New Rules
In the before times, and living in a blissful bubble of European citizenship, I never thought a lot about what I would need to prepare when visiting the UK. But, starting February 2026, new immigration rules for the UK are being enforced. Citizens of 85 additional countries (including the USA and European countries) will need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to visit, even for tourism.1
Luckily, you can apply (and pay) digitally. Unfortunately, the government very much would prefer you to do so using the official app.
How Many Hoops Are Too Many Hoops?
Digital sovereignty is a hot topic right now in a lot of European countries (for good reasons). Both the Google Play Store and the Apple Store are controlled by US companies. And surely, I should not need to have access to a smartphone in order to complete a required government process?
Helpfully, the UK ETA app is not linked from the ETA enforcement announcement. But, if you search for it, you can find a help page on “Using the ‘UK ETA’ app”2 that looks like this:
You can not use the official app? How about reading a huge FAQ about how to use it?
Can you spot where you would find alternatives to using the app on this page? Of course, under ‘If you need help using the app’. First, you are smart and can see that I already clicked the link before taking the screenshot. But second, technically not being able to use the app would fall under needing help on how to use it. I guess? Fair enough.
There, you can find a link to “apply online instead”. Our journey is at an end; we can use the open web to complete the ETA! Let’s click the link:
Sike! How about an ad for the app?
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