25/11/2024
Happy Monday everyone! I'm sure some of you would have seen this already but as 2025 is only just over 5 weeks away this is just a reminder to those of you heading to the UK & Europe departing in 2025 that new ETA visas will be soon required.
✅Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA)
Australians will need an ETA to travel to the UK starting January 8, 2025. The ETA is a digital visa-waiver that allows multiple visits to the UK for up to six months at a time over two years. You can apply for an ETA online through the UK Government website or via the UK ETA app on your smartphone.
Applications open on November 27, 2024, and the ETA costs GBP10.
✅European Union's ETIAS
Most of Europe will also implement a visa-free/ETA system in 2025. The ETIAS will allow visa-free entry to 30 countries and will be valid for three years. The ETIAS application will ask for a lot of information, including your name, address, date of birth, parents' first names, level of education, occupation, travel details, and criminal convictions. The application process will cross-reference your information against international criminal and informational databases. The ETIAS was originally planned for January 2023, but has been postponed to 2025.
If you're traveling between Europe and the UK on the same trip, you'll need to pay for both an ETA and ETIAS