You Want to Visit the UK? You Better Have a Google Play or App Store Account
Source: Hacker News
New Rules
In the before times, and living in a blissful bubble of European citizenship, I never thought a lot about what I would need to prepare when visiting the UK. But, starting February 2026, new immigration rules for the UK are being enforced. Citizens of 85 additional countries (including the USA and European countries) will need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to visit, even for tourism.1
Luckily, you can apply (and pay) digitally. Unfortunately, the government very much would prefer you to do so using the official app.
How Many Hoops Are Too Many Hoops?
Digital sovereignty is a hot topic right now in a lot of European countries (for good reasons). Both the Google Play Store and the Apple Store are controlled by US companies. And surely, I should not need to have access to a smartphone in order to complete a required government process?
Helpfully, the UK ETA app is not linked from the ETA enforcement announcement. But, if you search for it, you can find a help page on “Using the ‘UK ETA’ app”2 that looks like this:
You can’t use the official app? How about reading a huge FAQ about how to use it?
Under ‘If you need help using the app’ there is a link to “apply online instead”. Clicking it eventually leads to the online application:
Scrolling down reveals the tiny ‘I cannot apply on the UK ETA app.’ link. Clicking it brings you to another help page:
Finally, the ‘Continue application online’ link opens the start screen of the online application:
Redemption, at last.
The entry point of the online application for a UK ETA is straightforward once you locate the tiny link. In the end, this was quite easy; all we had to do was click through multiple pages of strong guidance to use the official app and accept that the online application will be much worse and slower.
For future reference, here is the direct link so you do not need to repeat this navigation: Request a UK ETA Online. You better hope the UK government hasn’t implemented automated scans of your web profile by then ;).