LONDON – Some travellers applying to enter Britain in recent days have hit a roadblock: The online system is down, and without digital permission they cannot board planes, trains or boats bound for the Britain.
The electronic travel authorisation, called ETA, is linked to a traveller’s passport. As of the afternoon of June 3, the app displayed a message saying, “Sorry, the system is busy,” and directed users to try again later.
People attempting to apply on the website were also out of luck. A digital queue, which advertised a wait of more than an hour, stalled.
A spokesperson for the British Home Office, which administers the program, said in a statement that it was “aware that some customers are experiencing delays” and that technicians were working “round the clock” to resolve it.
Since February, most travellers to Britain have needed the digital authorisation, which is distinct from a visa and costs £20 (S$34).
The ETA, for short-term visits under six months and valid for two years, is only for visa-exempt travellers, including those from the United States, Canada and most European countries.
Before the outage, the approval process was generally swift, in some cases taking only minutes, though applicants are told to allow at least three days for processing.
The Home Office said it was meeting that standard.
But some travellers wait until the day of their departure to apply for the authorisation – and in recent days some of them have been stranded.
The Home Office did not respond to questions about when the outage began or when it may be resolved.
On the afternoon of June 3, some passengers received notices that they had been approved.
Zara Rahim, 35, who is based in New York, and her partner showed up to Kennedy International Airport on the evening of June 2 for their Delta Air Lines flight to London, where they had planned to attend a wedding this weekend.
The couple had attempted to apply for their ETAs earlier that day, hoping to be approved before their departure at 8.15pm.
Instead, they waited for nearly six hours, unsuccessfully trying to find a workaround alongside at least two dozen other stranded passengers.
“Every new agent we talked to was confused,” said Rahim, a communications adviser. “I genuinely thought Delta would let me board and I could apply on arrival.”
Travellers emphasised that the ETA, a digital system meant to streamline immigration processes, has illuminated the downside of relying on automation.
Jonathan London, 56, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, had planned to travel by train from Brussels to London on June 3 for a speaking engagement.
He tried to apply for the ETA through the app on June 2, but after getting an error message, he went through the website, where he finally received confirmation that the authorisation was being processed.
But it still had not come through when it was time to board his Eurostar train on the morning of June 3.
“The border agent apologised, told me he felt my pain, but said there was nothing he could do,” London said.
Ella Marder, 41, needed to get from Paris to London on June 3 for meetings, and to attend a live event for work.
But even though she had paid for the travel authorisation and had received a reference number via e-mail, her authorisation had not been processed.
And as the hours ticked by while she waited at the Gare du Nord in Paris, no one could look it up for her, she said.
“It feels like Kafka,” said Marder, a cultural strategist and producer based in Paris.
About 100 other people in the station were in the same situation, Marder said.
“It’s a mess,” she said, adding that she waited at the station until 7pm before giving up. “Nobody has any clue what to do.” NYTIMES
Additional reporting by Amelia Nierenberg and Ceylan Yeginsu
