The United Kingdom’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) programme moved from pilot to full enforcement at 00:01 GMT on 8 January 2026, closing a decades-long era of true visa-free entry for Hong Kong visitors. From this week, holders of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) passports and British National (Overseas) passports must obtain a digital permit before they can board a flight, train or ferry to the UK.
Applying for the ETA costs £16 and is done through a dedicated mobile app that captures passport details, biographic data and a live face scan. Most approvals are returned “within minutes”, according to the UK Home Office, but the fine print warns that manual reviews can stretch the wait to 72 hours—an important consideration for corporate road-warriors who are accustomed to last-minute itineraries. Airlines, cruise operators and Eurostar services have been told they face financial penalties if they carry passengers who have not been cleared, meaning check-in desks will act as the first line of enforcement.
While a valid ETA is technically required for entry only, UK border officials have confirmed that carriers must verify approval codes prior to boarding; travellers who arrive without an ETA risk being refused entry and returned at the airline’s expense. Transit passengers, who were initially expected to be included, remain exempt until at least 2027, but multinational companies are already advising staff to secure the permit proactively to avoid confusion during tight layovers that could turn into short stop-overs.
![UK Electronic Travel Authorisation now compulsory for Hong Kong travellers]()
To ease that administrative load, VisaHQ’s Hong Kong platform (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) walks applicants through each screen of the UK ETA form, pre-checks supporting documents and can synchronise approvals with corporate travel dashboards—saving both individual travellers and HR teams valuable time.
The roll-out is part of London’s wider plan to apply the ETA requirement to every non-visa national by the end of 2026. Consultants say the extra step will add administrative friction for Hong Kong’s finance and professional-services sectors, which rely on frequent hops to the City of London. Larger firms are updating travel-booking platforms to build in prompts for ETA numbers, while SMEs are leaning on travel-management companies to absorb the compliance burden.
Travel-insurance providers have also entered the conversation: several underwriters now exclude cancellation costs if a traveller is denied boarding for failing to secure an ETA, mirroring existing exclusions for traditional visa refusals. As a result, mobility managers are urging employees to apply at least five days before departure and to download the ETA confirmation PDF to multiple devices in case of phone failure.
Applying for the ETA costs £16 and is done through a dedicated mobile app that captures passport details, biographic data and a live face scan. Most approvals are returned “within minutes”, according to the UK Home Office, but the fine print warns that manual reviews can stretch the wait to 72 hours—an important consideration for corporate road-warriors who are accustomed to last-minute itineraries. Airlines, cruise operators and Eurostar services have been told they face financial penalties if they carry passengers who have not been cleared, meaning check-in desks will act as the first line of enforcement.
While a valid ETA is technically required for entry only, UK border officials have confirmed that carriers must verify approval codes prior to boarding; travellers who arrive without an ETA risk being refused entry and returned at the airline’s expense. Transit passengers, who were initially expected to be included, remain exempt until at least 2027, but multinational companies are already advising staff to secure the permit proactively to avoid confusion during tight layovers that could turn into short stop-overs.
To ease that administrative load, VisaHQ’s Hong Kong platform (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) walks applicants through each screen of the UK ETA form, pre-checks supporting documents and can synchronise approvals with corporate travel dashboards—saving both individual travellers and HR teams valuable time.
The roll-out is part of London’s wider plan to apply the ETA requirement to every non-visa national by the end of 2026. Consultants say the extra step will add administrative friction for Hong Kong’s finance and professional-services sectors, which rely on frequent hops to the City of London. Larger firms are updating travel-booking platforms to build in prompts for ETA numbers, while SMEs are leaning on travel-management companies to absorb the compliance burden.
Travel-insurance providers have also entered the conversation: several underwriters now exclude cancellation costs if a traveller is denied boarding for failing to secure an ETA, mirroring existing exclusions for traditional visa refusals. As a result, mobility managers are urging employees to apply at least five days before departure and to download the ETA confirmation PDF to multiple devices in case of phone failure.
