The EU's ETIAS Travel Permit Still Has No Start Date: What Relatives Visiting Portugal Will Need, and Why Residents Are Exempt

ETIAS, the EU's travel authorisation for visitors who do not need a visa, still has no start date. The official ETIAS website now says only that the system "is currently not in operation", that no applications are being collected, and that the EU "will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch".

That matters for immigrants in Portugal whose relatives visit from the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, Canada and other visa-exempt countries. For now, there is nothing to apply for or pay.

A missed target

An April 2025 article still on the same site says EU home affairs ministers endorsed a revised timeline on 5 March 2025 under which ETIAS was "expected to become operational in the last quarter of 2026". That quarter began on 1 October. Schengen Visa Info, which reported the delay on 19 October, says the "last quarter of 2026" wording disappeared from the site's main pages in July without a press release.

eu-LISA (the EU agency that runs the system) said on 19 October that its management committee, meeting in Tallinn on 6 and 7 October, had set 15 priorities for 2027 and that "a major focus for 2027 will be" ETIAS. In September its management board discussed scenarios for updating the roadmap for the EU's linked border systems in 2027 and 2028. Neither statement gives a date.

Under Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240, the European Commission sets the start date only after conditions are met, including eu-LISA declaring the successful completion of a comprehensive test.

The border register is already running

The Entry/Exit System (EES), which records non-EU short-stay visitors' names, passport data, fingerprints and facial images instead of stamping passports, began a progressive start on 12 October 2025 and became fully operational on 10 April 2026. The EU's own timeline explainer says ETIAS will launch a few months after the EES.

What visitors will need once it starts

• Who: nationals of the listed visa-exempt countries and territories, including the UK, the US, Brazil, Canada and Australia, visiting 30 European countries, Portugal among them.
• Cost: EUR 20, up from the EUR 7 set in the original regulation. Applicants under 18 or above 70 pay nothing, nor do qualifying family members of EU nationals.
• Validity: three years or until the passport expires, if sooner. A new passport needs a new authorisation. Stays are capped at 90 days in any 180-day period.
• Processing: most applications within minutes; otherwise within four days, or longer if extra documents or an interview are requested.

The regulation makes ETIAS optional for the first six months, a period the Commission can extend. A further six-month grace period follows, during which travellers on their first trip since the optional period ended can still be admitted without one. By our arithmetic, that is at least 12 months after launch before every visitor without ETIAS can be refused entry; the EU's April 2025 timeline article also says the two periods together "will last for at least 12 months".

Residents are exempt

According to the official site, holders of a residence permit issued by any of the 30 ETIAS countries except Cyprus do not need ETIAS; that includes the residence documents issued to UK nationals and their families under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement. A dual national holding Portuguese citizenship must travel on the Portuguese passport. Residence permit holders are also exempt from EES registration.

The EU says there is only one official ETIAS website, europa.eu/etias. Any site taking payment for ETIAS now is not it.