Australians heading to Britain for business trips, family visits or holidays will soon have to clear an extra pre-departure hurdle. On 23 January 2026 the advocacy group National Seniors Australia reminded travellers that the United Kingdom’s new “No Permission, No Travel” policy formally begins on 25 February 2026. From that date airlines, ferry companies and Eurostar operators must confirm that every non-visa-national passenger possesses either a valid Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) or an appropriate visa before allowing the individual to board.
The UK Home Office is rolling the ETA system out in phases, and Australia is in the first tranche of nationalities to be covered. The online application—costing £16 (about A$32)—grants multiple entries of up to six months each over a two-year period. Processing is largely automated and most approvals should be returned “within hours”, yet carriers will be fined if they transport anyone without permission. As a result, check-in systems will be hard-coded to reject boarding passes where an ETA or visa cannot be verified.
Travellers who prefer guidance can outsource the paperwork to VisaHQ, whose Australian portal (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) offers step-by-step assistance with UK ETAs and other global travel authorisations, ensuring applications are error-free and approved on time.
![UK to Require Electronic Travel Authorisation for Australians from 25 February 2026]()
Dual nationals must take extra care. British and Irish citizens are exempt from the ETA requirement—but only if they travel on (or together with) their UK/Irish passport, or hold a Certificate of Entitlement to Right of Abode in an Australian passport. National Seniors warns that Australians who have a latent claim to British citizenship through ancestry should consider finalising their UK documentation well ahead of February; otherwise they, too, will need an ETA.
For corporate mobility teams the change is significant. Large Australian firms that routinely send staff to London for meetings or project work will now have to build the ETA step into travel-approval workflows. Travellers arriving without permission will simply be denied boarding in Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, creating costly delays and missed engagements. Travel managers are therefore urged to preload staff passports into booking profiles and schedule an automated ETA reminder at least a week before departure.
With the EU set to introduce its own ETIAS waiver later in 2026, experts say the UK announcement heralds a new era of pre-travel authorisations that will increasingly impact Australian passport-holders worldwide.
The UK Home Office is rolling the ETA system out in phases, and Australia is in the first tranche of nationalities to be covered. The online application—costing £16 (about A$32)—grants multiple entries of up to six months each over a two-year period. Processing is largely automated and most approvals should be returned “within hours”, yet carriers will be fined if they transport anyone without permission. As a result, check-in systems will be hard-coded to reject boarding passes where an ETA or visa cannot be verified.
Travellers who prefer guidance can outsource the paperwork to VisaHQ, whose Australian portal (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) offers step-by-step assistance with UK ETAs and other global travel authorisations, ensuring applications are error-free and approved on time.
Dual nationals must take extra care. British and Irish citizens are exempt from the ETA requirement—but only if they travel on (or together with) their UK/Irish passport, or hold a Certificate of Entitlement to Right of Abode in an Australian passport. National Seniors warns that Australians who have a latent claim to British citizenship through ancestry should consider finalising their UK documentation well ahead of February; otherwise they, too, will need an ETA.
For corporate mobility teams the change is significant. Large Australian firms that routinely send staff to London for meetings or project work will now have to build the ETA step into travel-approval workflows. Travellers arriving without permission will simply be denied boarding in Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, creating costly delays and missed engagements. Travel managers are therefore urged to preload staff passports into booking profiles and schedule an automated ETA reminder at least a week before departure.
With the EU set to introduce its own ETIAS waiver later in 2026, experts say the UK announcement heralds a new era of pre-travel authorisations that will increasingly impact Australian passport-holders worldwide.
