Some travelers who have applied to enter Britain in recent days have hit a hurdle: the online system is down, and without digital authorization they cannot board planes, trains or boats bound for Britain
The electronic travel authorization, called ETA, is linked to a traveler’s passport. As of Wednesday afternoon, the app displayed a “Sorry, the system is busy” message and prompted users to try again later. People who tried to apply on the site also had no luck. A digital queue that announced a wait of more than an hour became gridlocked.
A spokesman for Britain’s 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 “around the clock” to resolve the issue.
Since February, most travelers to Britain have required the digital permit, which is different from a visa and costs 20 British pounds, or about $27. The ETA for short-stay stays of less than six months and valid for two years only applies to visa-exempt travelers, including those from the US, Canada and most European countries.
Before the outage, the approval process was generally quick, in some cases taking just a few minutes. However, applicants are told to allow at least three days for processing. The Home Office said it met that standard.
But some travelers wait until the day of their departure to apply for the permit – and in recent days some of them have been stranded. The Interior Ministry did not respond to questions about when the outage began or when it might be resolved. On Wednesday afternoon, some passengers received notifications that they had been approved.
Zara Rahim, a 35-year-old from New York, and her partner arrived at Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday evening to fly on Delta Air Lines to London, where they planned to attend a wedding this weekend. The couple had attempted to apply for their ETA earlier that day, hoping to be approved before their 8:15 p.m. departure. Instead, they waited nearly six hours, unsuccessfully trying to find a workaround along with at least two dozen other stranded passengers.
“Every new agent we spoke to was confused,” said Ms. Rahim, a communications consultant. “I really thought Delta would let me board and I could apply upon arrival.”
Travelers emphasized that ETA, a digital system designed to streamline immigration processes, has shown the downside of automation.
Jonathan London, 56, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, had planned to travel by train from Brussels to London for a lecture on Wednesday. He tried to apply for the ETA through the app on Tuesday, but after receiving an error message, he went through the website, where he finally received confirmation that the approval was being processed. But when it was time to board his Eurostar train on Wednesday morning, it still hadn’t arrived.
“The border officer apologized, told me he felt my pain but said there was nothing he could do,” Mr London said.
Ella Marder, 41, had to travel from Paris to London for meetings on Wednesday and attend a live event for work.
However, even though she had paid for the travel authorization and received a reference number via email, her authorization was not processed. And as the hours passed 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 Ms. Marder, a Paris-based cultural strategist and producer.
About 100 other people at the station were in the same situation, Ms. Marder said.
“It’s a mess,” she said, adding that she waited at the station until 7 p.m. before giving up. “No one has any idea what to do.”
Amelia Kidrenberg and Ceylan Yeğinsu contributed reporting.
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