Visiting London, Edinburgh or Dublin will soon cost you a lot more. Since Brexit and the United Kingdom’s exit from the Schengen area, the British island has become more and more closed in on itself. Latest decision to date: you will soon have to pay more to visit the region. Access to the area will be paid from April 2025with the same entry conditions as for a country outside Europe.
The same system as in the United States
You will now have to pay to enter, or simply travel on UK soil. This Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), mandatory for all tourists, must be valid or they will be denied entry into the country. This will complement the work visa and resident status, which are already accessible to transient foreigners. Until now, this document was only required for people coming from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This now applies to everyone.
Concretely, this ETA will be very similar to the ESTA which is already mandatory for visits to the United States. This can be done online, or via the UK ETA app on the Apple App Store or Google Play. From 2 April 2025 it will be necessary provide a photo and answer a series of questionsto allow the authorities to control access to its territory. It will also take a few days to receive your reply, favorable or not.
How much will you pay?
The price of this ETA will be £10 per person (about €12)with a validity period of two years, or until the person’s passport expires. France is affected, which means tourists and travelers will soon have to pay more to get there. As in the United States, it is the transport companies (plane, train or boat) who will check that everything is in order, subject to a fine that can climb up to £2,000.
Unsurprisingly, the decision goes down badly with tourists. First, because the document adds an additional layer of complexity to the mandatory procedures the United Kingdom has imposed since Brexit. Then because the time it takes to obtain the ETA, which spans several days, makes impossible the prospect of an impromptu weekend at the last minute. For the country, on the other hand, it is a new and significant financial windfall,”which is expected to contribute more than £32 billion to our tourism economy this year”, says Seema Malhotra, Minister of Immigration and Citizenship.