Spanish 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
Spain and the United Kingdom exchange more travellers than almost any other pair of countries in Europe. The bulk of that traffic runs south — Britons have been going to Spain in their millions for sixty years — but the northbound flow is substantial and growing. Spanish students fill British language schools and universities, Spanish professionals have a long-established presence in London, and the Spanish community in Britain is one of the largest EU nationalities there.
Since April 2025 the journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Spain remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what Spaniards 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 need to complete it before departure, which is a real adjustment for a route as casual and as heavily served as Madrid or Barcelona to London.
The mechanics are straightforward. The application takes about ten minutes, is usually decided within them, and produces no document — the authorisation lives digitally against your passport number. Iberia, British Airways, Vueling, 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. Spain is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Spanish 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 Spanish 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. This matters enormously for the Spanish market, where the summer language course for teenagers is a national institution — every student on a group programme needs an individual authorisation, and there is no group submission.
The exemptions are significant here because of the size of the Spanish community in Britain. Spanish 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 Spanish DNI 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. Spanish citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status are the exception and may still use a DNI. This is the most common misunderstanding in the Spanish market, because the DNI is the default document for so much of Spanish life.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Spanish passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For Spaniards making several trips to Britain a year — business, family, a weekend in London — one application covering two years removes a recurring step entirely.
The passport-expiry rule is where money gets wasted. The ETA is bound to the passport number you enter and ends when that document does. Spanish passports are issued for ten years for adults over thirty, five years for those aged five to thirty, and two years for the youngest children. That means a young adult or a child is far more likely than a middle-aged traveller to have a renewal fall inside the ETA's two-year window — and renewal voids it with no transfer and no refund.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. Spanish 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 Spanish students: an intensive summer language course is comfortably covered, but an academic year, a full degree or an Erasmus-style placement running beyond six months requires a Student visa applied for from Spain before travel. It also matters for the many Spaniards who work seasonally in Britain — that needs a work route, not repeated visitor entries.
Pricing
Live fees for Spanish passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Spain
Requirements
Everything Spanish 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 Spain 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 the Spain–UK routes are so dense and so cheap, trips are frequently booked at short notice, and this is one of the markets where last-minute applications are most common. 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.
Summer language programmes need far more lead time. A group of thirty teenagers travelling to a British language school in July needs thirty individual ETAs, each linked to that student's own passport, and many of those passports will be close to their five- or two-year expiry. Start collecting details when the course is booked in spring, not in the final fortnight.
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
Spain has the densest air link to Britain of any country in the world, built on sixty years of tourism running in the other direction. That works enormously to the advantage of Spanish travellers — there are direct flights to Britain not just from Madrid and Barcelona but from almost every regional airport, and from the islands, at fares that reflect intense competition.
Best time to go
Spanish visitors arrive in Britain from a considerably warmer and drier climate, and should set expectations accordingly — a British summer is cooler than a Spanish spring in much of the country. The compensating attraction is the long northern evening: daylight in Scotland in June runs past ten at night, which is genuinely startling if you are used to a Madrid summer where the light fades by nine thirty.
May, June and September are the strongest months. All three sit below the July and August peak in British prices, and September has the advantage that the British school holidays have ended while the weather in the south often holds well into October.
The Spanish calendar creates some very good opportunities. Semana Santa falls in March or April and often lands outside the British peak — an excellent window for a London trip, with mild weather and comparatively low prices. The August shutdown, when much of Spain closes, unfortunately coincides exactly with the British peak, which makes it the worst combination of the year for both price and crowds.
One practical note. Britain is one hour behind mainland Spain year-round, with both changing clocks on the same dates. The Canary Islands share the same time as the UK, which occasionally surprises travellers connecting through Madrid. Spanish departures land at Heathrow and Gatwick in heavy morning and evening banks, so allow extra time at immigration if you have an onward 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 Spain — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The Spanish national identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021, and it remains the most common misunderstanding in this market because the DNI is the default document for so much of Spanish life. You need a passport, and the ETA is linked to that passport number. The exception is for Spanish citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status.
Spanish passports print both surnames, and the ETA must match the machine-readable zone exactly. Entering only the first surname — the form many Spaniards use day to day when abroad — creates a mismatch between the authorisation and the passport that an airline check can flag at the departure gate.
Spanish passports run for ten years only for those over thirty. Younger adults get five years and small children two. The ETA expires when the passport does, so a family or a student group will often find their authorisations lasting far less than the headline two years. Check every expiry date individually.
Every student on a group language programme needs an individual ETA linked to their own passport, and there is no group application. With thirty teenagers, thirty sets of passport details are needed — and many of those passports will be near their five-year expiry. Start when the course is booked in spring.
The Spanish community in Britain is one of the largest EU nationalities there, 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. Check before applying.
An ETA is a visitor permission and confers no right to work. Spaniards taking seasonal hospitality or agricultural work in Britain need an appropriate work visa. Arriving as a visitor intending to find a job is grounds for refusal at the border rather than a technicality.
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 Madrid and an unusually large consular network across Spain and the islands, reflecting the size of the British community there. None of these offices plays any part in issuing an ETA — the application is completed online and decided digitally, with no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. They handle consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances need a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Spanish passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Spanish 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.
In most cases no. The Spanish national identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021, and you need a passport. The exception is for Spanish citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may continue to use a DNI — and who do not need an ETA at all. This is the most common misunderstanding among Spanish travellers.
Yes. Spanish passports print both surnames, and the ETA must match the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your photo page exactly. Entering only the first surname creates a mismatch between the authorisation and the travel document, which the airline check can flag at the gate.
The ETA expires when the passport it is linked to expires. Spanish passports run for ten years only for those over thirty — younger adults get five years and small children two. That makes a renewal falling inside the ETA's two-year window much more likely for younger travellers, and it voids the ETA with no transfer and no refund.
Yes. There is no group application. Every student and every accompanying adult needs their own ETA linked to their own passport. For a group of thirty teenagers that means thirty separate applications, and many of those passports will be near their five-year expiry — so start when the course is booked in spring rather than in the final fortnight.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Spanish 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. The ETA permits study of up to six months only. An academic year, a full degree or an exchange placement running beyond six months requires a Student visa applied for from Spain before travel. You cannot switch to a Student visa from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
No. Spanish 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. Spanish 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 a trip combining London and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to Spain. 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.
