In 2025, the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) introduced the United Kingdom Electronic Travel Authorization. If you hold an American or Canadian passport, you most likely need the UK ETA passport to travel to the UK in addition to your passport. Even if you are just transiting through the UK on a connection to another destination, The Traveling Professor is strongly recommending to his travel clients to obtain a UK ETA. It is understood that travelers might think this is just another nonsensical and inconvenient exercise to get a UK ETA, but evidently, it is absolutely necessary to get it.
The Professor recently applied for a UK ETA. It was needed because of his flight from New York JFK to Split Croatia (for a small ship Croatia cruise) connected through London LHR airport. The flight is scheduled to arrive and depart from different terminals in LHR. Some say that a UK ETA is not needed if not changing terminals while transiting through the UK. However if flight plans change (and yes, they do) and a last-minute terminal change occurs, you're going to need that UK ETA. The Professor had a situation in London a year ago when the itinerary showed no terminal change for connecting flights. However, after landing in London the airport was evacuated due to an Air Traffic Control malfunction. Would a UK ETA have been needed if ETA's were required at that time? No one knows. But it is always better to be prepared.
It is important to know that the UK ETA is not just needed for air travel. For instance we have a small group tour to Ireland that starts in Dublin. On that tour we travel by land from Ireland (not part of the UK) to Belfast in Northern Ireland (part of the UK). A UK ETA is required.
Let's talk about how to apply for a UK ETA. To get an overview, we recommended viewing a very helpful video. The items you will need on hand to apply for the ETA are:
- Cell Phone with the ETA app downloaded on it. Visit the UK ETA site to start the download.
- Passport
- Credit or Debit Card. The charge is going to be 10 GBP which translates to about $13 USD.
Part of the process of getting the ETA is that they are going to ask you to take a photo of your face with your phone. The headshot needs to have a white background with good lighting. The app seems to be quite finicky with this. It took about 5 or 6 tries before we got it right.
Once started with the application process with the app, it took about 15 minutes to complete the application. Two days later by email, a notification was received that the UK ETA application was approved. It is digitally associated with the passport so no extra documentation is needed. The UK ETA is good for 2 years.
Join The Professor on a small group tour to Europe, South America, and Canada.