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THE WAYPOINT SUR
Time to get the guest room ready
The permit nobody has yet
Do your Christmas visitors need the EU's new travel permit? Not yet. The question has probably arrived by WhatsApp already if your parents, grown children or friends from the UK, the US, Canada or Australia are flying out to the Costa.
ETIAS, the EU's travel permit for visitors who do not need a visa, is written into EU law and has not been switched on. The EU's own site, travel-europe.europa.eu/etias, says it is not in operation and no applications are being collected. The fee, when it comes, will be €20.
The start date is the European Commission's to set, and it is published in the EU's Official Journal; the EU's site says it will give several months' notice. So nobody can sell your family one now, because nothing can be issued. What the border does check is below, short enough to forward.
The list to forward
Copy this into the family group as it stands; it is written to them. It is what the border routinely checks, not every rule in the book.
A passport issued less than 10 years before the day you arrive, and valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area. A chip passport is not a condition of entry.
An answer, if asked, to three questions: what the trip is for, where you are staying, and whether you have enough money for the stay and the journey home. Paper that helps: an invitation letter, proof of where you are staying, a return ticket.
Extra time at passport control for fingerprints and a facial photo on your first entry under EES, the EU's Entry/Exit System. Children under 12 give a photo only.
Nothing for ETIAS. Pay no one for it.
The passport dates and the three questions come from the EU's own entry rules, article 6 of the Schengen Borders Code.
If they are staying with you
An invitation letter is one of the documents an officer can accept as proof of where a visitor is staying; it is not demanded of every visitor. Where it helps, the Spanish version is the carta de invitación — letter of invitation, and our guide to it covers the form.
Fingerprints at the first airport
We have covered the border registration before, and the short version holds. On their first entry under EES, the first Schengen airport they land at takes fingerprints and a facial photo, Málaga if that is where they fly in. Under-12s give a photo only. Allow extra time at passport control.
If you hold a TIE — residence card yourself, it does not apply to you. You are outside the system and they are inside it, which is worth knowing before you all walk towards the same desk.
The €20 that cannot be spent
The sites are open for business regardless. ABTA, the UK travel trade association, counts more than 60 unofficial ETIAS sites on its advice page; its director says European authorities believe there are over 150. Either way, the number of real ETIAS permits issued so far is zero.
Some of them are not crooks. When ETIAS opens, a travel agency or similar may legally apply on a traveller's behalf.
Frontex, the EU's border agency, drew the line in June 2024. It warned about sites claiming to take applications already, and said some of the 100-plus information sites it found are legitimate businesses. Until the Commission sets a date, there is nothing to apply for and nothing to buy.
The EU's own news page from April 2025 still gives the last quarter of 2026 as the expected start; the ETIAS home page now gives no date at all.
Once it starts
Under the ETIAS regulation (article 83), the day the system starts opens a transition period of at least six months, extendable to 18. In it, a traveller without ETIAS is not refused entry for lacking it, as long as they meet every other entry condition.
The system has not started. So a visitor arriving for Christmas 2026, or for Easter on 28 March 2027, cannot be turned away solely for lacking ETIAS, provided the rest of their paperwork is in order. The list above is where that paperwork begins.
Summer 2027 is an open question. It depends on a start date the Commission has not set and on whether the transition is extended. We are not going to guess.
The forwardable version, written for the visitor rather than the host, is our EES and border guide.
Spanish-lite
Vengo de visita, me alojo con mi familia — I'm here on a visit, staying with my family. For the visitor, when the officer asks what the trip is for; your address comes next.
Soy residente, tengo TIE — I'm a resident, I have a residence card. For you, if the queue you are pointed to with the family is the one taking fingerprints.
The bottom line
The border this Christmas checks passport dates, the reason for the trip and the money, and takes fingerprints and a photo on a first entry under EES. It does not check for a permit that has never been issued. Forward the list, tell the family to keep their €20, and let the EU announce its own start date in its own time.
Confirmed October 2026
Enjoy the weekend — A. and the WaypointSur team, spare room made up, nothing to apply for.
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