Danish passport holders have needed a UK ETA since April 2025. Two years of validity, multiple entries, up to six months in Britain per visit — applied for online in minutes.
6 months
Maximum stay per visit
2 years
ETA validity
Multiple
Entries permitted
3 working days
Typical decision time
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Denmark and Britain have been trading partners and, at times, rather more than that for well over a thousand years — the Danelaw left its mark on half of England, and the modern relationship is correspondingly comfortable. Copenhagen is one of Heathrow's busiest short-haul destinations, Danish companies have deep British operations, and London is among the most popular city-break destinations for Danes by a wide margin.
Since April 2025 that journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Denmark remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what Danes may do in Britain has changed — the ETA is a digital pre-travel permission applied for online and attached to the passport number. What is new is the requirement to do it before departure, after decades of free movement.
The process is quick and will feel unremarkable in a country as digitally organised as Denmark. The application takes about ten minutes, is usually decided within them, and produces no document — the authorisation lives against your passport number. SAS, British Airways, Norwegian, Ryanair and easyJet all check it before boarding, and a passenger without one does not fly.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. Denmark is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Danish citizens travel to Britain as visitors for tourism, family visits, business, conferences or short courses without any consular application. The ETA precedes that permission and does not reduce it — the six months Danish visitors have always been allowed is unchanged.
Every traveller needs their own, at any age. Children and infants need an ETA linked to their own passport and cannot be added to a parent's application. Danish families travel to Britain often and at short notice, and this is the change that most commonly catches people out.
The exemptions apply as elsewhere in Europe. Danish citizens holding a UK visa, settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, or indefinite leave to remain do not need an ETA, since their existing status carries the permission. Dual nationals travelling on a British or Irish passport need nothing at all.
Two points specific to the Danish realm are worth stating. First, the Danish identity arrangements do not provide a card accepted for travel to Britain — you need a passport, and the ETA attaches to its number. Second, citizens of the Faroe Islands and Greenland hold Danish passports and follow the same rules, since eligibility is determined by nationality rather than by which part of the realm you live in.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Danish passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For Danes who make several short trips to London a year, one application covering two years removes a recurring step entirely.
The passport-expiry rule is the one to check first. The ETA is bound to the passport number you enter and ends when that document does. Danish passports are issued for ten years for adults, five for children aged 12 to 17, two years for those aged two to eleven and just one year for the very young. That range is wider than in most countries, so a family applying together should check every expiry date individually rather than assuming a uniform two years.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. Danish travellers are used to the Schengen rule for third-country nationals and sometimes assume symmetry, but for a trip to Britain only the British requirement applies.
Six months per visit is the maximum for a single entry rather than an annual allowance. It matters most for Danish students, whose courses must finish within six months or require a Student visa instead, and for professionals working across both countries. Border Force considers entries cumulatively, and stays that account for most of the year read as residence rather than a series of visits.
Pricing
Live fees for Danish passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Denmark
Requirements
Everything Danish passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent digital photograph — full face visible against a plain background, taken within the last six months, with no headwear other than for religious or medical reasons
A valid email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should keep accessible while travelling
A credit or debit card to pay the Home Office ETA fee and our service fee together
Your travel and accommodation details — Border Force can ask about the purpose of your visit and where you are staying
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Home Office.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, answer the suitability questions and upload your photograph. Most applicants finish in under ten minutes.
Our team checks your photo, passport number, name spelling and declarations against Home Office requirements before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to UK Visas and Immigration with the government fee paid, and we track its status until a decision is issued.
There is no sticker, label or document to print. The authorisation is held digitally against your passport number, and we explain exactly what to show at check-in.
Applications from Denmark are decided automatically in the great majority of cases, and most applicants receive approval within minutes. The Home Office asks travellers to allow up to three working days, and a small proportion are referred for manual review, usually where a photograph fails the automated check.
Apply at least a week before travelling. Because London is such a common short-notice destination from Copenhagen, last-minute applications are frequent in this market. Most are approved immediately, but a rejected photograph means a wait of up to three working days — longer than many Danish trips to Britain last.
One point for travellers from the wider Danish realm: journeys from the Faroe Islands and Greenland involve connections through Copenhagen or Reykjavik and considerably less schedule flexibility than a Copenhagen departure. A problem discovered en route is much harder to recover from, so apply well ahead if you are travelling from either.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land — and your nationality is one of those that can use the automated gates.
Your nationality is eligible to use the automated gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and most other UK ports, alongside British and Irish citizens. The gate reads your biometric passport chip and checks your ETA against it electronically.
Children aged 10 or 11 can use the gates when accompanied by an adult using them at the same time. Younger children must be seen at a staffed desk, so families with under-tens should join the officer queue together.
The gates do not stamp passports. Your arrival is recorded digitally, and your six-month permission runs from that date. Keep your boarding pass and booking confirmations if you need to evidence your arrival date later.
The gates refer a proportion of passengers to Border Force at random or where the chip does not read cleanly. This is routine, is not a sign of a problem with your ETA, and usually adds only a few minutes.
Getting there
Copenhagen has one of the best British networks in the Nordics, with high-frequency services to London and a wide spread of UK regional airports. Billund and Aalborg add further direct options, and Malmö travellers commonly use Kastrup, which is a short train ride across the Öresund bridge.
Best time to go
Danes find the British winter mild rather than difficult. A December in London has around eight hours of daylight against Copenhagen's seven, and the temperature rarely drops below freezing. That makes November through February a genuinely appealing and cheap season for Danish visitors, in a way it is not for travellers from further south.
