UK ETA Before London: The £20 Step International Travellers Miss

1. The ETA: Your Mandatory Pass to London

The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is a digital travel permit, not a visa. According to gov.uk, it doesn’t guarantee entry into the UK — that final call still sits with Border Force at the actual checkpoint — but it does decide whether you can board the plane, train or boat in the first place. The system mirrors the US ESTA, in place since 2009: security screening done before departure rather than a checkpoint on arrival.

This formality is the end point of a process that started when the UK left the European Union. Before 1 January 2021, EU citizens entered the UK with nothing more than a national ID card, no pre-screening required. Since October 2021, that same ID card is no longer accepted as a travel document either: only a passport valid for at least six months is recognised. For the other formalities worth knowing before you go (passport, health cover), our complete guide to UK travel requirements covers every point. The ETA alone touches a huge number of travellers: more than 2.3 million authorisations were issued to French citizens alone in the year to March 2026, according to the Home Office’s official factsheet — and France is just one of roughly 85 nationalities now covered by the scheme.

London, once your ETA is sorted

Heathrow Express: £25 into central London in 15 minutes ETA valid for 2 years, stays of up to 6 months Cool, changeable weather year-round 4 days covers the highlights

Once your authorisation comes through, London moves fast: Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, lively neighbourhoods like Camden Town and its markets. To stretch the trip beyond the capital, our pick of day trips to Bath from London rounds out a city break nicely.

Highlights

• Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and a Thames river cruise, all in a single day
• Blue Badge certified guide, the official benchmark for professional UK tour guides
• Free cancellation if your plans change before departure

Pixidia tip: sort your ETA before you spend a penny on anything else. Once you’ve paid for flights, Eurostar tickets or activities, a boarding refusal over a missing ETA isn’t covered by any standard travel insurance policy.

London in a Day: Tower of London, Westminster & River Cruise from 141€ per adult (based on 2 adults), verified over the next 30 days · ★ 4.8 (966 reviews)

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2. £20 Since April 2026: The ETA Fee Has Doubled in Three Years

The ETA fee is anything but fixed. Launched at £10 when the scheme began in October 2023, it rose to £16 on 9 April 2025, then to £20 on 8 April 2026, as part of the UK’s annual review of immigration fees. This latest increase was enacted through the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2026, approved by both Houses of Parliament in February and March 2026, according to the debates recorded in Hansard.

There’s no age exemption whatsoever: a baby just weeks old pays the same fee as an adult, and there’s no group application or family rate. For a couple travelling with two children, the bill now comes to £80 (about €92), up from £64 before the April 2026 increase, for this formality alone, before you’ve even booked a flight or a hotel. Our 4-day London family itinerary factors this cost into the trip budget.

No announcement of a further increase has surfaced so far: the £20 fee remains, as things stand, the rate in force for 2026, until a new order says otherwise.

3. « Mandatory » Since 2025, But Only Really Enforced Since February 2026

This is the crux of the issue for anyone planning a London trip in 2026: the ETA became a legal requirement for EU citizens, including French nationals, on 2 April 2025. But between that date and 25 February 2026, the scheme existed without being properly enforced. According to the UK government’s official announcement, the rule « was not strictly enforced, to give travellers time to adjust to the new requirement. »

In practice, a fair number of EU travellers crossed the border without an ETA in 2025 without being turned away, which created a false sense that the rule wasn’t really being enforced. That grace period ended on 25 February 2026, the date the UK switched to strict enforcement under the official slogan « No permission, no travel. » Since then, airlines, ferry operators and Eurostar have been required to check every passenger’s ETA before boarding, facing fines of up to £2,000 per passenger travelling without a valid authorisation, with steeper penalties for repeat breaches. This penalty regime took effect on 20 March 2026, according to The Common Room.

Anyone who heard about the ETA only in passing between April 2025 and early 2026, or who travelled without any issue during that grace period, could reasonably assume they’re still in the clear. That exact gap is why so many travellers still overlook the requirement well into 2026, even though everything changed at the end of February.

4. How to Apply for Your ETA in 10 Minutes (and Avoid Scam Sites)

Only two official channels exist: the gov.uk/eta/apply website or the UK ETA mobile app, published by the Home Office and available on the App Store and Google Play. No other website or app is authorised by the UK government to issue an ETA.

The process, step by step

5 to 10 minutes on average Decision within 3 working days, often minutes Chipped passport and selfie required Pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay

Budget 5 to 10 minutes for a straightforward individual application, based on multiple consistent accounts from travellers, including those gathered by One Mile at a Time. The decision officially takes up to 3 working days, but it’s usually automated and comes back within minutes.

Highlights

• Account, identity details, security code, then a photo of your passport’s data page with a chip scan
• Facial verification selfie: even a slight shadow can trigger a rejection, so even lighting really helps
• Every traveller, infants included, needs their own ETA at full price

Pixidia tip: apply from home, at your own pace, rather than at the airport. An outage of the application system was documented in early June 2026 — better to apply a full week ahead than to cut it to the 3-day minimum the Home Office recommends.

