ETIAS delayed again: what you need for Europe

If you have searched for ETIAS lately, you have probably been told three different things: that it starts in late 2026, that it costs €7, and that you should apply now. As of 28 September 2026, none of that is right.

What is right is less dramatic and more useful. Europe's new border system is already running, it changes how long you can stay and how long the queue is, and it asks nothing of you before you travel. Every rule below comes from the EU's own law, the European Commission or national governments, and where only the press has reported something, we say so.

Is ETIAS live? No, and here is what changed in July 2026

The European Commission's own pages are unambiguous, and they no longer give a date.

Until July 2026, the official line was that ETIAS would start in the last quarter of 2026. In early July the Financial Times reported that eu-LISA, the EU agency that builds and runs the system, had concluded a 2026 launch was no longer feasible, and Euronews followed on 8 July. The Q4 2026 date then disappeared from the official ETIAS site, without an announcement.

Legally, only one act can start ETIAS: a Commission decision under Article 88 of the ETIAS Regulation, published in the Official Journal. No such decision exists. Reports of a 2027 start are press expectations, not an official date, and the Commission has promised several months' notice before launch.

A start date that keeps slipping

ETIAS was agreed in 2018, and every date announced for it since has slipped. These are the main ones.

The reason for the latest delay is sitting at the border already. According to the reports of the FT story, officials wanted to settle the Entry/Exit System first rather than add a second new system to queues it had already lengthened. That system is the part of this article that actually affects your trip.

Anyone charging you for ETIAS today is not the EU

A system that does not exist yet already has a scam industry. Frontex, the EU border agency, said in June 2024 that it had identified over 100 unofficial ETIAS websites, several claiming to take applications already, and that the only official one is europa.eu/etias.

The law allows commercial intermediaries to apply on your behalf once ETIAS is running, but not before. Official EU sites all end in europa.eu. If a site that ranks for ETIAS takes a card payment in 2026, close the tab.

What ETIAS will be once it starts

When it does launch, ETIAS will be an online travel authorisation for visitors who do not need a visa, much like the US ESTA or the UK ETA. It is not a visa, and the regulation says plainly that it does not confer an automatic right of entry.

The €20 fee was set in a Delegated Regulation of 16 July 2025, which cites inflation of 30.12% since 2016 among its reasons. It takes effect only when ETIAS does, so any official page still saying €7 is simply out of date.

Who needs it: citizens of the countries whose people can visit Schengen without a visa, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Israel. Nationals of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican are excluded, and so is anyone who already holds a Schengen visa or residence permit.

Ireland is not among the 30 countries, so ETIAS will not be needed for a trip to Dublin. Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are, because they are in Schengen even though they are outside the EU.

Nobody will be turned back on ETIAS's first day

Even after the launch date, the regulation phases ETIAS in slowly. Article 83 makes it optional at first, and then gives everyone one more free pass.

The Commission can extend that optional period by up to six months, twice. After it ends, a further six-month grace period lets you cross without an authorisation, as long as it is your first crossing since the optional period closed. So from whatever day ETIAS launches, nobody needs one for at least six months, and for six months after that your first crossing is still allowed without one.

What is actually new at the border: the Entry/Exit System

The Entry/Exit System, EES, is what replaced the passport stamp. It started on 12 October 2025 and has been fully operational since 10 April 2026 in all 29 Schengen countries.

On your first crossing after that date, a border officer or kiosk records your passport details, a facial image and four fingerprints. Children under 12 give no fingerprints. The record lasts three years from your last exit, or five if you overstayed, and later crossings are checked against it.

The scale is striking. The Commission counted over 145 million entries and exits registered by 27 July 2026. eu-LISA's first-quarter report recorded 19,985 refusals between January and March, 4,353 of them for people who had already used up their allowed stay.

EES asks nothing of you before you travel. There is no form and no fee, and the UK government's guidance says it plainly: you do not need to take any action before you arrive at the border.

How long the EES queue really is

No official EU queue statistics have been published, so the numbers come from industry. Airports and airlines reported waits of up to two hours in February 2026 and warned of four or more in summer, and Euronews reported on 4 September 2026 average July waits of 120 minutes at Frankfurt, with IATA putting an EES passport check at about 90 seconds against 20 to 25 before.

One safety valve has formally gone. The 2025 regulation that phased EES in let countries suspend biometric registration for up to six hours at a crossing point when queues became excessive. That power ceased to apply 330 days after launch, on 7 September 2026, and no formal extension has been adopted. In mid-September, though, nine countries, France and Germany among them, were reportedly given informal approval to keep pausing biometric checks with no new deadline, so practice will vary from border to border this winter.

