Dutch passport holders have needed a UK ETA since April 2025 — including on the Eurostar from Amsterdam and the North Sea ferries. Two years of validity, multiple entries, up to six months per visit.
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
Amsterdam to London is one of the busiest air routes in Europe, and has been for as long as anyone has kept records. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are separated by a short stretch of the North Sea, share a deep commercial relationship built on centuries of trade, and move an extraordinary volume of business and leisure traffic between them. Schiphol is also the connecting hub for a large share of British regional traffic to the rest of the world.
Since April 2025 Dutch citizens have needed an Electronic Travel Authorisation for that journey. It is not a visa, and the Netherlands remains firmly in the non-visa category — the ETA is a digital pre-screening step applied for online and attached to the passport number. What is new is that it has to be done before departure, which is a change for a population that has treated the Channel as barely an obstacle for decades.
The Dutch case has one feature that sets it apart from most of Europe: the direct Eurostar from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to London, and the overnight North Sea ferries from Hook of Holland to Harwich and IJmuiden to Newcastle. The ETA applies to all of them. It is emphatically not a flight-only requirement, and the rail and ferry operators check it exactly as the airlines do.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. The Netherlands is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Dutch citizens travel to Britain as visitors for tourism, family visits, business, conferences or short courses without any consular application. The ETA precedes that visitor permission and does not reduce it — the six months Dutch travellers have always been allowed remains unchanged.
Every traveller needs their own, at any age. Children and babies need an ETA linked to their own passport and cannot be added to a parent's application. For Dutch families, who cross to Britain frequently and often at short notice, this is the change that most often catches people out, particularly on ferry and Eurostar trips where the habit of simply booking and going is strongest.
The exemptions matter here because of the size of the Dutch community in Britain. Dutch 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 — the existing status carries the permission. Dual nationals travelling on a British or Irish passport need nothing at all.
The Dutch identity card no longer works for travel to Britain. It stopped being accepted in October 2021 for most travellers, so you need a passport, and the ETA attaches to that passport number. Dutch citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status are the exception and may still use an identity card. One further point worth noting: this page concerns Dutch passports issued to Netherlands nationals, and travellers from Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten who hold Dutch nationality follow the same rules, since eligibility is determined by nationality rather than by island of residence.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Dutch passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on crossings, and each visit can last up to six months. Given how frequently Dutch travellers make short trips to Britain — a meeting in London, a weekend, a football match — the unlimited multiple entry is where the value sits.
The passport-expiry rule is the one to check before applying. The ETA is bound to the passport number and ends with the document. Dutch passports are issued for ten years for adults and five for children, so a family applying together may find the parents' authorisations last the full term while the children's expire much sooner. Renewal does not transfer the ETA, and there is no refund.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. This differs from the rule the EU applies to third-country nationals entering Schengen, and Dutch travellers sometimes assume the two are symmetrical. For a straightforward Netherlands-to-Britain trip, only the British requirement applies.
Six months per visit is the maximum for a single entry rather than an annual budget. It matters most for Dutch students, whose courses must finish within six months or require a Student visa instead, and for the significant number of Dutch professionals who work across both countries. Border Force looks at the pattern across entries — repeated long stays accounting for most of the year read as residence rather than a series of visits.
Pricing
Live fees for Dutch passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Netherlands
Requirements
Everything Dutch 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 the Netherlands are decided automatically in the great majority of cases, and most applicants receive approval within minutes. The Home Office asks for up to three working days to be allowed, and a small proportion are referred for manual review — usually because a photograph fails the automated check.
Apply at least a week before travelling. Because the Netherlands is so close to Britain and trips are so often arranged at short notice, this is a market where last-minute applications are common. Most are fine, but a photograph that fails the automated check turns an instant approval into a wait of up to three working days, which a weekend trip cannot absorb.
One point specific to the Dutch rail route: UK border checks for the direct Eurostar are conducted before departure, so a missing ETA is discovered at Amsterdam Centraal or Rotterdam Centraal rather than at St Pancras. There is no way to resolve it in time for that train. The ferry operators at Hook of Holland and IJmuiden apply the same check at the port.
