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Comments (198)

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  chrishannah
  Is it really a lot of work?You can search "UK ETA", find the main page: https://www.gov.uk/etaThen click "Apply for an ETA" and you're brought to this page: https://www.gov.uk/eta/applyThen there are options for the Apple App Store and also the Google Play Store, with a helpful note: "If you cannot download the app on your phone, you should apply online." Which then has a link to start the online process below.
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  cjs_ac
  After I got Indefinite Leave to Remain (permanent settled status) in the UK, I had to buy a new phone that had NFC, because the new eVisa system required me to scan the chip in my passport to link it to the system. In general, the UK retains its mildly chaotic character - the 'disorderly order' that Kate Fox frequently mentions in her book Watching the English - but the immigration system is very much being tightened up due to political sentiment.As problematic as it is to need a contractual relationship with a US company to interact with the UK Government, I'm sure that if you spoke with someone in the Government Digital Service who was involved with this, they'd tell you it was the least bad option.
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  gertrunde
  One of the more fun related items...You are not eligible for an ETA if you are a British citizen.On first glance, that sounds fairly common sense, as if you're a citizen, why would you need/want one? But there's a wrinkle...It means that British citizens with dual (or more) nationality must have a UK passport, and must travel into the UK using it, and cannot use their other-nationality passport(s) like they used to be able to do.Which means paying for a British passport if you didn't have one before.(There is an alternative, but it's silly money, £589 vs £95 for an adult passport).And IIRC, the whole thing is because of the new electronic border system that's being introduced or something like that.
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  danlitt
  Why does the title say "You better have a ... account" when the end of the article is literally a link to the form which does not require an account? I agree that the UI here is bad, but I feel like the title is just misrepresenting the content of the article.
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  detritus
  It's ok, many flights from Europe are on budget carriers that require the installation of their app in place of printed boarding passes, so this isn't really an issue./s igned someone very much opposed to having to install an app to travel to and from my partner's country in the EU. I'm decreasingly enjoying 'the future'.
• karteum
  More and more things require a Google-certified Android phone (and will not work with jailbroken/rooted phones, unlocked bootloader, and so one : banking apps of course, but also medical apps (e.g. Doctolib in France), ID apps (e.g. France identité), and a lot more. This "digital sovereignity" hype makes me laugh since in practice government apps are literally enforcing Google locks, effectively excluding people using LineageOS/MicroG and other similar open roms.
• Brajeshwar
  On the other hand, Indians are rejoicing that this might actually be much easier for us. We will still be going through the Visa Application, but we will get the digital version of the e-visa (I read that a physical copy can also be printed).In all fairness, based on my interactions with Visa Applications, the UK government website is the best so far. I love their Design Systems, consistency, and UX predictability.https://www.gov.uk/eta/apply also follows the same design language. I’d happier facing this one than many others.
• jakub_g
  The thing about mobile apps is that majority of people likely prefer it.Native apps make it much smoother (or just possible at all / with much lower friction) than webapps to do things like taking photos, scanning NFC, doing payments etc. (which the visa apps are doing)Apps are also natural "storage point" for data, and a "bookmark on the phone" (the latter is partly due to vendors not making it easy to add non-apps to your home page on the phone).As much as I hate the push to apps for things like Reddit for monetisation purposes (and I don't install such apps), in many cases for specialized apps the experience is actually much better in the app.And as you can read in op's article, there's a web fallback possible.Main drawback for me is that apps takes 100s of MBs those days.
• edtech_dev
  Visited the UK recently and had to obviously go through the same thing; had to click "I just want to use the online thing" 3 times. Was very frustrating.Someone else commented on this already, but I had to fly Ryan Air while I was there and after booking the tickets, I found out that the only way to get a boarding pass is by installing their app.It's quite bleak.
• oliwarner
  The title suggests the app is required. The article clearly shows it's a few prompts, each with secondary ~"continue without the app" links.I get the annoyance of being asked multiple times, but it's not that bad.
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  dzdt
  A related thing that bugs me is how many scam search results come up and are prioritised if you search for "uk eta" or similar. On google for me the real site is sandwiched in positon 4 after 3 and before 2 additional paid sponsored scam sites each with large block sections in the search results.
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  patrakov
  The most important part was left out: was the application successful in the end, and how long did it take?
• ozlikethewizard
  Hey some minister signed off a multimillion pound deal to get that app developed (to a firm that definitely no one in his family or business circles has stakes in), so we better get our money's worth!In all seriousness this is likely the exact scenario here. Same thing with covid track and trace and p much any current government it contract. Minister receives backhand to push through overpriced underbaked tech solution (when existing solution was ok, and probably just needed improving over replacing). Then to avoid ministerial embarrassment and too much financial scrutiny, civil service must bend over backwards to improve uptake of new solution. Love living in Victorian Britain tbh.
• nobodyandproud
  Would someone briefly explain the real reason why, for the ETA?
• marssaxman
  Glad to see this posted - I have a UK trip coming up in a few months, and as a conscientious objector to the smartphone duopoly, this article will save me some irritation.
