ETIAS arrives late this year, and the €20 fee will be inside your ticket
Europe's travel authorisation scheme launches later in 2026 for visa-exempt visitors, with a €20 charge collected through the ticket rather than at the border.
The European Travel Information and Authorisation System — ETIAS — launches later this year, and it will change the paperwork for a large share of the people who visit Europe without a visa.
Travellers from visa-exempt countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, will need an approved authorisation before boarding. The charge is €20 per person.
Who pays and who does not
The fee applies to applicants aged 18 to 70. Anyone younger or older is exempt from the charge — but not from the requirement. Children and older travellers still need an approved authorisation on file; theirs is simply issued free.
That distinction is the single most common misreading of the scheme, and it is the one most likely to leave a family stopped at check-in. An exemption from a fee is not an exemption from an application.
How the money is collected
ETIAS will not be a queue at the airport. For bookings made from July 2026 onwards, the fee is built directly into the price of the flight or cruise ticket, which means most travellers will pay it without a separate transaction.
Paying the fee through your ticket is not the same as holding an authorisation. The application still has to be made and approved.
What it is, and what it is not
ETIAS is a pre-travel screening authorisation, not a visa. It does not grant entry — a border officer still decides that on arrival — and it does not extend how long a visitor may stay. The Schengen limit of 90 days in any 180-day period is unchanged.
Validity
An approved authorisation is tied to the passport it was issued against. Renew the passport and the authorisation goes with the old document, which is a trap for anyone who renews mid-validity and assumes the approval carries across.
What to do now
- Check your passport expiry before applying. An authorisation tied to a passport expiring in eight months is worth very little.
- Apply through the official channel only. Every previous authorisation scheme has attracted a layer of third-party sites charging a markup for a form you can complete yourself.
- Do not leave it to the airport. Most applications are decided quickly, but the ones flagged for review are not, and the review has no same-day path.
The bigger picture
ETIAS is the second half of a pair. It runs alongside the Entry/Exit System, the biometric border database that has been rolling out at Schengen crossings since late 2025. Together they replace passport stamping with a digital record of who entered, when, and when they left — which makes the 90-day rule enforceable in a way it has never been before.
For most visitors the practical effect is one extra form and one extra charge. For travellers who have been treating the 90-day limit loosely, the effect is considerably larger.