An electronic visa (eVisa) is a visa you apply for online: if your nationality needs a visa for the country you are visiting, the eVisa is the digital route to getting one. An ETA (electronic travel authorisation) is a lighter screening for travelers who do not need a visa: your passport already allows visa-free entry, and the government wants to run a check before you board. Everything else about the two documents follows from that one distinction.
The confusion is real, and governments cause most of it: they use these labels loosely, sometimes reusing the same word for different things.
The five differences at a glance
- Who they are for: eVisas serve visa-required nationalities; ETAs serve visa-exempt ones.
- What they are in law: an eVisa is a visa; an ETA is a pre-screening of a visa-free entry.
- What the application asks for: eVisas want documents and photos; ETAs want biographic details.
- Speed and validity: ETAs are usually fast and long-lived; eVisas are usually slower and tied to a trip.
- Price: ETA fees are typically modest and flat; eVisa fees carry the full consular charge.
1. Who each one is for
Start with your passport, because it decides which system you are even eligible to use. A country publishes a list of nationalities that may enter without a visa. If yours is on that list, you may need an ETA. If it is not, you need a visa, and if that country runs an online visa system, that visa is the eVisa.
This is why two people on the same flight can face completely different paperwork for the same holiday. It also means an ETA is not a cheaper alternative to a visa you were going to need anyway.
2. What they legally are
An eVisa is a visa in the full legal sense. It is issued under a country's visa rules, granted in a category such as tourism, business, medical treatment or study, and recorded against your passport number. The category sets what you are allowed to do once you are inside the country. Our guide on the difference between an electronic visa and a regular visa covers how that works alongside older sticker and paper visas.
An ETA is not a visa. It authorises you to travel to the border under an existing visa-free arrangement, and the entry itself remains visa-free. The border officer still makes the final decision, exactly as they would if the ETA scheme did not exist. Because it is not a visa, an ETA cannot carry visa-style permissions: it will not let you work, enrol in a long course, or stay beyond the visa-free limit.
3. How much the application asks of you
An eVisa application behaves like a consular file that happens to be online. Expect to upload a scan of your passport biographical page and a photograph that meets a strict specification, and depending on the destination, an itinerary, hotel bookings, a return ticket, an invitation letter, employment details, previous travel history, or evidence of funds. Documents that fail the format rules are the most common reason applications stall. If you want the mechanics in detail, see how an electronic visa works.
An ETA application is mostly biographic questions: name, date of birth, passport details, contact details, and a short set of eligibility and character declarations. Many take a few minutes on a phone. Some newer schemes ask for a photograph or a scan of the passport chip through an official app, which is still far lighter than an eVisa file.
4. How long they take and how long they last
These are patterns rather than rules, and every destination has its own timetable. ETAs are generally decided quickly, often within minutes or hours, though any application flagged for manual review can take days. Once granted, an ETA typically lasts a long time: a period of years, or until your passport expires, with unlimited trips inside that window and a per-visit stay limit set separately. Our guide on how long a UK ETA takes shows how one scheme handles this in practice.
eVisas usually run on trip logic. Processing is measured in days rather than minutes, because a person or a system reviews your documents. Validity is often a fixed window with a limited number of entries, and you have to enter before the window closes. Exceptions run in both directions, including eVisas valid for a year or more with multiple entries, so check the terms on your own approval.
5. What they cost
ETA fees are generally low and flat: one government charge covering the whole validity period, sometimes waived for children or certain nationalities. eVisa fees track the consular fee for the category you applied in, so longer validity, more entries, or expedited handling cost more. Some destinations add separate biometric or handling charges.
Two habits protect you. Treat any fee figure you read in an article, including this one, as potentially out of date, because governments revise them without much notice. And when you apply through a service, look for the government fee stated separately from the service fee.
The naming trap
Governments do not use these labels consistently. Kenya replaced its eVisa with an electronic travel authorisation that nearly every visitor must obtain, so a scheme named ETA does the job a visa used to do. Sri Lanka's ETA has worked much the same way for years. The United Kingdom runs both words at once: its ETA is the pre-screening for visa-free visitors, while it uses “eVisa” for the digital record of immigration status held by people who already have permission to be in the country.
So the name on the portal tells you less than you would hope. What matters is the rule that applies to your passport for this destination, this trip length and this purpose, not the label the system happens to carry.
Getting the answer for your own trip
The live answer is always per passport and per destination, and it changes when governments change policy. Two sources are worth trusting: the destination government's own immigration site, and a requirements lookup that takes your nationality, your destination and your full route.
The route part matters more than most travelers expect. A connection can carry its own requirement even when you never leave the airport, and an itinerary with two stops can need documents for both. If you want to check a specific passport and route, our visa requirements checker returns the rules for each leg of the journey, including transit.