New digital border checks affecting millions of travellers to and from Europe are now expected in October 2025, according to the European Commission. Here is what the Entry/Exit System will mean in practice.
New digital border checks affecting millions of travellers to and from Europe are expected to begin in October 2025. The long-delayed Entry/Exit System will replace passport stamping with fingerprints, a photo and passport details for non-EU visitors.
EU home affairs ministers have backed a revised timeline that brings the Entry/Exit System (EES) into operation first, in October 2025, with ETIAS expected to follow in the last quarter of 2026. The phased approach gives borders and travellers time to adjust.
With the EU's Entry/Exit System about to launch, scammers are exploiting traveller confusion over the separate ETIAS scheme. Here is what is genuinely required right now, how ETIAS will eventually work, and why the only safe place to apply is the official channel.
From 2 April, most European visitors to the UK must hold an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), but the equivalent requirement for UK travellers heading to Europe, ETIAS, will not arrive until the end of 2026. ABTA is urging people to follow the official timeline and ignore unofficial sites that claim to sell an ETIAS already.
From Wednesday 2 April 2025, European visitors to Britain must buy an Electronic Travel Authorisation before they travel. Here is a plain-language guide to the new ETA: what it costs, who is exempt, how to apply and how it fits alongside the EU's own incoming border checks.
The Port of Dover says the EU's Entry/Exit System will add only minutes to motorists' journeys, not the hours some had feared. A new registration compound and an AI-monitored ‘continental corridor' are central to the plan.
From 2 April 2025, European visitors to the UK have to buy an Electronic Travel Authorisation before they travel, as Britain screens arrivals before they reach the border. Here is what the new requirement means in practice.
An eight-day rail trip through Sweden, Norway and Denmark rarely needs cash at all. Here is how to pay smoothly across three currencies, and the passport rules dual nationals should know.
The EU's ETIAS travel authorisation has been pushed back again and is now due in the last quarter of 2026, once the Entry/Exit System is fully running. A grace period means it will not be truly mandatory until 2027.