Some travelers applying to enter Britain in recent days have hit a roadblock: The online system is down, and without digital permission they can’t board planes, trains or boats bound for the U.K.
The electronic travel authorization, called ETA, is linked to a traveler’s passport. As of Wednesday afternoon, 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 travelers to the U.K. have needed the digital authorization, which is distinct from a visa and costs 20 British pounds, or about $27. The ETA, for short-term visits under six months and valid for two years, is only for visa-exempt travelers, 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 travelers wait until the day of their departure to apply for the authorization — 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 Wednesday afternoon, some passengers received notices that they had been approved.
Zara Rahim, a 35-year-old based in New York, and her partner showed up to Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday evening 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 8:15 p.m. 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 Ms. Rahim, a communications adviser. “I genuinely thought Delta would let me board and I could apply on arrival.”
Travelers emphasized 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 Wednesday for a speaking engagement. He tried to apply for the ETA through the app on Tuesday, but after getting an error message, he went through the website, where he finally received confirmation that the authorization was being processed. But it still hadn’t come through when it was time to board his Eurostar train on Wednesday morning.
“The border agent apologized, told me he felt my pain, but said there was nothing he could do,” Mr. London said.
Ella Marder, 41, needed to get from Paris to London on Wednesday for meetings, and to attend a live event for work.
But even though she had paid for the travel authorization and had received a reference number via email, her authorization 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 Ms. Marder, a cultural strategist and producer based in Paris.
About 100 other people in 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. “Nobody has any clue what to do.”
Amelia Nierenberg and Ceylan Yeğinsu contributed reporting.
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Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel.
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