UK amends visa waiver plans for non-Irish EU citizens crossing Border

The UK government has dropped plans to require non-Irish EU citizens living in Ireland to apply for a US-style visa waiver scheme when crossing the Border.

The change was included in a guidance document about the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) published by the UK government on Thursday.

According to the details published, people who are legally resident in Ireland and who do not need a visa to visit the UK will not require an ETA when crossing the Border or arriving in Britain from Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man.

People who require a visa to travel to the UK and non-Irish EU citizens who are visiting Ireland must still apply for an ETA before crossing the Border.

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Alliance Party deputy leader Stephen Farry MP, who raised the issue with the Taoiseach and the UK prime minister, said it was a “welcome development”.

Crucially, he said, it “now facilitates the tens of thousands of people who cross to Northern Ireland on a regular, even daily, basis for work, shopping, to access education and leisure, to visit family and friends and many other reasons”. However, he said a solution was still needed for tourists on the island of Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Tourism Alliance (NITA) also raised concerns, saying it was “incredibly disappointed” tourists had not been included despite extensive discussions with the Home Office. NITA chief executive Dr Joanne Stuart said the decision “puts 25 per cent of all tourism spend in Northern Ireland at risk” given some 70 per cent of visitors arrive via Dublin.

“We believe that a short-term exemption for overseas visitors travelling from Dublin to Northern Ireland could have been delivered in line with the [UK] Government’s wider policy objectives,” she said.

Common sense prevails

Úna Boyd, immigration solicitor with the Belfast-based human rights NGO the Committee on the Administration of Justice, said “common sense appears to have prevailed and this exemption protects cross border communities from the worst impacts of ETA”.

“The idea families who have for years led fluid cross border lives were going to have to apply for permission to go from Donegal to Derry was always going to be an unworkable hardening of the land border,” she said.

The ETA scheme, which will be introduced in a staggered basis later this year, is part of the UK government’s tightening of immigration law post-Brexit.

Under the previous plans non-Irish EU and European Economic Area (EEA) citizens, as well as non-British or non-Irish citizens from other countries who previously did not require a visa to enter the UK, would have had to apply for an ETA before crossing the Border. This would have included a requirement to submit biometric facial and fingerprint data.

The plans were opposed by the Irish government, other political parties and human rights organisations and was the subject of protests in Border areas.

The UK Home Office has been contacted for comment.