Don’t postpone getting your ETA!

We are traveling next month, and I just applied for both online (NOT with the APP), and was able to receive instantaneous approvals.

I will say it took a bit to get a passport photo loaded for my husband, as I kept getting some (sun and light) glare this morning on the shots. I took my passport photo last night, and it was accepted immediately.

I would recommend having photos ready to go if you apply online.

It is interesting that they want to know if you work, and what job you do.

I had to wait almost forty-five minutes last night to access the application for myself online. Today the application came up immediately. Overall, the process was not as difficult as I thought. Very happy to be approved and ready to go!

That is an interesting article, Laurel. A couple of things confused me so maybe I need to go read the comments on the article, lol.

I thought you could apply on arrival as well but maybe that was just while the program was phasing in.

I was also puzzled because I did not know that a US-based airline, Delta in the example in the article, was able to access the information from UK. I know there have been a few posts here saying people were questioned when checking in for a flight and the desk agent wanted to see proof they had an approval which the website clearly said you did not need to print out.

My cruise is not until September 2027 and I have already gotten the UK ETA. It is within the two year period.

I had problems because my phone is so old that i can not get software updates any longer and i had to do it on the web. There was a problem with pictures but I figured it out, eventually.

I would suggest doing it as soon as the trip is booked as long as it is within the two year period. Also as long as your passport will not be expiring..

I feel that there will be continuing problems with all the added electronic paper work and I do not mean with just UK.

Pam, that’s a good point. We just came back from a UK visit and before departure in the Seattle, no one even asked us if we had the ETA prior to boarding a BA flight. I would not think the airline’s systems would be linked to a UK government site.

Laurel, same for me when I headed to Scotland last Summer on Delta. I transited thru Atlanta where I boarded a flight to EDI and no one asked a thing. I had a screenshot of my approval notice as well as having the actual email in a travel document file on my phone.

I did just read all the comments and no one had my questions, lol.

I was reading the NYT comments and one caught my eye that Delta provides a link on their website to process an ETA. BEWARE though, it sends you to a 3rd party and not the official uk.gov ETA site. I'm shocked/not shocked that an airline would do this. *Looking into it further, most airlines will send you to a 3rd part-mainly Sherpa and then the commission is split between it and the airline, This includes British Airways. So much for airlines putting your best interests first.

A high five for this Forum and it's contributors for directing people to the proper sites and not behaving like an airline.

Before you even arrive at the airport the manifest is submitted to UK Immigration (so they know you are coming well ahead of time), then when you check in the airline systems have a live link with UK Immigration, so you provide your passport at check in and UK Immigration can see that passport has an attached ETA, and that there are no flags up against the passport for any reason, which the intelligence services have raised. At that point they know you are arriving in the UK on flight abcd.

That is the whole point of ETA- secure borders- we know all about everyone before they actually arrive.

Apparently everything is meant to be submitted and approved 2 hours before the flight takes off from the US or any other country.

In theory once we know you are on flight abcd intelligence can run checks on you while you are in the air- if anything has changed since the ETA was granted, then you can still be refused entry, ETA or not.

Exactly the same way as it works for anyone flying to the US.

Isn31c thanks for the insight!