May, June and September are the strongest months for weather and value together. All three sit below the July and August peak in price, and September has the advantage that British school holidays have ended while the weather in the south often holds into October.
The Danish holiday calendar offers some usefully counter-cyclical windows. The vinterferie in February and the efterårsferie in October both fall outside the British peak and are excellent times for a family trip to London or Manchester. The long summer holiday from late June through early August overlaps heavily with the British peak in both price and crowds.
One practical note. Britain is one hour behind Denmark year-round, with both changing clocks on the same dates, so the difference never varies. Copenhagen departures land at Heathrow through the busy morning and midday banks, when immigration queues are longest — worth allowing for if you have a connection or a same-day meeting.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Denmark — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Danish children's passports are valid for one year for the very young, two years for those aged two to eleven and five for teenagers. The ETA expires when the passport does, so a family applying together may find a small child's authorisation lasting only months while the parents' runs the full two years. Check every expiry date individually.
A Dankort-only card will not process an online international payment in pounds sterling, and MobilePay is not available for this transaction. Use a Visa or Mastercard credit card, or a debit card you have already used successfully for overseas online purchases.
The ETA must match the machine-readable zone of the passport, where these characters are transliterated. Entering the Danish characters directly, or guessing at a substitution, creates a mismatch between the authorisation and the travel document that the airline check can flag at the gate.
London is Denmark's default short-notice city break, and applications are often left until days before departure. Most are approved within minutes, but a photograph that fails the automated check means a wait of up to three working days — frequently longer than the trip itself.
Many Danes living in Britain hold settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. That status already carries permission to travel and an ETA is neither required nor useful. Check your status before applying rather than after.
The ETA permits study of up to six months. A Danish student on an academic year, a full degree or an exchange running beyond six months needs a Student visa applied for before travel. It cannot be obtained from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Passport number mistyped
By far the most common problem. The authorisation attaches to the number you enter, so a single wrong character produces an ETA that does not exist as far as the airline's check is concerned.
An undeclared conviction or refusal
The Home Office asks about criminal convictions and previous immigration refusals or removals. History found later is treated far more seriously than the original matter would have been if declared.
A photograph that fails the check
Shadows across the face, glasses, a patterned background or a cropped chin all cause the automated check to reject an image, which turns a routine approval into a manual review.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the UK Home Office and do not vary by nationality. The passport-linking rule in particular catches out a great many otherwise well-planned trips.
Your authorisation is held digitally against the passport number you enter. There is nothing placed in your passport and nothing to print for the border. If you renew or replace that passport, the ETA does not transfer — you must apply for a new one on the new document.
Every person travelling needs their own ETA, including babies and children. A child cannot be added to a parent's application, and each traveller needs their own valid passport to apply against.
An approved ETA lasts two years from the date it is granted, or until the expiry date of the passport it is linked to, whichever comes first. This is the single most misunderstood rule in the scheme — a passport with eight months left produces an ETA with eight months left.
Within its validity you can travel to the UK as many times as you like. Each individual visit can be up to six months. There is no formal annual cap, but repeated long stays that add up to the majority of the year will attract questions at the border.
One ETA covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it is also accepted for travel to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. You do not need a separate authorisation for the Crown Dependencies.
An ETA lets you board your flight, train or ship. The decision to admit you is made by Border Force on arrival, who can ask about your funds, your accommodation, your onward plans and the purpose of your visit.
Consular services
The United Kingdom maintains an embassy in Copenhagen, but it plays no part in issuing an ETA. The application is completed online and decided digitally — there is no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. The embassy handles consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances require a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Danish passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Danish citizens do not need a visa for tourism, business visits, short study or transit in the United Kingdom. Since April 2025 they do need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a digital permission linked to the passport rather than a visa. It is applied for online in about ten minutes and usually approved the same day.
Yes, on the same terms. Residents of the Faroe Islands and Greenland who hold Danish passports follow exactly the same rules as other Danish citizens, since eligibility is determined by nationality rather than by which part of the Danish realm you live in. Apply against the passport you will actually travel on.
Yes. The ETA expires when the passport it is linked to expires. Danish children's passports run for one year for the very young, two years for ages two to eleven and five for teenagers, so a child's ETA can last far less than the headline two years. Check each family member's expiry date separately.
No. MobilePay is not available for this payment and a Dankort-only card will not process an international transaction in pounds sterling. Use a Visa or Mastercard credit card, or a debit card you have already used successfully for overseas online purchases.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Danish passport expires if that is sooner, and permits unlimited entries within that period. Six months is a per-visit maximum rather than an annual allowance — repeatedly using most of it will prompt Border Force to ask whether you are living in Britain.
No. Danish citizens with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, indefinite leave to remain, or a valid UK visa do not need an ETA. Your existing status already carries permission to travel, so applying would be money spent unnecessarily.
Yes. Danish citizens, like all EU nationals, are eligible for the automated ePassport gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and most other UK ports, provided the passport is biometric and the traveller is aged 10 or over. Children aged 10 and 11 must be accompanied by an adult using the gates at the same time.
Yes. Every traveller needs an ETA regardless of age, including babies, and each is linked to that person's own passport. Children cannot be added to a parent's application. Danish children's passports have unusually short validity periods, so check each one before applying.
Only for courses lasting up to six months, such as a summer school or a short language programme. An academic year, a full degree or an exchange running beyond six months requires a Student visa applied for before travel. You cannot switch to a Student visa from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Yes. A single ETA covers the entire United Kingdom and is also accepted for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. There are no internal immigration checks between the four nations, so a trip combining London and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to Denmark. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Home Office.
Other nationalities
Requirements, routes and border formalities differ by passport. Here are the guides for other eligible nationalities.
