From 2025, tourists will need a visa to travel to the UK

The United Kingdom is set to change its entry policy. From April 2025, travelers will have to apply for a digital visa in advance to be accepted into the country, the Home Office announced in a statement. A way to “strengthening security through new technology and modernizing the immigration system,” writes the Minister of the Interior.

This visa, the ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation), will work on the same principle as those set up by the United States (ESTA) and Australia. All travellers coming to the United Kingdom, except British and Irish citizens, “will need prior permission”including for tourists, the ministry explains.

The new visa application platform will initially be open only to non-EU citizens, starting on November 27. They will have until January 8, 2025 to obtain it, the date from which the visa becomes mandatory. Then, from March 5, Europeans will be able to start applying, with an obligation from April 2.

The ETA will cost 10 pounds, or around 12 euros, and will be valid for “multiple trips over two years, or until passport expires” and it will allow to stay up to six months at a time in the country, specifies the ministry. The request can be made “quickly and easily” via the UK ETA app, which already exists, or via the government website. Until now, the ETA was reserved for residents of certain Gulf countries and issued within an average of three working days.