UK residents with a British passport will soon have to obey new European travel rules in the latest change to travel since voting in favour of Brexit.
The latest travel rule change since the UK left the European Union (EU), every UK citizen heading in to any one of 29 European countries will have to follow the new guidance.
If you don't, you are set to be refused entry. It is really that simple.
The new way of travelling will see Brits have to apply for a European Travel Information and Authorisation System visa waiver, which you might have seen be dubbed an ETIAS visa waiver (because who has the time to say all those words, right?).
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ETIAS explained
The ETIAS visa waiver had been delayed by the EU but finally looks like it has a 2025 timeline set in stone.
A rough spring launch had been on the cards and this has now been cemented as 1 May, 2025.
As a result, you'll have to secure the visa waiver to be able to get in to any of the Schengen Area countries in the EU.
That includes pretty much all of the most popular destinations outside of the UK, with the full list being Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Following the ETIAS rules and the fine print
The ETIAS visa waiver will apply to more than 50 countries around the world, including the UK but also the likes of Australia and New Zealand.
You'll have to pay for it, too. Thankfully it's not too much, at €7 per person. That's just under £6 to Brits.
Once ETIAS has finally been introduced, the European Commission confirmed there will be a 'transitional period' of six months where travellers will be notified of the need for the visa without having to actually have one.
“During this transitional period, member states will have to inform passengers of the requirement for them to have a valid travel authorisation as from the end of the transitional period,” a spokesperson previously told inews.
The ETIAS waiver will be valid for three years or until your passport expires, with it allowing you to travel across the 29 member states for a maximum period of 90 days. Whichever comes first will see you need a new one to travel back to the Schengen Area.
Authorisation of your ETIAS waiver can take up to 96 hours, though, so it is pretty important not to leave it until the last minute in case it doesn't arrive before you head to the airport.
If extra enquiries into your application are needed, the 96-hour window can be extended.
Where an ETIAS visa waiver isn't needed for UK passport holders
UK passport holders can still go to Albania, Andorra, Belarus and Bosnia and Herzegovina without an ETIAS visa waiver.
Ireland is also okay, given it is part of the Common Travel Area within the UK.
Other countries in Europe you can visit without the waiver are North Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Russia, San Marino, Serbia and Ukraine.
Topics: UK News, Europe, Brexit, Travel, Technology, Money, Holiday
Tom Earnshaw