ETIAS Guidelines for Travelling to Europe

The simple answer is, yes people of all ages from visa-free countries require an ETIAS to travel to the Schengen Zone , including children, infants and teens. However, children that are under 18 years of age get their ETIAS for free as there is no application fee payable for under 18s.

Parents or guardians are able to complete the ETIAS application on behalf of their children, providing all of the relevant information including passport details. The process of applying for a child’s ETIAS is exactly the same as applying for an adult ETIAS, except you do not need to submit the application fee payment in order to submit the application.

An individual ETIAS application must be submitted for each person travelling to the Schengen Zone. However, many families or groups will have one person that completes the ETIAS applications for each member of the family/group and sets the applications up so that all of the correspondence comes back to the same email address. This helps to monitor each application and keep the confirmation emails together in one place.

Even if you apply for numerous ETIAS applications at the same time for your family or group, not all applications take the same amount of time to get processed. So, you should not worry if one comes back really quickly, such as within an hour and another one does not. You should wait at least 72 hours to see if your application is processed before contacting the ETIAS application processing team to chase up the progress of your application.

Children must all have their own individual passports, even babies must now travel with their own passport, rather than being on their parent’s passport, which was previously allowed in some parts of the world.

Once you submit your child’s application form, if the ETIAS is approved, it will then be electronically linked to their passport. Their ETIAS will also be valid for three years, which is the same as the adult ETIAS validity length. Once their ETIAS expires, if they are then aged 18 or over, they will need to apply for a new ETIAS and will also be required to pay the application fee for their new ETIAS.

Once your child has a valid ETIAS, you are able to use the same ETIAS for several trips to Schengen countries, either all in one trip, such as a tour around Europe or to travel to and from Schengen countries throughout the valid period of the ETIAS.

When you cross the borders of countries within the Schengen Zone, there are no actual border controls, as they have been removed for freedom of movement around the Schengen Zone. So, if you land in Spain for example, you are able to cross the Spanish border into Portugal under the terms of your ETIAS. The same applies to entering any of the countries in the Schengen Zone.