HEATHROW: Visitors to the UK from dozens of countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, must now pay to enter Britain after a new visa-waiver entry system took effect on Wednesday.

The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme — similar to the ESTA system in the United States — requires visitors who do not need a visa to enter Britain to acquire pre-travel authorisation.

Costing 10 ($12.50) and allowing stays of up to six months at a time over two years, it first launched in 2023, with Qatar, before being extended last year to five regional Gulf neighbours. Now, it has been expanded to include citizens of around 50 more countries and territories, from Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand to Japan, South Korea and Caribbean nations. With the system kicking in for them on Wednesday, they have been able to apply since last November.

The scheme, aimed at tightening border security, will next be extended to dozens of EU and European countries and territories on April 2.

Those citizens covered by the scheme will be able to apply for the new ETA — which is digitally linked to the traveller’s passport — via an app, from March 5.

Around six million people from the United States, Canada and Australia visit Britain each year, according to the UK government. Eligible travellers will need one even if they are just using the UK to connect to an onward flight abroad. ETA also applies to children and babies. Naila Hadi, a US woman in her fifties, said at London’s Heathrow Airport that the new system was “easy” to navigate.

“We did it on our phones and they just scanned the passport, because this passport has a chip,… and within 20 minutes we got our approval,” said Hadi, who had arrived from New Jersey with her daughter.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2025