🛂 Visas & Entry

Entry rules depend on your own passport, so check the rules for your nationality, not a friend’s. Use only government sites to do it. Lookalike sites copy the real ones and charge extra for the same form, and some governments say so on their own pages. For a country’s rules in brief, see its country page; for the wider picture, read how to read government travel advice.

Check what you need

Start with your own government’s advice for your destination, then confirm on the destination’s official site.

• UK Foreign Travel Advice — Each country’s advice has an “Entry requirements” section
• Government of Canada: travel advice — Entry and exit requirements for each destination
• GOV.UK: check if you need a UK visa — For travelling to the UK, by nationality and reason for visit

Travel authorisations

Many countries ask visa-exempt visitors to apply online before they fly. Each site below is the government’s own portal. Check on it whether your passport needs the authorisation.

• EU Entry/Exit System (EES) — Official EU site on the system that registers travellers on a short stay who are not EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian or Swiss citizens at the Schengen border
• ETIAS — The official EU site for the planned travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors. It says ETIAS is currently not in operation and takes no applications
• UK ETA — GOV.UK’s page on the electronic travel authorisation for the UK
• US ESTA — U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s site for Visa Waiver Program travellers
• Canada eTA — The Government of Canada’s page to apply for an eTA
• Australia: Electronic Travel Authority — Department of Home Affairs page on the ETA (subclass 601)
• Australia: eVisitor — Department of Home Affairs page on the eVisitor (subclass 651)
• NZeTA — Immigration New Zealand’s application site
• K-ETA (South Korea) — The Korea Immigration Service’s official site
• Sri Lanka ETA — Sri Lanka’s online ETA and visa application site
• Kenya eTA — Kenya’s Directorate of Immigration Services portal
• South Africa ETA — The Government of South Africa’s official site for the electronic travel authorisation

Arrival cards and declarations

An arrival card is a free online form some countries require before you land. It is separate from any visa or authorisation. Submit it only on the government site, within the window that site gives.

• SG Arrival Card (Singapore) — Immigration & Checkpoints Authority page with the link to submit
• Taiwan Arrival Card — Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency site
• Korea e-Arrival Card — The Korean Ministry of Justice’s official site
• Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) — Malaysian Immigration Department’s online form
• Philippines eTravel — The Philippine Travel Information System
• Thailand Digital Arrival Card — Thai Immigration Bureau’s official site

Avoiding lookalike sites

Type the address from a government page, or follow a link from one, and treat a site that asks for more than the official one does as a warning sign. Four official sources warn about lookalikes themselves:

• GOV.UK says that for the UK ETA “other websites may charge more to apply” and tells you to “avoid websites that imitate government services”.
• Singapore’s ICA says submitting the SG Arrival Card is free and that it does not support or endorse any commercial entity that charges a fee to submit it for you. Those entities are not affiliated with ICA.
• The K-ETA site says to apply only at www.k-eta.go.kr or in its app, and to be careful of similar agencies and phishing sites that charge high fees.
• The Korea e-Arrival Card site says www.e-arrivalcard.go.kr is the only official site and that any website requesting payment information is not an official service.