You will have to make additional payments if you don’t want to be delayed at the border
Neil Shaw Assistant Editor
11:37, 16 Aug 2025Updated 11:37, 16 Aug 2025
Anyone who answers ‘no’ is likely to face additional questioning
New travel rules are coming for everyone with a UK passport and as well as adding time to your journey there will also be an extra expense. Anyone heading into the EU – including Spain, Italy, Greece, France and Portugal – will face the new regulations.
The new rules mean that anyone with a UK passport entering the EU will have to show that they have bought travel insurance and that they have paid for a return ticket. On top of that you will have to show that you have somewhere to stay when you are in Europe, and that you have enough money for your time outside the UK.
Previously the questions have only been asked if border security had concerns about a UK traveller, but experts now say they are set to become very common or even universal when you enter the EU. They will be asked on automated terminals, and officials will select a number of people for additional questioning.
The system is part of the new digital entry-exit system (EES). Luke Petherbridge, director of public affairs at Abta, told the Times : ” More people are going to be asked these questions in the future than were in the past because most EES checks will be done at a kiosk. Its primary function is digitising the border. If you were to answer one of these questions in a way that you know wasn’t aligned with the answer they were looking for, you would be sent to a border guard.”
EES will also mean you have to register your biometric data – face and fingerprints – when you cross a border into the EU. The details will be stored for three years or until your passport runs out.
The new rules come into force on October 12 and will be fully in place by April 2026, when a new visa waiver will be introduced, meaning you have to pay for a document to get from the UK into the EU.