UK ETA for Kuwaiti citizens
Kuwaiti nationals were among the very first travellers required to hold a UK ETA — the Gulf states entered the scheme ahead of Europe and North America. If you have visited the UK since then you may already hold one; if it was issued more than two years ago, or on a passport you have since replaced, it has expired.
UK ETA for Kuwait — key facts
- Kuwaiti citizens do need a UK ETA before travelling to the United Kingdom.
- An ETA is not a visa and does not guarantee entry — a Border Force officer makes the final decision on arrival.
Verified against GOV.UK on 2026-10-12. UK ETA Gateway is a private agency, not the UK Government.
What is different for Kuwaiti travellers
The ETA requirement began applying to Kuwaiti passport holders on 22 February 2024. Because an ETA lasts only 2 years, anyone who complied at the start has an authorisation that has already expired — this is the single most common reason a Kuwaiti traveller is stopped at check-in believing they are covered.
The fee is set by the Home Office in pounds sterling, so you are charged £49 and your bank converts it from Kuwaiti dinar (KWD) at its own rate. We do not add a currency markup, and nobody — including us — can discount the £20 government portion.
A note on your name: Arabic names are transliterated differently by different authorities. Copy the Latin-script spelling exactly as it is printed in the machine-readable zone of your Kuwaiti passport — not the spelling on your ticket, your bank card, or an older passport.
Applying from Kuwait
Kuwait joined the ETA requirement on 22 February 2024, in the first Gulf group. Two years on, those original authorisations have expired — February 2026 — and there is no notification when they do. The approval email you kept still reads as an approval.
The Kuwaiti civil ID is not a travel document for this purpose. Your ETA is bound to a passport number, so if the passport has been reissued since you last flew to Britain, the ETA on the old one no longer covers you regardless of the date printed on it.
Kuwaiti travel to the UK concentrates sharply in the summer, when Kuwait City temperatures are at their most extreme and British schools break. Applying in June for an August trip costs exactly the same as applying the night before, and removes the only genuine risk in this process.
If your file has anything unusual in it — a spent conviction, an earlier refusal by any country, a name that transliterates differently on your new passport than your old one — that is where our fee earns itself. If it does not, you can reasonably apply yourself on GOV.UK for the official fee alone, and we will say so.
What Kuwaiti travellers need
- A biometric Kuwaiti passport that will still be valid when you travel
- A digital photo meeting the GOV.UK standard
- An email address and a payment card
- Truthful answers on criminal convictions and past immigration refusals
You do not need flight bookings, hotel reservations, bank statements or an invitation letter.
Every Kuwaiti traveller needs their own ETA, including infants — there is no family application and no child discount. How ETAs work for children and families.
If you also hold British or Irish citizenship you cannot apply for an ETA at all — travel on that passport instead. Full requirements · Common questions.
Kuwait at a glance
- ETA requiredYes
- Official Home Office fee£20
- Our service fee£29
- Total through us£49
- Validity2 years or passport expiry
- Maximum stay per visit6 months
- Typical decisionMinutes; allow 3 working days
- Number of entriesUnlimited
Or apply yourself at gov.uk/eta for £20.