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  aanet
  As somebody who JUST got the UK ETA recently (~2 weeks ago), I can talk about my experience.Basically, as a US Citizen, even though I will only be transiting via the shthole of an airport (LHR, obviously), I need this ETA.The process seemed* painless when described, but is rather painful. Essentially, they WANT you to use the mobile app. They do everything to make that happen (unless you are applying for someone else, in which case you may use your PC/laptop).So I downloaded the iOS app; you have to take a selfie (so, obviously, as well lit place, neutral background, etc etc). The selfie itself took a few tries. Then you pay GBP 16 (USD ~21).Then, the worst experience was matching the NFC-enabled US passport with the app, so that it reads the stored info from the passport chip. My US passport is recent (renewed within last 6 months). Try as I might, I just couldn't get the app to "read" the NFC-stored info (on the back cover of the passport). I tried 15 times, with the passport held at various angles, touching the iPhone here and there. It worked on the 16th try (= the passport backcover has to be held EXACTLY halfway down)."You are holding it wrong" x 10000I almost gave up half way thru this extremely frustrating @#$@@!!!! experience. Even as I write this I am cursing the app developers.I can only imagine how somebody else -- say a senior citizen, who may not know tech enough, or whose fingers are not nimble enough, etc -- can easily give up this process after just a couple of tries. The usability experience is just plain shitty. Think about the consequences.I hope the app developers are reading this.I'm just glad I dont have to do this for 2 more years.
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  headsman771
  And they still try to pressure you to scan your face.
• deafpolygon
  If you are on a mobile browser, yeah - it pushes you towards the app. But if you are on a desktop browser, you can find the link fairly directly.
• librasteve
  This is a bit rich given the draconian rules the EU is now imposing on brits. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx24xyjplp4o- a remainer
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  testfrequency
  I feel like this is so much of an overreaction to a non-issue.The flow is pretty straightforward if you ask me. It’s a few clicks and one page digests of your options.It’s a decision tree to let most people in the world who have either an Android or iOS device easily submit their form quickly, or just proceed with the guidance to just apply online (your preference obviously).
• NoImmatureAdHom
  As of six months ago the non-smartphone flow did not work. Totally unsurprising for the UK, of course.
• varispeed
  The gov.uk designs are usually good, but this one... I had friend coming to visit from overseas and they were unable to fill it in. It's too confusing. So the visit is postponed.
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  dcminter
  Aside from this app issue there's another instance of bloody minded bureacracy that affects dual citizens:As a dual citizen living outside the UK, to visit Britain I cannot apply for an ETA. Instead I must have a British passport, OR apply for a waiver document for an eye watering £500.Obviously this makes no sense, because if the ETA is suitable for a non-British citizen it ought to be fine for a British citizen who happens to have a non-British passport, but objections have all received non-answer-answers that strongly suggest the bureaucrats didn't think of it and can't be bothered to implement support for the situation.I hate paperwork...
• eqvinox
  "Scan your face with your device, if it has a camera."And if my device doesn't have a camera I don't need to scan my face? wtf?
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  red_admiral
  I call BS. The title is incorrect, and the contents are deceptive.If you visit the gov.uk page from a mobile, you get a suggestion for the app.If you visit on _desktop_, you get https://www.gov.uk/eta/apply ( reached from https://www.gov.uk/eta ) which offers app and online (browser) options just beneath each other.Also, the author here isn't looking at the ETA main page, they're looking specifically at the _help page for the app_ which, yes, talks about the app (but tells you that you can apply online if it doesn't work).
• sylware
  Wallet codes bought at local monetary terminals to increase the balance of an account seems to be the less too much 'insecure' way to do things and to stay away from a hard dependency on whatng cartel web engines.
• register
  Completely agree. I had to apply for the ETA recently and the experience is terrible.
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  Oras
  "If you want to receive emails, you better have a Gmail or Outlook"
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  gib444
  gov.uk has a tendancy to treat everyone like a 5 year old. It's often 2-4 clicks to get to the /actual/ thing you want, with many long pages of "ok here's what this thing is. Here's what will happen next".(Even that 'direct link' has a whole page of "ok here's what you need - click to continue" !)So this isn't really an exception, and is to be expected if you're familiar with govukI think it needs to be scaled back, but with a party in power famous for paternalism, and a long history of their interaction design in this direction, I don't see it happening
• spwa4
  No worries! The UK government has, just like all EU governments, announced again and again how they're going to become completely independent of US and China. Software. Hardware. Everything. This is just yet another example of that.(another example of this is that you cannot submit your taxes or do anything even slightly weird in relation to city hall in France or Belgium without Ios or Android) (needed for identification)This is the combination of 2 effects: You CAN go to city hall or the tax office and identify yourself there without a phone (for now). However, for many not-quite-the-most-normal-thing-ever-stuff like birth certificate, past-years-how-much-tax-you-paid certificate, ... they no longer staff city hall or the tax office for these things. People working there now have only the most minimal knowledge of procedures. Hence you cannot go there for most things, you must do them remotely. Only really common stuff. To identify yourself remotely, you need Apple or Android. So you can go down and get a domicile certificate, but not, say a birth certificate or a "I'm safe to work with kids" certificate, or ... they no longer let you do this. The fucking constitution and god knows how many laws clearly state they MUST allow you to do that there and cannot ask for things like a phone, but they don't let you anyway.I must say I wonder how this works for people who can't or won't do that ... say unemployed, or people in prison, or ...I mean this means they must allow mobile phones in prison now, for example, doesn't it? In hospitals, including psychiatric. Or on any secret military facilities where people sleep, like ships or subs. Or, at least, sooner or later some judge will be forced to tell them to allow it.It just seems so stupid to do this for a great many reasons, not just that this gives Trump a way to shut down the EU economy. But, as usual, saving a quick buck clearly matters more to politicians than little details like people, or security.
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  GuestFAUniverse
  Pay? WTF? I wanted to visit friends there, but I'm not going to pay some highwayman.
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  dgxyz
  The reason the ETA app exists is because the web is a terrible platform for doing this stuff on. The ETA app gives you fast feedback on whether or not photos that you need to provide are any good, handles state, retries, talks to the NFC in your passport, handles long running workflows and validation etc.The web is not a panacea. All the above is a hack job if you do it there. But there is still the backup option which was clearly found. Hell I just googled it and it went straight to the page.