Portuguese 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
The alliance between Portugal and England is the oldest active diplomatic relationship in the world, dating to 1386, and the modern connection is correspondingly deep. The Portuguese community in Britain is one of the largest EU nationalities there, concentrated in London and the Channel Islands, and the traffic between the two countries runs heavily in both directions — British tourists to the Algarve and Madeira, Portuguese workers, students and families to the UK.
Since April 2025 that journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Portugal remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what Portuguese citizens 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 completing it before departure, after decades of free movement between two countries with unusually close ties.
The mechanics are quick. The application takes about ten minutes, is usually decided within them, and produces no document — the authorisation lives against your passport number. TAP Air Portugal, British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2 all check it before boarding, and a passenger without one is refused at the gate rather than dealt with on arrival.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. Portugal is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Portuguese 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 Portuguese 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. Portuguese families in Britain frequently host relatives from home, and each visitor needs their own authorisation regardless of who they are staying with.
The exemptions matter enormously here. The Portuguese community in Britain is very large, and a great many hold settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, indefinite leave to remain or a UK visa — none of whom need an ETA. Dual nationals travelling on a British or Irish passport need nothing either. This is one of the markets where unnecessary applications are most common, so check your status before paying.
The cartão de cidadão 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. Portuguese citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status are the exception and may still use the citizen card. Note too that eligibility follows Portuguese citizenship — which includes citizens from Madeira and the Azores on the same terms.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Portuguese passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For families split between the two countries who visit several times a year, one application covering two years is a genuine simplification.
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. Portuguese passports are issued for five years for adults and shorter periods for children — five years is notably shorter than the ten common elsewhere in Europe, which makes a renewal falling inside the ETA's two-year window considerably more likely. Renewal voids the ETA with no transfer and no refund.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. Portuguese 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, and it is a consequential rule for the Portuguese market. Many Portuguese travel to Britain for work rather than tourism, and an ETA confers no right to work at all. Nor can repeated visits substitute for residence — Border Force considers entries cumulatively, and a pattern of long stays reads as living in Britain rather than visiting.
Pricing
Live fees for Portuguese passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Portugal
Requirements
Everything Portuguese 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 Portugal 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.
Travellers from Madeira and the Azores should allow longer. Flights to Britain from the islands are less frequent than from Lisbon or Porto, and many itineraries involve a connection through mainland Portugal. A missed departure may cost a day or more rather than a few hours, which makes the buffer more valuable than for a Lisbon traveller.
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
Portugal has an unusually strong British network, built on decades of British tourism to the Algarve and reinforced by the size of the Portuguese community in the UK. Lisbon, Porto and Faro all have extensive direct services, and Madeira and the Azores are directly connected to several British airports.
Best time to go
Portuguese visitors arrive from a mild Atlantic climate that is nonetheless considerably warmer and sunnier than Britain's. A British summer will feel cool and a British winter grey, though the temperature difference in winter is smaller than many expect — Lisbon and London are both mild, and London simply has less light.
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 Portuguese calendar creates a poor window in August, when much of the country takes its holiday and the British peak is at its height — the worst combination for price and crowds. Easter and the late-spring holidays are much better, and late September through October is excellent value on both sides.
One practical note. Portugal shares the same time as Britain year-round, with both changing clocks on the same dates — one of the very few European countries for which there is no time difference at all. That makes scheduling unusually simple, though Madeira also shares UK time while the Azores are an hour behind, which occasionally catches out travellers connecting through Lisbon.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Portugal — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The Portuguese community in Britain is one of the largest of any EU nationality, and a great 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. This is among the most common unnecessary expenses in the whole scheme — check your status first.
The Portuguese citizen 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 Portuguese citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may still use the citizen card and need no ETA at all.
Portuguese adult passports are valid for five years rather than the ten common elsewhere in Europe. That makes a renewal falling inside the ETA's two-year window considerably more likely, and a renewal voids the authorisation with no transfer and no refund. Check the expiry date before applying.
Many Portuguese travel to Britain for work rather than tourism. The ETA is a visitor permission and confers no right to work whatsoever. Arriving as a visitor intending to find a job is grounds for refusal at the border, and repeated six-month visits are not a substitute for a work visa.
Portuguese passports often print several given names and two surnames, and the ETA must match the machine-readable zone exactly. Entering a shortened form of the name — the version used day to day — creates a mismatch between the authorisation and the passport that an airline check can flag at the gate.
Flights from Madeira and the Azores are less frequent than from Lisbon or Porto, and many itineraries connect through the mainland. A problem discovered at check-in on an island may cost a day or more rather than a few hours, so apply earlier than a mainland 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 Lisbon and consular offices in the Algarve and Madeira, reflecting the size of the British community 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 need a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Portuguese passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Portuguese 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.
Probably not. Portuguese 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 — the existing status already carries permission to travel. Given how large the Portuguese community in Britain is, this exemption applies very widely, so check before paying.
In most cases no. The Portuguese citizen card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021, and you need a passport. The exception is for Portuguese citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may continue to use the citizen card — and who do not need an ETA at all.
The ETA expires when the passport it is linked to expires, and Portuguese adult passports run for five years rather than the ten common elsewhere. That makes a renewal falling inside the ETA's two-year window more likely, and it voids the ETA with no transfer and no refund. Check your expiry date before applying.
No. The ETA is a visitor permission and confers no right to work in the UK labour market. Working requires an appropriate work visa. Arriving as a visitor with the intention of finding a job is grounds for refusal at the border, and repeated six-month visits do not substitute for a work route.
Yes, on exactly the same terms as mainland Portuguese citizens, since eligibility follows nationality rather than which part of Portugal you live in. One practical difference: flights from the islands are less frequent, so apply earlier — a missed departure may cost a day rather than a few hours.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Portuguese 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. Portuguese 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.
There is none on the mainland — Portugal and the United Kingdom share the same time year-round and change their clocks on the same dates. Madeira also shares UK time, while the Azores are one hour behind, which occasionally catches out travellers connecting through Lisbon.
Yes. A single ETA covers the entire United Kingdom and is also accepted for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man — the last of which is worth noting, given the size of the Portuguese community in the Channel Islands. There are no internal immigration checks between the four nations of the UK.
Your nationality is already set to Portugal. 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.
