Most UK ETA applications are decided quickly. Official guidance is to allow up to three working days for a decision, and a large share of applicants hear back well inside that window, often within hours of paying. Plan around the three working days rather than the fast case and you will rarely be caught out.
That is the short answer. The rest of this guide covers what decides whether you get the fast decision or the slow one: whether you need an ETA at all, what it costs, how to apply, the mistakes that add days, and what to do if the answer comes back no.
How long a UK ETA takes
An Electronic Travel Authorisation is granted after automated checks against the details you submit and the passport you submit them on. When nothing in the application needs a person to look at it, the decision arrives fast. When something does, the application moves to manual review and the three working days start to matter.
| Your situation | Sensible timing |
|---|---|
| Trip booked, dates fixed | Apply as soon as you have the passport you will travel on |
| Departure more than a week away | No urgency; apply and forget about it |
| Departure inside three working days | Apply now and keep your booking flexible until the decision lands |
| Flying tomorrow | You may still be approved in time, but there is no paid fast track |
What pushes an application into the slow lane
- Details that do not match the passport: a spelling, a date of birth, a transposed digit in the document number.
- Applying on a passport you will not actually travel on.
- Answers to the suitability questions, such as a criminal conviction or a previous immigration refusal, which route the case to a caseworker.
- A photo that fails the automated check and has to be retaken.
- A payment that did not complete, so the application was never submitted at all.
When to apply
Apply once your travel dates are confirmed and the passport is in your hand. An ETA lasts two years, so applying early costs nothing beyond the fee you were going to pay anyway. Waiting until the day before is the only version of this that goes wrong.
Who needs a UK ETA
The scheme applies to visitors who do not need a visa to come to the UK for a short stay. That includes EU nationals and travelers from the United States, Canada, Australia and a long list of other countries. If your passport lets you visit the UK without applying for a visa, you almost certainly need an ETA before you board.
Every traveler needs their own, including babies and children. There is no family application. An adult can apply on a child's behalf, but each child needs a separate application and a separate fee.
Who does not need one
- British and Irish citizens.
- Anyone who already holds a valid UK visa.
- Anyone with existing UK immigration status, such as settled or pre-settled status or permission to work or study.
Transit passengers
Transit is the one area where a confident general answer is unsafe. The treatment of passengers who change flights at a UK airport without passing through border control has changed more than once since the scheme started, and it can depend on the airport and the routing. Check the live requirement for your nationality and your exact itinerary instead of trusting an article. Our requirements checker returns the current answer for a passport and a route, connections included, and our guide to transit visas explains why connections are the part of a trip most people get wrong.
What it costs and how long it lasts
The fee is £16 per person. It rose from £10 in April 2025, which is why older articles and forum threads still quote the lower figure. If a website is charging you noticeably more than £16, you are paying someone a markup to fill in a form you could fill in yourself.
An approved ETA is valid for two years, or until your passport expires, whichever comes first, and it covers multiple trips in that period. It is held electronically against your passport, so there is nothing to print and nothing to carry. That catches people out, because it feels like a document should exist; the same is true of most electronic visas. Because the authorisation sits against one passport, renewing or replacing that passport means applying again.
How to apply
Applications go through the official UK ETA app or the gov.uk website. Both reach the same system. The app is usually faster because it can read the chip in a biometric passport instead of asking you to type the details.
- Have the passport you will actually travel on in front of you.
- Scan the passport, or type the details exactly as printed, including any hyphens.
- Take or upload a photo with your face uncovered, plain background, no filter, eyes open.
- Answer the questions about criminal convictions and immigration history accurately.
- Pay the £16 fee and wait for the confirmation email. No email usually means the application did not go through.
Repeat for each person traveling. You cannot combine a family into one application, and you cannot transfer an approved ETA between people or passports.
Mistakes that cost people time
- Typing the name differently from the passport. Adding a middle name that does not appear in the machine-readable zone, or dropping one that does, is the most common reason an application stalls.
- Using the wrong passport. Dual nationals should apply on the passport they will present at check-in, and only that one.
- Applying at the airport. Airlines check for a valid authorisation before boarding. A pending application is not an approved one.
- Guessing at the suitability questions. An old conviction declared honestly can still be approved. An undeclared one discovered later is a far worse problem.
- Paying a copycat site. Sites that mirror government branding charge a fee on top of the £16 and add nothing. Our guide to electronic visa scams covers the signals worth checking before you pay.
- Assuming the ETA settles everything. It gives you permission to travel. A Border Force officer still decides admission when you land.
If your ETA is refused
A refusal does not necessarily end the trip, but it changes what you have to do next. There is no appeal against an ETA refusal, so the useful question is why it happened.
- If the refusal followed an error in the application, correct the error and apply again.
- If the refusal reflects your immigration or criminal history, the route forward is a standard visitor visa. It takes longer and asks for more evidence, but it puts your case in front of a person who can weigh it.
Reapplying with the same details and hoping for a different outcome wastes both the fee and the time you were trying to save.
Notes for travel agents and sellers
The UK ETA has already moved twice in ways that break printed material: the fee changed in April 2025, and the transit position has shifted since launch. If you sell travel, quote the fee and the processing window from live requirement data, not from a page written last season. Our requirements checker resolves the current answer per passport and per route, and coverage lists the destinations we hold requirement data for and process end to end.
The value at the point of sale is small and repeatable. Flag the ETA while the traveler is still in the booking, tell them the fee, tell them every person in the party needs one, and either send them to the official channel or handle the application for them. Travelers who find out at the airport rebook their flights and blame whoever sold the trip.
The essentials
- Decision time: usually well under three working days, often within hours.
- Fee: £16 per person, children included.
- Validity: two years or until the passport expires, multiple entries.
- Who needs one: visa-exempt visitors, including EU, US, Canadian and Australian nationals.
- Who does not: British and Irish citizens, and anyone with a UK visa or existing immigration status.
- Where to apply: the official UK ETA app or gov.uk.