Once granted, the authorisation stays valid for 2 years, or until the linked passport expires if that happens sooner, and covers unlimited stays of up to 6 months each. A parent or guardian can apply on a child’s behalf, but there’s still no group application and no reduced rate.

There’s still a very real risk here: unofficial third-party websites that mimic the look of the government site and rank near the top of search results, charging five to nine times the official price. French broadcaster ici.fr (formerly France Bleu) documented the case of a couple who paid €348 for two authorisations that should have cost around €38 in total, and cybersecurity researchers at Malwarebytes have flagged the exact same pattern targeting travellers heading to the UK more broadly. The warning sign is simple: any price above £20 for a single application, or a URL that doesn’t end in gov.uk, should make you stop. If you do get caught out, Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, is the right place to report it and pursue a chargeback with your bank.

5. ETA, ESTA, eTA, ETIAS: Don’t Mix Up These Travel Authorisations

The most common mix-up comes from confusing the UK ETA with ETIAS, the equivalent system the EU is building to screen non-EU nationals, including Britons, entering the Schengen area. Originally pencilled in for 2026, it has now been pushed back to 2027 at the earliest, according to a confirmation from the EU agency eu-LISA reported in July 2026. Plenty of travellers, hearing that « ETIAS isn’t live yet, » wrongly assume no electronic formality applies to any destination, when in fact the UK’s own ETA is very much active and has been strictly enforced since February 2026. These are two entirely separate systems, run by two different administrations.

The UK ETA is therefore the only one of the four schemes with no age exemption at all, not for infants and not for seniors. The upcoming European ETIAS will actually be more generous on this specific point: the application will still be mandatory for everyone, but it will be free for under-18s and over-70s, according to the European Commission’s announcement from July 2025.

6. Eurostar, Flights, Eurotunnel: Where the Check Actually Happens

At Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted, the ETA is checked electronically through the biometric gates, with no physical document to show: the process takes under 90 seconds in most cases, according to April 2026 data. But for travellers coming through France, the logic works differently, and that’s what catches most people out.

Eurostar: the check happens in Paris, not London

ETA checked before departure, on the French side Checked in minutes at Gare du Nord Paris, Brussels or Lille to St Pancras Plus Advance Passenger Information (API)

Under the juxtaposed controls system, a bilateral arrangement that survived Brexit, Border Force checks passengers before departure, on French or Belgian soil. At Gare du Nord, travellers go through two separate passport checks before boarding: French authorities first, then UK authorities directly afterwards. Once you arrive at St Pancras, there’s no further check at all: you simply step off the train and walk straight out of the station.

Highlights

• An ETA refusal happens in Paris, Brussels or Lille, never on arrival in London
• Eurostar also requires Advance Passenger Information (API), a separate formality specific to the carrier
• Eurotunnel Le Shuttle follows the same rule: ETA required, check-in 1 to 4 hours before departure

Pixidia tip: check your ETA before you even print your Eurostar ticket. Unlike a flight, where the check happens on arrival, a missing ETA stops you right there on the French platform.

For a simple transit through Heathrow with no intention of entering the UK, it all comes down to the type of connection. An « airside » transit, staying entirely within the secure zone without going through border control, doesn’t require an ETA, a direct result of the airport’s 2024 lobbying push to protect its status as an international hub. A « landside » transit, which involves collecting your bags or switching terminals outside the secure zone, makes the ETA mandatory, exactly as it would for a standard entry.

7. Dual Nationals, Criminal Records, Insurance: The Special Cases to Know

• Dual British nationals: if you hold British citizenship alongside another nationality, you simply can’t get an ETA. You need to travel on your British or Irish passport, never on your other passport alone, according to the official guidance for dual citizens. An expired or unpresented British passport has been a frequent cause of hold-ups since 25 February 2026.
• A declared criminal record: in the vast majority of cases, any criminal conviction triggers an automatic refusal with no appeal. The only alternative is applying for a standard Visitor Visa instead, a far heavier process.
• Travel insurance usually won’t cover you: according to an analysis by law firm Mayer Brown published in July 2026, most policies don’t reimburse a boarding refusal linked to a missing ETA, since it’s treated as avoidable negligence rather than a covered mishap.
• French school trips: pupils aged 18 or under, travelling in an organised group of at least 5, benefit from a temporary exemption confirmed to run at least until 2028. It doesn’t cover teachers or accompanying adults, who still need a standard ETA.

The reciprocity cuts both ways: British citizens must now go through the EU’s own EES system when entering the Schengen area, with biometric registration at every border since 10 April 2026. That rollout has generated its own widely criticised queues, running several hours long at Dover in spring 2026. Post-Brexit friction isn’t one-way traffic, in other words: it affects travellers on both sides of the Channel.