The UK government announced that it will launch an electronic travel authorization system, this new requirement obliges travelers to provide information through the web before traveling. Its processing will be requested both for member countries of the European Union and for those outside the region.
This permission named ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization), aims to provide the British government with more accurate immigration information on people entering the country with the goal of fully digitizing its border systems.
As part of the announcement, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “We will have a much clearer picture of who is here and who should be, and we will act when they are not,” the minister stressed.
ETA will be fully operational by the end of 2024 and the government expects some 30 million applications to be processed each year.
the procedure
In the online form it will be necessary to dump basic personal data, such as first name, last name and passport, and certain security information. The paperwork will be processed automatically and most people will receive their approved ETA quickly. The procedure will have a cost that for the moment was not specified by the British authorities—in other countries with similar permits such as the United States and Canada, the procedure costs US$14 and US$7, respectively.
The minister stressed that this permit does not replace the visa in the event that the traveler remains in the country for a long period of time—for example, more than six months—or for those who want to work in the United Kingdom. In these cases, both a visa and an ETA must be processed.
It should be noted that during 2022 the European Union announced that it plans to have its own version of ETA for next year, called ETIAS.
Requirements to process the permit
As reported by the British government, to obtain the permit, personal data must be provided—such as full name, date of birth and country of citizenship—; passport data; contact (home address, email and telephone number) and an itinerary of the trip to be carried out in the United Kingdom.
At the same time, it will be mandatory to pay the ETA fee, take into account the validity of the permit (it is estimated that it will be two years) and actually travel with the same passport that has been entered in the permit application.
With information from El Cronista-RIPE.
