TORONTO — There’s another delay for the European Travel Information & Authorization System (ETIAS).

A recent post at Europa.eu/etias, the official ETIAS site, says the system won’t launch until later next year: “ETIAS will start operations in the last quarter of 2026. No action is required from travellers at this point. The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch.”

Travelweek first reported on the ETIAS in 2019, two years before it was set to start in 2021. That target came and went, the first of many delays over the years.

The ETIAS won’t launch until at least six months after the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is up and running. The EES will add another layer of security – and scanners – for non-EU travellers entering what’s known as the Schengen Area (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland).

Meanwhile the ETIAS will require qualifying travellers from some 60 visa-exempt countries, including Canada, to apply for an entry permit in advance of their trip, and pay 7 EUR. It will be valid for 3 years.

The EES is the back-end, and the ETIAS is the front-end, and until the EES launches, the ETIAS is in a holding pattern.