Electronic travel authorisations: the visa that is not called a visa

A growing number of destinations that required no visa now require an electronic authorisation obtained before travel. It is cheap, quick and consequential: it is a screening decision made before you reach the airport.

What they are

• An online application with passport details, travel plans and eligibility questions, screened automatically against databases.
• Valid for multiple entries over a period, tied to the passport rather than to the trip.
• Required before boarding — airlines check, and a passenger without one is refused carriage.
• Examples now cover the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union's forthcoming system, and a growing list elsewhere.

Why they matter more than the fee suggests

• Refusals happen, and a refusal is a disclosable fact on future applications everywhere.
• The eligibility questions matter. Answering wrongly about a prior refusal, an arrest or a visa history is a false declaration rather than a mistake.
• They are tied to the passport. A new passport means a new authorisation, and travelling on a different passport from the one authorised is a refusal at the gate.
• Dual nationals must check which of their passports needs one, and use that passport consistently for the trip.

The practical rules

• Apply through the official government site. A substantial industry sells the same authorisation at a markup, and some of it collects data rather than delivering the document.
• Apply days rather than hours ahead: most are instant, and the ones that go to manual review are not.
• Record the expiry, because it is tied to the passport and expires with it.
• Where an application is refused, do not simply reapply — establish the reason, because a second refusal compounds.