Israeli passport holders have needed a UK ETA since January 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
Israel and Britain exchange a substantial volume of travellers relative to Israel's population. London is one of the most popular destinations for Israeli city breaks, the business links in technology, finance and pharmaceuticals are extensive, and there are deep family connections between the Israeli population and the long-established Jewish community in Britain. The Tel Aviv–London corridor is one of the busiest routes between the Middle East and Europe.
Since January 2025 that journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Israel remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what Israeli 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 will feel familiar to anyone who has applied for a US ESTA, which Israelis have needed since joining the Visa Waiver Program. The application takes about ten minutes, is usually decided within them, and produces no document — the authorisation lives against your passport number. El Al, British Airways, Wizz Air and easyJet all check it before boarding.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. Israel is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Israeli 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 Israeli 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. Israeli families visiting relatives in Britain need a separate authorisation for each person travelling.
The exemptions are the standard ones. Israeli citizens holding a UK visa or indefinite leave to remain do not need an ETA, since their existing status already carries the permission. Dual nationals travelling on a British or Irish passport need nothing at all — and given how many Israelis hold a second European passport through descent, it is worth checking which document gives the simpler route. An Israeli who also holds a German, Polish, Hungarian or Romanian passport still needs an ETA on that passport, but would gain access to the ePassport gates on arrival.
Israel is not in the ePassport gate cohort, so Israeli passport holders will be seen by a Border Force officer at a staffed desk on arrival. The ETA is identical to any other and carries the same permission — only the arrival experience differs.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Israeli passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For Israelis who travel to Britain several times a year on business, 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. Israeli passports are issued for ten years for adults over eighteen and five years for minors, so families applying together may find the children's authorisations expiring well before the parents'. 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. Israeli travellers are used to stricter requirements elsewhere and sometimes over-prepare, which is harmless — but the British rule is simply that the document is valid while you are there.
Six months per visit is the maximum for a single entry rather than an annual allowance. It matters most for Israeli students, whose courses must finish within six months or require a Student visa instead, and for the significant number of Israeli professionals working across both countries. Border Force considers entries cumulatively, and stays accounting for most of the year read as residence rather than visiting.
Pricing
Live fees for Israeli passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Israel
Requirements
Everything Israeli 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 Israel 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.
Two periods deserve extra lead time. The Jewish holiday seasons around Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot in autumn and Pesach in spring generate very heavy outbound travel from Israel, with expensive and inflexible fares. And because schedules on the Tel Aviv–London route have varied considerably in recent years, allow more slack than the timetable alone would suggest.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land, and how to make the arrival as quick as possible.
Your nationality is not currently in the ePassport gate cohort, so you join the queue for a staffed desk on arrival. Your ETA is exactly the same document and carries exactly the same permission — only the arrival process differs.
The officer may ask where you are staying, how long you intend to remain and how the trip is funded. Having your hotel booking, return ticket and, if you are visiting family, their address to hand makes this a thirty-second conversation.
Desk queues at Heathrow can be long at peak arrival banks, particularly early morning. If you are connecting onward to a domestic or European flight, allow more than the airline's minimum connection time.
Unlike the automated gates, a staffed desk stamps your passport with the date of entry. That stamp is your evidence of when your six-month permission began, so do not let it be obscured or removed.
Getting there
Tel Aviv has one of the strongest links to Britain of any Middle Eastern city, with El Al and British Airways operating the flagship routes and the low-cost carriers adding capacity into the London airports and the regions. Ramon airport near Eilat offers seasonal options.
Best time to go
Israeli visitors arrive from a Mediterranean climate into a maritime one, and the difference is greatest in summer — a British July is far cooler and wetter than an Israeli one, which many find a relief. A British winter is milder than the latitude suggests but much darker, with only around eight hours of daylight in December against Tel Aviv's ten.
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 Jewish calendar shapes Israeli travel more than the weather does. The autumn holiday period around Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot and the spring Pesach break are both peak outbound seasons from Israel, with fares to match. The weeks either side of them are considerably cheaper for the same trip, and the British shoulder months of May and September often coincide with quieter periods in the Israeli calendar.
One practical note. Israel is two hours ahead of Britain for most of the year, but the two countries change their clocks on different dates — Israel's daylight saving period does not align with British Summer Time. For a few weeks each spring and autumn the difference shifts by an hour, which catches out travellers with tight connections.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Israel — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Israeli passport holders are not currently in the ePassport gate cohort and will be seen by a Border Force officer at a staffed desk on arrival. The ETA is exactly the same document and carries the same permission — only the arrival process differs. Allow extra time at Heathrow, particularly during the busy morning arrival banks.
A great many Israelis hold a European passport through descent — German, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian and others. You would still need an ETA on whichever passport you travel on, but an EU passport gives access to the ePassport gates and a quicker arrival. Apply against the passport you will actually present.
The ETA must match the Roman-letter name in the machine-readable zone of the passport exactly. Hebrew transliteration admits variants — Cohen against Kohen, Yitzhak against Itzhak — and travellers sometimes enter the version they use professionally rather than the one printed. A mismatch can be flagged at the gate.
Israel and Britain change their clocks on different dates, so the usual two-hour difference shifts by an hour for a few weeks each spring and autumn. Travellers who assume a constant offset misread connection times, particularly on itineraries continuing beyond London.
Israeli passports for minors run for five years rather than the ten adults receive. The ETA expires when the passport does, so a family applying together may find the children's authorisations lasting considerably less than the parents'. Check each expiry date individually.
The ETA permits study of up to six months. An Israeli student on an academic year, a full degree or a research placement running beyond six months needs a Student visa applied for from Israel before travel. It cannot be arranged 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 Tel Aviv and a consulate-general in Jerusalem, but neither has any role in issuing an ETA. The application is completed online and decided digitally — there is 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 Israeli passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Israeli citizens do not need a visa for tourism, business visits, short study or transit in the United Kingdom. Since January 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.
No. Israeli passport holders are not currently in the ePassport gate cohort and will be seen by a Border Force officer at a staffed desk. Your ETA is exactly the same document and carries the same permission — only the arrival process differs, so allow a little extra time at peak arrival periods.
Either, but there is a practical difference. You need an ETA on whichever passport you travel on, since EU nationals also require one. However, an EU passport gives access to the ePassport gates on arrival while an Israeli passport does not. If you want the quicker arrival, travel on the European passport and apply for the ETA against that number.
Use the Roman-letter spelling exactly as printed in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page, not the Hebrew version and not an alternative transliteration you may use professionally. Hebrew names admit several romanisations, and a mismatch between the ETA and the passport can be flagged at check-in.
Usually two hours, but it is not constant. Israel and Britain change their clocks on different dates, so for a few weeks each spring and autumn the difference shifts by an hour. Check the actual local times on your itinerary rather than assuming a fixed offset, particularly if you have a connection beyond London.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Israeli 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.
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. Israeli passports for minors run for five years rather than ten, so check each expiry date — the ETA ends when the passport does.
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 a research placement running beyond six months requires a Student visa applied for from Israel before travel. You cannot switch from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Yes. Headwear worn for religious reasons is permitted, provided your face is fully visible from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead with both edges of the face clear. The photograph must be recent, in colour, against a plain background, with no shadows across the face.
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, Manchester and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to Israel. 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.
