Greek 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
Greece and Britain have a relationship built on shipping, education and a long-standing Greek presence in London. The Greek shipping community in the City is among the most established of any foreign business community in Britain, Greek students have been a fixture at British universities for generations, and the Greek diaspora in London and Birmingham is substantial. The traffic is heavier and more year-round than the tourist flow in the other direction suggests.
Since April 2025 that journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Greece remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what Greek citizens may do in Britain has changed — the ETA is a digital pre-travel permission applied for online and attached to the passport number. It simply has to be obtained before departure.
The mechanics are quick and undramatic. The application takes about ten minutes, is usually decided within them, and produces no document — the authorisation lives against your passport number. Aegean, British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI all check it before boarding, and a passenger without one is refused at the gate.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. Greece is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Greek 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 Greek 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. Greek families visiting relatives in Britain — a very common pattern — need a separate authorisation for each person travelling.
The exemptions apply widely because of the size of the Greek community in Britain. Greek 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.
The Greek identity card no longer works for travel to Britain. It stopped being accepted in October 2021 for most travellers, so a passport is required and the ETA attaches to its number. Greek citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status are the exception and may still use an identity card.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Greek passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For Greek business travellers on regular London rotations — the shipping community in particular — one application covering two years removes a recurring step.
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. Greek passports are issued for five years for adults and three years for children under fourteen, both notably shorter than the European norm. That makes renewals falling inside the ETA's two-year window considerably more likely, and a renewal voids the authorisation with no transfer and no refund.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. Greek 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 Greek students, whose courses must finish within six months or require a Student visa instead — Britain is a very common destination for Greek university study, and an academic year is emphatically not covered by an ETA. It also matters for anyone working across both countries, since Border Force considers entries cumulatively.
Pricing
Live fees for Greek passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Greece
Requirements
Everything Greek 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 Greece 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. The buffer exists so that a mistyped passport number or a rejected photograph can be corrected without a second payment, not because the decision itself is slow.
Island travellers should allow longer. Flights to Britain from Crete, Rhodes, Corfu and the smaller islands are heavily seasonal, and outside summer most itineraries connect through Athens. A problem discovered at check-in on an island may cost a day rather than a few hours, which makes the buffer more valuable than for an Athens departure.
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
Athens has strong year-round links to Britain, and the Greek islands have an exceptionally wide summer network reflecting decades of British tourism. Outside the summer season the island routes thin out considerably, and most journeys from the islands connect through Athens or Thessaloniki.
Best time to go
Greek visitors arrive from a Mediterranean climate into a maritime one, and the difference is substantial. A British summer is far cooler and wetter than a Greek one — which many find a relief in July and August — while a British winter is milder than the latitude suggests but much darker, with only around eight hours of daylight in December.
May, June and September are the strongest months for a British trip, sitting below the July and August peak in price while offering the best weather. September is particularly good value, with the British school holidays over and the weather in the south often holding into October.
The Greek calendar creates a natural rhythm. August is when Greece itself takes holiday and when Britain is at its most expensive and crowded — the worst combination. The Orthodox Easter period, which usually falls later than the Western one, and the shoulder months of May and late September are much better. For Greeks in the tourism industry, the natural window for a British trip is November through March, which happens to be when Britain is cheapest.
One practical note. Greece is two hours ahead of Britain year-round, with both changing clocks on the same dates, so the difference never varies. Athens departures land at Heathrow and Gatwick in the late morning and early afternoon, when immigration queues are at their longest — worth allowing for if you have a connection.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Greece — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Greek adult passports run for five years and children's for only three — both notably shorter than the European norm. The ETA expires when the passport does, so renewals falling inside the ETA's two-year window are common here. A renewal voids the authorisation with no transfer and no refund, so check the expiry date before applying.
The ETA must match the Latin-character name in the machine-readable zone of the passport exactly. Greek transliteration admits variants — Georgiou against Yeoryiou, Dimitriou against Demetriou — and travellers sometimes enter the version they use professionally rather than the one printed. A mismatch can be flagged at the gate.
The Greek identity 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 Greek citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may still use an identity card and need no ETA at all.
Britain is one of the most popular destinations for Greek university study, and the ETA permits study of up to six months only. An academic year, a full degree or a placement running beyond six months requires a Student visa applied for from Greece before travel. It cannot be arranged from within the UK.
The Greek community in Britain is long established, and many 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.
Direct flights from Crete, Rhodes and Corfu to Britain are heavily seasonal, and outside summer most journeys connect through Athens. A problem discovered at check-in on an island may cost a day or more rather than a few hours, so apply earlier than an Athens traveller would.
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 Athens and seasonal consular representation on the main tourist islands, reflecting the volume of British visitors there. None plays any part in issuing an ETA — the application is completed online and decided digitally, with no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. These offices handle consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances require a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Greek passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Greek 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.
The ETA expires when the passport it is linked to expires, and Greek adult passports run for five years while children's run for only three — both shorter than the European norm. That makes renewals falling inside the ETA's two-year window common, and a renewal voids it with no transfer and no refund. Check the expiry date before applying.
Use the Latin-character spelling exactly as printed in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page, not the Greek script version and not an alternative transliteration you may use professionally. Greek names admit several romanisations, and a mismatch between the ETA and the passport can be flagged by the airline at check-in.
In most cases no. The Greek identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021, and you need a passport. The exception is for Greek citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may continue to use an identity card — and who do not need an ETA at all.
Only for courses lasting up to six months, such as a summer school or a short language programme. Britain is a very popular destination for Greek university study, but an academic year or a full degree requires a Student visa applied for from Greece before travel. You cannot switch from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Greek 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.
No. Greek 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. Greek 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. Greek children's passports are valid for only three years, so check each expiry date carefully — the ETA ends when the passport does.
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 Greece. 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.
