How to Get an Electronic Travel Authorization for the UK

You’ve booked the plane ticket, shopped for the best hotel deals, and plotted your route to see Big Ben and Parliament. But before you leave, don't forget to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA). Otherwise, you won’t be allowed to get into the United Kingdom.

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Who needs a UK ETA?

As of January 2025, most people traveling into the U.K. (which includes Northern Ireland and British Overseas Territories) need an ETA, unless you have a British or Irish passport or already have permission to study, live or work in the U.K.

There is no age requirement, meaning each traveler needs their own ETA, even babies.

It’s about $22 per person (16 pounds) and can take up to a few days to process, but most people get approved in a matter of minutes.

The ETA will allow you to come to the U.K. for up to six months for visiting family or friends, as a tourist, on a business trip or for short-term study.

Once you receive the ETA, it is good for stays up to six months within a two-year period or until your passport expires, whichever is sooner. That means once you receive this authorization, you won’t need another one for two years, unless you get a new passport during that time.

Applying for a UK ETA

Before you apply for the U.K. ETA, make sure you have a few things handy:

• Your passport.

• An email address. 

• A credit card or other payment option like Apple Pay or Google Pay. 

• A photo of your face (if applying online).

Your photo must have been taken within the last month and must meet the following requirements:

• It must be clear and in focus.

• In color. 

• At least 600 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall.

• At least 50 kilobytes and no more than 10 megabytes.

The photo itself must:

• Be against a plain light-colored background. 

• Show only you, no other objects or people, and include your head, shoulders and upper body. 

• Show you facing forward and looking straight at the camera with a plain expression and your mouth closed, no hair in front of your eyes, nothing covering your face, no head covering unless for medical or religious reason, no shadows and no glasses. 

Children must be alone in their photo with no toys.

There are two ways to apply for the U.K. ETA: online or through the U.K. ETA app. If you’re applying for someone else who is not physically with you, you’ll need to apply online.

I was applying for a U.K. ETA for each of my parents so I did it online since they were not sitting next to me. To see how the process differed, I used the app to get one for me.

Applying online

When applying online, make sure you’re using the official website from the United Kingdom. It features a crown logo and is in the domain gov.uk.

You’ll start the process of applying for an ETA, and after confirming your email, you’ll need to upload a photo of your passport.

When you upload a copy of your passport, make sure it shows all four corners of the personal details page, all your personal details, your photo and the machine-readable zone (MRZ), which are the lines of letters, symbols and numbers at the bottom of the details page. The passport photo must be a JPG or JPEG.

If it meets the requirements, you’ll know.

Next, it will ask you to confirm the information and will show what it scanned. Remember: The U.K. displays dates differently than we do in the U.S., so for a birthday of March 7, it will show 07-03 instead of 03-07.

Next, it will ask to scan your face. If you’re applying for someone else, like I was, skip this step.

The next step is to upload a photo of the person you’re doing the application for and whose passport you just uploaded. Even though it says to take a photo of yourself, it is for the person in the application.

You’ll get a confirmation if the photo meets the requirements.

The next steps are to provide a phone number and home address and then confirm if you have only one country of citizenship.

It will ask you if you have a job, a criminal conviction, have ever supported terrorism and employment status.

Then you’ll confirm all your information is correct and accept a declaration.

Then comes the payment step. You’ll choose the country you’re from, and the charge will be in that currency.

Then you’ll enter payment information and get confirmation that the application was submitted.

Within seconds, I received an email that the application was being processed, and about a minute later, I got an email saying it was approved.

Applying using the app

After applying both online and through the U.K. ETA app, the two options seemed similar. The main difference was that you physically need your passport in front of you to use the app.

When you first go into the app, it will go through some housekeeping items to make sure you have what you need.

From here, the process is similar to applying online, with just a few exceptions. First, you’ll need to choose your country, give your phone number and confirm your email.

Then you’ll need to use your phone camera to take a photo of the photo page of your physical passport.

Next, you’ll have to access the chip on the back page of your passport by putting your phone (without a case) down onto the back page of your passport book. Make sure your NFC and contactless payment options are turned on for your phone.

The app will scan all your information.

Then you'll have to verify your identity using your phone’s camera.

After that is completed, you’ll have to take a photo for the ETA using the same parameters as above, like a plain light background, no objects, no smile, no glasses, etc.

Once that is accepted, you’ll have to put in your address and answer some questions about your job and criminal history.

Finally, you'll get to the payment step. You can pay using a service like Google Pay or Apple Pay or with a credit card.

Once the payment goes through, you’ll get confirmation on the screen that your application has been submitted.

Within seconds, I got an email saying my application was processing, and then about a minute later, an approval.

After you apply for a UK ETA

After you complete the application for a U.K. ETA, you’ll get an email from U.K. Visas and Immigration (UKVI) usually within a day. I got mine in a matter of seconds.

That email will include a 16-digit reference number for your ETA. That authorization number will be linked to your passport.

Still, you might want to have a printout of that confirmation email, just in case.

Once you have a U.K. ETA, you can travel to the U.K. as many times as you want for two years or until your passport expires, whichever is sooner.