A pre-registration app exists, but its reach is small. Frontex's Travel to Europe app lets you submit passport data and a face scan up to 72 hours before arrival. Its official FAQ of 30 June 2026 says it works for the full check only when entering Sweden, and for the entry questionnaire in Portugal, and it cannot collect fingerprints.

Dover, Eurostar and Le Shuttle: checks before you leave the UK

If you cross from Britain by sea or rail, the Schengen border is on British soil. The UK government's guidance says EES checks for the Port of Dover, Eurotunnel Le Shuttle at Folkestone and Eurostar at St Pancras International are completed before you leave the UK.

St Pancras has self-service pre-registration kiosks in three areas of the station, and Dover built a processing area at its Western Docks. For cars at Dover and Le Shuttle, the press reported in July 2026 that French police were still creating records without biometrics over the summer, so check your operator's latest advice before a winter crossing.

The 90/180-day rule is now counted for you

The core rule has not changed. Visitors may stay no more than 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen area, counted by looking back 180 days from each day of your stay.

What changed is who counts. Before EES, a border guard added up stamps by hand; now the system has every entry and exit, and it can flag an overstay the moment you leave. The EES regulation also gives travellers a web service to check their remaining days, although Canada's government notes that it does not count time spent in Schengen before 10 April 2026.

For planning, the Commission's short-stay calculator still works. Enter every trip in the last 180 days, including ones before April, because the border will know about the new ones even if the online tool forgets the old.

• Bulgaria and Romania have been full Schengen members since 1 January 2025, so days there count.
• Cyprus is not yet in Schengen and does not run EES; its days are counted separately, although ETIAS will cover it.
• Ireland is outside Schengen entirely, with its own rules through the Common Travel Area with the UK.
• Gibraltar changed on 15 July 2026: under the UK-EU agreement, time spent there now counts alongside time in the Schengen area, with Spanish officers running Schengen entry checks, EES included.

Passport rules that still catch people out

Two rules in the Schengen Borders Code turn people away at check-in every winter, and neither is new. Your passport must be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area, and it must have been issued within the previous ten years.

The second one catches British travellers in particular. The UK government's travel advice for France warns that passports renewed before 1 October 2018 may carry extra months from the old one, making the issue date more than ten years back and the passport invalid for entry even though it has not expired.

Going via the UK? The ETA is enforced now

Many European trips start or end in London, and the UK's own travel authorisation is very much live. Since 25 February 2026, airlines refuse boarding to visitors who need an ETA and do not have one.

• It costs £20 since 8 April 2026, up from £16, under SI 2026/311.
• EU citizens have needed one since 2 April 2025, as have Americans, Canadians, Australians and most other visa-free visitors.
• It lasts two years or until your passport expires, and a decision usually arrives by email within a day, but allow three working days.
• Transiting airside at Heathrow or Manchester without passing UK passport control needs no ETA, for now.
• Dual British or Irish citizens cannot get one and must travel on their British or Irish passport, or show a certificate of entitlement.

The official gov.uk ETA page warns that other websites may charge more and imitate government services. The price is £20, paid on gov.uk or in the official UK ETA app.

Where your phone and data come in

None of these systems needs your phone at the border. The authorisations are linked to your passport, and EES reads your face and fingers, not a screen. Your phone matters before the border and just after it.

• The UK ETA app scans your passport chip by NFC and your face with the camera, and needs a 3G, 4G, 5G or Wi-Fi connection.
• ETIAS, once live, sends every decision and every request for more information by email. A request can stretch the decision to 14 days, or 30 with an interview, and missing one gets you refused.
• The Travel to Europe pre-registration app needs NFC, a front camera and a working connection, and only helps in Sweden and Portugal so far.
• Checking your remaining Schengen days is an online service, handy on day 80 of a long trip.

Once you are through, the phone becomes the trip. A single regional plan covers the Schengen countries, the UK, Switzerland and more, as one eSIM, 39 countries shows, and if you have an EU plan at home, where your EU roaming actually stops explains the edges. Arriving in London first? See the UK guide.

A checklist for Europe this winter

• Do not apply for ETIAS. There is nothing to apply for, and any site taking money for it is not the EU.
• Check your passport: valid three months past your departure from Schengen, and issued within the last ten years.
• Allow extra time at your first Schengen border crossing for the EES face and fingerprint registration.
• Count your days across the whole Schengen area, now including Gibraltar, before booking a long stay.
• Apply for a UK ETA on gov.uk or the official app if London is on your route, at least three working days ahead.
• Save your booking emails and set up data on your phone before you land, so any email from a border authority actually reaches you.

Plans for the whole region are on the Europe destination page, and the UK page covers Britain on its own.

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