Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder.

It's Wednesday the 5th of March, a very significant day for the millions of Europeans who will hope to visit the UK,

and indeed will be very welcome anytime from the 2nd of April onwards, because they will need an electronic travel authorization permit or

an ETA. Time to explain what this is and what it will mean. Well, the UK in common with many

other countries is demanding more information in advance from prospective

visitors before they travel to the UK. And the government says that this will offer a more

streamlined digital immigration system which will be quicker and more secure for the millions

of people who pass through the UK border every year.

Well, they want to know about your suitability and also your criminality.

And they say it will prevent abuse of our immigration system.

So let me talk you through it.

The ETA has actually been around since 2023. It was

originally rolled out to some Gulf countries as a kind of trial. Qatar was actually the first.

And initially, and ridiculously, it applied equally to transit passengers who were just planning to spend a couple of hours drinking overpriced coffee at Heathrow Airport.

The new Labour government initially said, yes, we're going to carry on doing that because it's essential to protect the UK.

Now they have quietly, and they say

temporarily remove that restriction. But anybody who's crossing the UK border who does not need

a visa as such, which is, by the way, a complicated and expensive process and doesn't have the good

fortune to be an Irish citizen, or indeed a UK citizen,

everybody from the 2nd of April will need that ETA. It costs £10 and that is actually going to

increase as soon as the government can get parliamentary approval for it. How does that stack up against the others?

Well, Australia is free and easy.

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