Applying for a visa used to mean a courier, a paper form and a trip to a consulate. Today, for a growing list of destinations, it means ten minutes on your phone. But “apply online” covers two very different products, and travellers routinely confuse them. We built an e-Visa & ETA Guide that compares the world’s major online entry schemes side by side — who can apply, the fee, the processing time and the maximum stay — all verified at the official government portal and dated.
e-Visa vs ETA — they are not the same
An e-Visa is a full visa issued online: India, Vietnam, Türkiye, Egypt and others. It is usually per-trip and often priced by nationality. An electronic travel authorisation (ETA) is lighter — cheaper, valid for years, and aimed at travellers who would otherwise be visa-free. The US ESTA, the new UK ETA and the coming EU ETIAS are all ETAs. The practical difference: an ETA is a quick pre-screen for the visa-exempt, while an e-Visa is the visa itself.
The most open schemes
A handful of countries now accept every nationality online. Vietnam opened its 90-day e-Visa to all passports in 2023 — one of the most generous anywhere — at US$25 single / US$50 multiple entry. Ethiopia and Sri Lanka also cover all visitors, and from 25 May 2026 Sri Lanka made its tourist ETA free for 40 nationalities. Kenya replaced visas with a universal eTA, then in 2025 exempted most African nationals from needing one at all.
Six schemes changed in 2026
This is a fast-moving area. The US ESTA leapt from US$21 to US$40 in late 2025 and is US$40.27 from 1 January 2026. The UK ETA — mandatory for all EU/EEA/Swiss nationals since April 2025 — rose to £20 on 8 April 2026. Egypt raised its e-Visa US$5 in April 2026; Pakistan suspended its free visa-on-arrival waiver on 1 January 2026; and Kenya and Sri Lanka both reworked their fee rules. Because the numbers move, every row in our guide carries a verification date.
A word on eligibility — and ETIAS
A low eligibility count does not mean a scheme is restrictive. Türkiye’s e-Visa is only for the ~40 nationalities that need a visa at all — most of Europe enters visa-free and never touches it. And the EU’s much-discussed ETIAS is still not live: it launches in Q4 2026 with mandatory enforcement around April 2027, so no application is required yet — and any site charging for ETIAS today is fraudulent.
How we verify this
Each row is checked against the scheme’s official government portal (linked in the guide) and cross-checked against immigration-law and travel-news trackers, then dated. Fees shown are the cheapest single-applicant route; many schemes add service, insurance or per-entry charges, so treat them as a floor. Our full process is in our Editorial & Data Standards. To check one specific country’s per-nationality rules, open its destination page; to map a multi-country trip, use our Trip Visa Checker.