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
The Netherlands has more ways into Britain than almost any country except France. Amsterdam–London is among the busiest air corridors in Europe, the direct Eurostar runs from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to St Pancras, and two overnight ferry routes cross the North Sea to Harwich and Newcastle carrying cars and foot passengers.
Best time to go
The Dutch and British climates are close cousins — maritime, changeable and rarely extreme — so there is no season a Dutch visitor will find genuinely difficult. What differs is topography and daylight: Scotland in June has appreciably longer evenings than the Netherlands, and the hills of Wales, the Lake District and the Highlands offer terrain that simply does not exist at home.
May, June and September are the strongest months for value and weather together. Prices sit below the July and August peak, the countryside is at its best, and September in particular offers settled weather in the south of England after the British school holidays end.
The Dutch holiday calendar is worth using deliberately. The May vacation and the autumn break both fall outside the British peak, which makes them unusually good value for a London or Edinburgh trip. The summer holidays, staggered by region across July and August, overlap heavily with the British peak — if your region's break falls early or late, you may catch a cheaper window.
A note on timing and mode. Britain is one hour behind the Netherlands year-round, with both countries changing clocks on the same dates. If you are taking the direct Eurostar, allow considerably more time at Amsterdam Centraal than for a domestic train — the UK border check happens before boarding and the check-in window closes well ahead of departure.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Netherlands — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The direct Eurostar from Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the ferries from Hook of Holland and IJmuiden all require an ETA exactly as an aircraft does. Dutch travellers who obtain one for a flight and then take the ferry a few months later without thinking about it are stopped at the port. Every mode of travel to Britain needs the same authorisation.
The Dutch ID card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021. You need a passport, and the ETA is linked to that passport number. The exception is for Dutch citizens holding EU Settlement Scheme status, who may still use an identity card and need no ETA at all.
Names containing van, de, van der or van den must be entered exactly as they appear in the machine-readable zone of the passport. Dutch travellers sometimes drop the prefix or move it, which creates a mismatch between the ETA and the travel document that an airline or Eurostar check can flag.
iDEAL is not available for this payment, and Dutch Maestro debit cards are frequently declined for online international transactions in pounds sterling. Use a Visa or Mastercard credit card, or a debit card you have already used successfully for overseas online purchases.
Dutch citizens living in Britain with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme already have permission to travel, and an ETA is neither required nor useful. Check your status before applying rather than after.
Dutch children's passports run for five years rather than ten, and the ETA expires with the passport. Families applying together often assume all four authorisations will last two years, when the children's may expire considerably sooner. Check each expiry date individually.
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 The Hague and a consulate-general in Amsterdam, but neither has any role in issuing an ETA. The application is completed online and decided digitally — no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. These missions handle consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances require a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Dutch passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Dutch 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. The ETA applies to every mode of travel to the United Kingdom. The direct Eurostar from Amsterdam and Rotterdam checks it before boarding, with UK border formalities completed at the Dutch station rather than on arrival at St Pancras. The same applies to the ferries from Hook of Holland and IJmuiden.
In most cases no. The Dutch identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021, and you need a passport. The exception is for Dutch citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may continue to use an ID card — and who do not need an ETA at all.
Exactly as it appears in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page. If the tussenvoegsel appears there as part of the surname, include it in the same position. Do not drop it or move it to a different field, as a mismatch between the ETA and the passport can be flagged at check-in.
No. iDEAL is not available for this payment. You need a credit or debit card that can process an international transaction in pounds sterling. Dutch Maestro cards are frequently declined for this kind of payment, so use a Visa or Mastercard, or a 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 Dutch passport expires if that is sooner, and permits unlimited crossings within that period. Six months is a per-visit maximum rather than an annual allowance — using most of it repeatedly will prompt Border Force to ask whether you are living in Britain.
No. Dutch 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. 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. Dutch children's passports run for five years rather than ten, so check each expiry date — the ETA ends when the passport does.
Yes. Dutch 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. 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 an itinerary combining London, the Lake District and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to Netherlands. 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.
