ETIAS is a new travel authorization that visa-free visitors (Americans, Canadians, Brits, and dozens of other nationalities) will need before flying to most of Europe. It is not a visa. It is a short online form, tied to your passport, that you fill out before the trip. And it is about to become the thing a lot of travelers quietly overpay for.
What ETIAS actually is
You apply online, answer some questions, and in most cases get an answer within minutes. The authorization is linked to your passport, lasts three years (or until the passport expires, whichever comes first), and covers short stays across the Schengen countries without a fresh application each trip. The official fee is €20, paid once. Travelers under 18 or over 70 pay nothing.
The catch on timing: it is not live yet. The EU's own site says ETIAS is expected in the last quarter of 2026, but that date has slipped more than once already, so treat any specific month as provisional until the day you actually sit down to apply. There is nothing to buy today, and nobody can sell you a real one before the system opens.
The copycat sites to avoid
There is exactly one place to apply: the EU's official site, on a europa.eu address. Because the form is simple and the fee is small, a swarm of lookalike sites has grown up around it. They take your details, submit the same form you could have filed yourself, and staple a "service fee" on top of the €20. Some charge several times the real price for nothing but a glossier web page. A few collect passport data they have no good reason to hold.
The rule is blunt. If a site asks for more than €20, or the address is not on europa.eu, close the tab. This is the same instinct we lean on with a fare that looks too cheap to be true: when the pitch is working harder than the product, something is off.
Why we bother telling you
We do not sell ETIAS applications and never will. We mention it for the same reason the daily email sends only the few fares that matter instead of every price wiggle: we would rather point you at the honest, cheap option than skim a markup off a confusing one. When you do price a European trip, fold the €20 into the real total, the way you would any other cost the sticker price leaves out. It is small. It is also a line a surprising number of sites are hoping you will pay twice.