TORONTO — Whenever the ETIAS is finally set to launch, Europe-selling travel retailers and suppliers – and travellers themselves – might not believe it will actually happen, and who could blame them? Officially the European Travel Information & Authorization System, the ETIAS has been delayed so many times that the latest setback barely registers. Travelweek first reported on the ETIAS in 2019 , two years before it was set to start in 2021. That target came and went, the first of many delays over the years.
The ETIAS won’t launch until at least six months after the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is up and running. The EES will add another layer of security – and scanners – for non-EU travellers entering what’s known as the Schengen Area (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). Meanwhile the ETIAS will require qualifying travellers from some 60 visa-exempt countries, including Canada, to apply for an entry permit in advance of their trip, and pay 7 EUR.
It will be valid for 3 years. Think of EES as the back-end, and the ETIAS is the front-end. Until the EES launches, the ETIAS is in a holding pattern.
After multiple yes-it-will-no-it-won’t false starts over the years, the most recent update, issued this past summer, pegged the EES launch for No.
