Guide
ETIAS: the requirements, from the system's own website
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
The nutshell, from the official site
The official ETIAS site states the essentials in one block: ETIAS is an entry requirement for visa-exempt nationals travelling to any of the 30 European countries using it; the authorisation is linked to your passport; it is valid for up to three years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first; and a new passport requires a new ETIAS. Equally official is its current status: not in operation — no applications are being collected — with any site selling "ETIAS applications" today selling air.
The fee is set: the Commission announced in July 2025 that the ETIAS fee will be €20, instead of the previous €7 — an increase it attributes to operational costs, functionality and alignment with comparable programmes elsewhere.
Source: Travel-europe.europa.eu, what is ETIAS, read 5 September 2026.
Source: European Commission, the ETIAS fee will be EUR 20, read 5 September 2026.
When it starts, and who it touches
The Commission's April 2026 traveller briefing sets the clock: ETIAS is scheduled to start in the last quarter of 2026, with the exact date to be officially communicated. It touches the visa-exempt world — Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians and the other nationalities that today board with just a passport; our US and UK pages carry each audience's specifics. Visa-required travellers keep applying for visas; residence-permit and long-stay-visa holders live under national rules, not ETIAS.
ETIAS pairs with the already-running EES: one authorises you before travel, the other registers you at the border. Neither changes the 90/180 arithmetic underneath.
60-second check
Not sure the policy you have meets your destination's written rule? Run it through the policy check now, before you build the rest of the file around it.
Check my policyWhat ETIAS does not ask for
Worth stating because the confusion is commercial: ETIAS is not a visa, and its application is not a visa file — no consulate, no appointment, no insurance certificate. Travel insurance for a Schengen visa is a legal requirement under the Visa Code (our €30,000-rule guide quotes it); an ETIAS trip carries no such insurance mandate, however sensible cover for a trip remains. Where insurance genuinely enters the file is the move: national long-stay routes, each with published requirements on our hubs.
If a site tells you ETIAS requires insurance — or sells ETIAS "assistance" before the system exists — you have learned everything you need about that site: