The Country List That’s Causing Confusion at Every Airport With UK-Bound Flights

The UK ETA applies to citizens of approximately eighty-five nationalities. Not one hundred. Not all countries. Not just European countries. Eighty-five specific nationalities, listed by the UK Home Office, who previously could travel to the UK without any advance authorisation.

The list is the source of most of the confusion about whether you need an ETA.

Here’s the clearest way to understand it. If you hold a passport from a country that previously allowed you to visit the UK without a visa, you almost certainly now need an ETA. The ETA replaced the previous visa-free arrangement for these countries. It’s not an additional layer on top of a visa. It’s a lighter-weight system that sits where nothing used to exist.

If you needed a visa to visit the UK before January 2026, you still need a visa. The ETA is not available to you. Nothing has changed for visa-required nationalities.

The countries where confusion is highest right now are Brazil, Spain, Italy, and several Latin American nations.

Brazil is a significant case. Brazilian citizens were visa-exempt for the UK. They now need an ETA. Brazil is one of the largest sources of UK-bound travellers in South America. The rollout of the requirement has been uneven in terms of public awareness, and there’s a pattern of Brazilian travellers arriving at international departure airports without the necessary authorisation.

Spain is a different kind of confusion. Spanish citizens absolutely need a UK ETA. But Spain is also an EU member state, and there’s a residual assumption among some Spanish travellers that EU status offers some kind of preference for UK entry. It doesn’t. Post-Brexit, the UK’s relationship with EU citizens in terms of entry requirements is governed by UK law, not EU law. Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Belgian passport holders all need ETAs.

The countries that don’t need an ETA are primarily those whose citizens either already require a standard visa, or countries with specific bilateral arrangements. Irish citizens are a notable exception, covered by the Common Travel Area agreement.

The practical advice for travellers from any of these countries is straightforward. Check your passport nationality against the current ETA eligible list. If you’re on it, apply before you travel. The application is online, takes about ten minutes. Don’t rely on someone at check-in to catch the gap before it becomes a problem at the gate.

Check your UK ETA eligibility here.