ETIAS, which stands for European Travel Information and Authorisation System will require visa-exempt travellers to fill in an online form – including personal, passport and security information before they travel, and pay a €20 fee to receive authorisation.
The US and UK both operate similar systems known as ETA and ESTA respectively.
Once held, the authorisation – which is linked to the holder’s passport – lasts up to three years and covers multiple trips.
Visa exempt travellers from countries such as the UK, the US, Canada and Australia, plus most of Latin America will have to get an ETIAS authorisation before travelling to the EU.
It was expected that the system would start in late 2026 – and on Thursday morning, the ETIAS website still set a start period of ‘the last quarter of 2026’ – but UK newspaper the Financial Times reported that it is “unlikely to be rolled out this year”, following what it described as the “chaotic rollout of a separate electronic border-check system [that have] disrupted visits to the bloc”.
The EU Commission had previously refused to suspend new Entry/Exit System (EES) border controls, in which most non-EU travellers have to undergo biometric border checks, saying the system was “not perfect” but a full suspension was “not needed” and “not possible”.
In a letter to airlines, EU home affairs commissioner Magnus Brunner suggested that most of the problems at border crossings were linked to factors unrelated to the EES, like insufficient staff or lack of adequate infrastructure.
The FT said that the problematic introduction of the EES system had prompted EU officials to rethink the timeline for the rollout of ETIAS.
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It said that the agency in charge of implementing the pre-travel authorisation process had privately acknowledged that a 2026 launch was no longer possible. Officials will meet in September to discuss a new rollout calendar, the report said – with early 2027 among the considerations.
The European Commission, nor the agency in charge of implementing ETIAS have commented on the reports in the FT.
The key concern for the possible delay was linked to launching the new system while EES faced technical and operational issues. The priority should be fixing EES problems before rolling out ETIAS, a source told the F newspaper.
Circumstantial evidence backs the FT’s reporting. The ETIAS website also states that “The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch”. No such information has yet been published, with the ‘last quarter of 2026’ rapidly approaching.
EES had originally been scheduled to start in 2022, but was repeatedly delayed and is only now coming into effect.
The FT estimated that around 1.4billion visa-exempt visitors to the EU will have to register with the Etias system when it does finally become operational.
Even after ETIAS operations do finally start, a transition period of at least six months is planned. The EU said “travellers should apply for their travel authorisation in this period, but those without one will not be denied entry if they fulfil the remaining entry conditions”.
The main group that this will affect is tourists but it also applies to people coming to Europe to see family or other short breaks - including second-home owners who do not have a visa.
Remember ETIAS will not apply for non-EU residents of EU countries, so for example Britons with a valid residency card for France or Austria will just need to show that at the border. It also isn't needed for those non-EU travellers who need a visa to travel to the Schengen area, so Indian citizens for example.