The EU has pushed back the launch of ETIAS, its new €20 (about ₹1,850) travel authorisation scheme, to 2027 — the latest in a string of delays for a system that was originally meant to launch back in 2022. The holdup, reported this month by IamExpat and Euronews, is being blamed on the chaotic rollout of a separate border system this summer. It's a headline that gets confused with actual visa rules for Indians almost every time it appears, so here's the clean version.
What happened
ETIAS — the European Travel Information and Authorisation System — is an online pre-registration and €20 fee required for visa-exempt travellers from 59 countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Japan, Brazil and Colombia, before they enter the Schengen area. It was meant to go live in the last quarter of 2026 but has now slipped to 2027, according to reporting from IamExpat and Euronews.
The cause: this year's rollout of the EU's separate Entry/Exit System (EES) — the biometric fingerprint-and-photo check now being phased in at Schengen borders for all non-EU travellers — has caused "long waits at passport control and delayed flights" through the summer, per IamExpat's reporting. Brussels has decided to fix EES before adding a second new system on top of it. Officials are expected to settle on a firmer 2027 timeline at meetings in September.
Once it does launch, ETIAS will come with a six-month grace period, and applications will be valid for up to three years across multiple trips. The Financial Times has estimated roughly 1.4 billion people from visa-exempt countries will eventually need one.
Why it matters
Here's the part Indian travellers actually need to know: ETIAS has never applied to India. Indian passport holders are not visa-exempt for the Schengen area — you already need a Schengen visa to visit France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the rest of the zone, and that requirement is unaffected by this delay. ETIAS delay headlines are about British, American, Canadian, Japanese and other visa-exempt nationalities, not Indians applying for a Schengen visa through VFS Global.
What *does* affect Indian travellers, delay or no delay, is EES — the biometric border check already rolling out at Schengen airports and land borders. Every non-EU traveller, visa holder or not, now gets fingerprinted and photographed at first entry, which is adding time at arrival halls in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other major gateways.
What this means for your trip
- ›Don't budget for an ETIAS fee — it isn't required yet, and even when it launches, it won't replace the Schengen visa Indian travellers need to apply for.
- ›Do build in extra time at immigration on your first Schengen entry this year and next, since EES biometric registration is already slowing arrivals at busy airports.
- ›Keep applying for your Schengen visa on the usual timeline — nothing here changes appointment slots or processing times at VFS centres.
"Long waits at passport control and delayed flights" have driven the decision to prioritise fixing EES before ETIAS launches, per IamExpat's reporting on the EU's internal discussions.
The bottom line
ETIAS slipping to 2027 is a real story, but not an Indian traveller's story — it's about visa-exempt nationalities getting a temporary reprieve from a new fee. The system Indians should actually track is EES, which is already live and adding friction at Schengen entry points regardless of what happens with ETIAS next.
