If you're planning a European trip and keep seeing headlines about a new "Europe visa," here's the short version: ETIAS is not live yet, you cannot apply for it, and any website charging you for ETIAS today is not official.
What ETIAS is
The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) will require visa-exempt visitors — including travellers from the US, UK, Canada and Australia — to get an online authorisation before entering 30 European countries. When it launches, it's expected to cost €20, be valid for three years (or until your passport expires), and allow the usual short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
The launch keeps slipping
The EU had targeted late 2026, but that date has quietly disappeared from the official ETIAS pages, and reporting through July 2026 indicates a 2026 launch is no longer feasible — 2027 is now the most likely window. The EU says it will confirm the real date several months in advance, and there will be a grace period after launch before it's strictly enforced.
Until then: nothing to do, nothing to pay. Trips to Europe work exactly as they did before.
Don't confuse ETIAS with EES
A separate system, the Entry/Exit System (EES), has been rolling out at European borders since October 2025 and is now operational. EES doesn't require anything from you in advance — it replaces passport stamps with fingerprints and a photo taken at the border. The queues you may have read about at major airports this summer are EES growing pains, not ETIAS.
| EES | ETIAS | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Biometric border registration | Pre-travel online authorisation |
| Apply in advance? | No | Yes (when live) |
| Cost | Free | €20 (planned) |
| Status | Running now | Not launched |
Watch out for pre-registration scams
Every delay breeds a fresh wave of lookalike sites offering to "pre-register" or "waitlist" you for ETIAS for a fee. There is no such thing — the EU has not opened any application channel. This mirrors what we see across the eVisa world: unofficial sites imitating government portals is the single most common way travellers lose money. Our visa-rejection guide explains how to sanity-check any visa website before paying.
What you should actually do now
- Check your passport's expiry date — every electronic authorisation system, ETIAS included, is linked to the passport and most destinations want six months of validity.
- Ignore anyone selling ETIAS today.
- If your travels this year go beyond Europe, check whether your destination needs an eVisa or eTA — Kenya, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and others all require one, and those systems are very much live.