Spain has announced a major change to its plans to introduce a new visa Brits will need to get before visiting. 

The new European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) will impact Brits travelling to mainland Spain, the Canary Islands, or Balearic Islands. 

The ETIAS is a visa waiver program for visitors travelling to EU countries from outside the EU. Thirty European countries are planning to bring in the ETIAS system, which will mean Brits and other travellers from visa-exempt countries heading to popular holiday destinations such as France, Greece, Portugal, and Cyprus will need to register on the system before they go. 

The ETIAS will also add an additional cost to holidaying overseas, with the standard fee per person of €20 (around £17), although travellers aged under 18 and over 70 will be exempt. Spain planned to introduce the ETIAS in late-2026, although the country didn’t confirm an exact date. However, officials there have now said it’ll introduce a six-month transition period, which means the permit won’t be mandatory for visitors until April 2027.

According to Majorca Daily Bulletin, AENA, a major airport operator in Spain, has said that the extra time is needed to train border and ground staff to use the new system. Previously, officials had warned that rolling out the system too close to peak travel times could cause delays for passengers.

The ETIAS will allow countries to approve travellers to visit visa-free before they arrive at the airport. Once approved, the ETIAS permit will be valid for up to three years, or when the person’s passport expires, whichever comes first. One permit will allow visits to multiple countries for as long as it’s valid. 

The news comes among a raft of changes for travellers in the year ahead. The ETIAS should not be confused with the EU Entry/Exit System (EES), which is a new system that’ll capture fingerprints and a facial image at the border of anyone visiting from outside the Schengen Area, including Brits.

Like the ETIAS, implementation of the EES has been a slow process and has been pushed back several times. Dover port was supposed to be using the system from October 2025, however this has been pushed back to “early 2026” according to their website, with no confirmation of the date.

The current deadline for implementing the system across all Schengen countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, is April 10. Airports who’ve already rolled out the system, for example the holiday hotspots of Tenerife and Lanzarote, have reported long queues at passport control while the system is being put into place.

In addition to a lack of police staff at the airport, hotel industry chiefs have blamed the queues on the biometric systems having technical issues and slow processing times, meaning it’s taking longer to get through the airport.

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