refunded. There's no formal appeal against an ETA refusal.

You have two realistic paths:

1. Apply again if you made a mistake on the first application — a typo in a passport number, an undeclared conviction, an unclear photo. Fix the error, pay £16 again, and resubmit.
2. Apply for a visa if the refusal was based on your immigration or criminal history. A Standard Visitor visa involves an application fee, an online form, biometrics at a visa application centre, and a decision that typically takes around 3 weeks from outside the UK.

An illustrative pattern we see discussed a lot: someone with a 2015 drink-driving conviction ticks "no" to the convictions question because they think it's spent and irrelevant. The ETA is refused for non-disclosure. They reapply declaring it in full, and the application is approved after around 9 days.

The conviction wasn't the problem. The omission was.

If you're refused, get proper advice rather than guessing. A refused ETA isn't the end of your travel plans, but the next application has to be clean.

UK ETA vs visa vs ETIAS — quick comparison

These schemes get confused constantly. Here's how they actually differ.

Two things worth flagging. A UK ETA does nothing for your Schengen travel — you'll need ETIAS separately once it launches. And British citizens need ETIAS for Europe but never need a UK ETA.

For the official ETIAS position, check the EU's own ETIAS information page rather than second-hand summaries.

Seven mistakes people make with the UK ETA application online

Almost every problem with an ETA traces back to one of these.

1. Using a third-party site. You'll pay three to five times the fee for the same application.
2. Applying on airport wifi the night before. It usually works, but "usually" isn't a plan when a flight costs four figures.
3. Applying with the wrong passport. If you hold two passports, apply with the one you'll actually travel on.
4. Not declaring a conviction. The single most common cause of refusal we see discussed. Declare everything.
5. Assuming airside transit is exempt. It isn't.
6. Applying on an old passport number. Renewals void your ETA.
7. Expecting a document. There's nothing to print, and nothing to show at a desk.

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for official advice. Always verify current requirements with official sources before you travel.

Key takeaways

• Apply at gov.uk or in the UK ETA app. Nowhere else. The fee is £16 and nothing legitimate costs more.
• Allow at least 3 working days, even though most decisions take minutes.
• The ETA is valid for 2 years or until your passport expires — and a new passport means a new ETA.
• Every traveller needs one, including babies, and including airside transit passengers.
• Declare convictions and immigration history in full. Non-disclosure causes more refusals than the underlying facts.
• An ETA lets you board. It doesn't guarantee entry — Border Force makes that call at the border.
• Requirements and fees change. Verify the current position on gov.uk before you travel.

General guidance only, not immigration advice. If your circumstances are complicated — previous refusals, criminal convictions, unclear nationality status — speak to a qualified immigration adviser.

See also: UK ETA overstay consequences