I have a new passport. Is my UK ETA still valid?
The short answer: no
A UK Electronic Travel Authorisation is tied electronically to the passport you applied with — not to you as a person. If you are issued a new passport, the ETA linked to the old one does not move across. You must apply again, and pay the £20 Home Office fee again, even if the original ETA still had time left on it.
An ETA lasts 2 years or until the passport it is linked to expires — whichever comes first. That is why a renewal resets it.
If your OLD passport is still valid and unexpired, the ETA on it also remains valid, and you may travel on that passport until either it or the ETA runs out.
Checked against GOV.UK guidance on 2026-08-28.
The mistake that stops people at the gate
Carrying the new passport while the ETA sits on the old one. Airlines check the ETA against the passport you present at check-in. If they do not match, you can be refused boarding before you ever reach a UK border officer — and an airline refusal is not something the Home Office can undo for you.
What to do, in order
- Check which passport number your existing ETA was issued against.
- If it is the passport you will actually travel on, you are done — nothing to do.
- If you will travel on a newly issued passport, apply for a new ETA before you book, not the night before you fly.
- Allow 3 working days. Most decisions arrive within minutes, but the Home Office does not guarantee that, and a busy period is exactly when you cannot afford to gamble.
Do you need us for this?
Not necessarily. A second application is the same form as the first, and if the first went through without difficulty you can very reasonably do it yourself on GOV.UK for the £20 official fee alone. Where we earn our £29 is a file that has something in it — a spent conviction, an earlier refusal, a name that transliterates differently on the new passport than the old one.