Irish businesses with frequent UK links have entered countdown mode after the UK Home Office confirmed that **full, no-leniency enforcement of the new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme will begin on 25 February 2026**.
Under the Common Travel Area, Irish citizens themselves remain exempt from the ETA, but the rule change still lands squarely on the desks of Irish mobility managers for three reasons.
First, **dual Irish-British nationals who have let a British passport lapse will no longer be waved through on an alternative foreign passport**. From next week they must present either an in-date Irish or British passport, or pay £589 for (and travel with) a hard-to-obtain Certificate of Entitlement confirming their right of abode. Employers with staff who routinely use other EU passports for UK travel have scrambled this week to identify affected workers and fast-track renewals.
![UK to Enforce Electronic Travel Authorisation From 25 February, Irish Travellers Urged to Check Documents]()
Second, the UK has made it clear that **airlines, ferry operators and Eurostar will face fines for boarding passengers without a valid ETA or the correct exemption documents**. Carriers are expected to tighten document-checking at Dublin, Cork and Shannon departure gates, raising the risk of missed flights if travellers assume old practices still apply. Corporate travel teams are therefore pushing out fresh pre-trip reminders and updating online booking tools so that travellers must confirm ETA possession before a ticket is issued.
To take the administrative sting out of these new checks, Irish firms can lean on VisaHQ’s dedicated portal (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/). The platform lets travel managers lodge ETA applications in bulk, monitor passport expiry dates and receive real-time status alerts, ensuring no employee is caught without the right clearance at the gate.
Finally, because the ETA is electronically linked to a single passport number, **Irish-resident third-country nationals—such as US, Australian or Japanese assignees—must travel on the document used for the ETA application**. Mobility advisers note that many short-term assignees hold multiple passports and will need careful coaching to avoid a mismatch at the border.
Longer term, UK ministers have signalled that the ETA database will be cross-checked against tax, criminal and immigration records in both directions. That raises questions about how data sharing will mesh with Ireland’s own privacy regime and could eventually influence Garda vetting for inbound work-permit holders. For now, the immediate priority for companies is communication: ensure every traveller touching the UK from 25 February knows that "No-ETA = No-Boarding" really does mean what it says.
Under the Common Travel Area, Irish citizens themselves remain exempt from the ETA, but the rule change still lands squarely on the desks of Irish mobility managers for three reasons.
First, **dual Irish-British nationals who have let a British passport lapse will no longer be waved through on an alternative foreign passport**. From next week they must present either an in-date Irish or British passport, or pay £589 for (and travel with) a hard-to-obtain Certificate of Entitlement confirming their right of abode. Employers with staff who routinely use other EU passports for UK travel have scrambled this week to identify affected workers and fast-track renewals.
Second, the UK has made it clear that **airlines, ferry operators and Eurostar will face fines for boarding passengers without a valid ETA or the correct exemption documents**. Carriers are expected to tighten document-checking at Dublin, Cork and Shannon departure gates, raising the risk of missed flights if travellers assume old practices still apply. Corporate travel teams are therefore pushing out fresh pre-trip reminders and updating online booking tools so that travellers must confirm ETA possession before a ticket is issued.
To take the administrative sting out of these new checks, Irish firms can lean on VisaHQ’s dedicated portal (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/). The platform lets travel managers lodge ETA applications in bulk, monitor passport expiry dates and receive real-time status alerts, ensuring no employee is caught without the right clearance at the gate.
Finally, because the ETA is electronically linked to a single passport number, **Irish-resident third-country nationals—such as US, Australian or Japanese assignees—must travel on the document used for the ETA application**. Mobility advisers note that many short-term assignees hold multiple passports and will need careful coaching to avoid a mismatch at the border.
Longer term, UK ministers have signalled that the ETA database will be cross-checked against tax, criminal and immigration records in both directions. That raises questions about how data sharing will mesh with Ireland’s own privacy regime and could eventually influence Garda vetting for inbound work-permit holders. For now, the immediate priority for companies is communication: ensure every traveller touching the UK from 25 February knows that "No-ETA = No-Boarding" really does mean what it says.
