Visitors to the UK from dozens of countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, must now pay to enter Britain after a new visa-waiver entry system took effect on Wednesday.
The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme — similar to the ESTA system in the United States — requires visitors who do not need a visa to enter Britain to acquire pre-travel authorisation.
Costing £10 ($12.50) and allowing stays of up to six months at a time over two years, it first launched in 2023, with Qatar, before being extended last year to five regional Gulf neighbours.
Now, it has been expanded to include citizens of around 50 more countries and territories, from Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand to Japan, South Korea and Caribbean nations.
With the system kicking in for them on Wednesday, they have been able to apply since last November.
The scheme, aimed at tightening border security, will next be extended to dozens of EU and European countries and territories on April 2.
Those citizens covered by the scheme will be able to apply for the new ETA — which is digitally linked to the traveller’s passport — via an app, from March 5.
Around six million people from the United States, Canada and Australia visit Britain each year, according to the UK government.
Eligible travellers will need one even if they are just using the UK to connect to an onward flight abroad. ETA also applies to children and babies.
Naila Hadi, a US woman in her fifties, told AFP at London’s Heathrow Airport that the new system was “easy” to navigate.
“We did it on our phones and they just scanned the passport, because this passport has a chip,… and within 20 minutes we got our approval,” said Hadi, who had arrived from New Jersey with her daughter.
– Tourism impact –
Jackie Day, a 77-year-old arriving from Vancouver, said: “My only quibble is that when I selected the country I was applying from, Canada, I had to pay in US dollars.”
“I had to scan the passport, I had to scan my face plus take a picture of my face and fill out basic information about where I live, nothing complicated,” she added.
However, Northern Ireland economy minister Conor Murphy warned that ETA will have a “devastating” impact on tourism in the British province, given that its neighbour the Republic of Ireland is not involved with the scheme.
Murphy fears that the cost and red tape will deter international tourists visiting the Republic from making the journey across the land border to visit Northern Ireland, and has called for a time-limited exemption for people visiting up to seven days.
Heathrow has also opposed the scheme, saying its rollout has reduced the number of passengers transiting through the UK, and that it makes the country “less competitive” and harms economic growth.
The new requirement does not apply to British and Irish citizens, those with passports from British overseas territories and legal UK residents.
It does not change the requirements for citizens of countries who need a visa to visit Britain, such as Chinese, Ecuadorian and South African travellers.
Previously, most visitors not requiring a visa could arrive at a British airport and proceed through immigration control with their passport.
The new UK entry scheme mirrors the imminent ETIAS scheme for visa-exempt nationals travelling to 30 European countries, including France and Germany, which will cost seven euros ($7.40) and last three years.
The European Commission expects the system — which will apply to around 60 countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil and the UK — to become operational in the middle of this year.
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