30 Countries That Will Require ETIAS

Why 30 Countries and Not 27

The confusion is understandable, because Europe has at least four different groupings that people casually mix up: the European Union, the Schengen Area, the Eurozone and the Common Travel Area. ETIAS does not follow any single one of them, which is why the headline number lands on 30.

Here is the arithmetic, step by step:

• Start with the 27 EU member states. That is the current size of the European Union after Croatia joined in 2013 and the United Kingdom left in 2020.
• Subtract Ireland. Ireland opted out of Schengen and, with it, out of ETIAS. It protects its border with the UK through the Common Travel Area instead. That leaves 26.
• Add the four non-EU Schengen states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. These four are not in the EU, but they are in Schengen and they are written into the ETIAS regulation. That brings you to 30.

Notice what that means for Cyprus. Cyprus is an EU member and it is included in the 30, even though it has never joined the Schengen Area. So the ETIAS zone is not simply "Schengen". The more precise way to describe it is the 29 Schengen member states plus Cyprus — which also totals 30.

Both framings are correct, and both are worth knowing, because they explain the two questions travellers ask most often: why Ireland is missing, and why Cyprus is present. If you want the detail on each individual country's status, the table below lists every one of them with its capital and its Schengen membership.

Full List of 30 ETIAS Countries

These are the countries requiring ETIAS, taken from the official EU ETIAS source. Once the system is operational, a visa-exempt traveller needs an approved authorisation before boarding a flight or crossing a land border into any of them.

Count the rows and you have 30. Count the "No" entries in the Schengen column and you have exactly one: Cyprus. Every other country on the list is both an ETIAS country and a Schengen member today.

Related reading: our ETIAS guide for US citizens walks through the application itself, and ETA vs visa explained covers how these pre-travel systems differ from actual visas.

Regional Breakdown of the ETIAS Zone

Grouping the 30 countries by region makes trip planning easier, because it shows you that ETIAS covers the whole continent from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, not just a western European core. The breakdown below is a practical travel grouping rather than a legal definition — EU statistical regions differ slightly — but the counts add up to 30.

Western Europe (8 countries)

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland. This is the densest cluster of ETIAS countries and usually the starting point for first-time visitors. Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna and Brussels are all inside the zone, and travelling between them involves no passport check at all once you have entered. Note that two of the eight — Liechtenstein and Switzerland — are not EU members, which is exactly the point of the ETIAS design: it follows the Schengen border, not the political union.

Northern Europe (8 countries)

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden. The Nordic and Baltic group. Iceland and Norway are the two non-EU entries here, both linked to the EU through the European Economic Area. If you are planning a Baltic itinerary — Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius — all three capitals are ETIAS countries, and the same single authorisation covers the ferries between them.

Southern Europe (8 countries)

Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain. The Mediterranean group, and the one that contains the Cyprus anomaly. Every other entry here is a full Schengen member. This is also the grouping most affected by the microstate rules, because Italy, France and Spain are the only ways into San Marino, Monaco and Andorra respectively.

Eastern Europe (6 countries)

Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia. All six are EU members and all six are Schengen members as of January 2026, following the opening of Bulgaria's and Romania's land borders. Bucharest, Budapest, Warsaw and Prague are all on the list. Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia sit nearby on the map but are not ETIAS countries.

The practical takeaway is that a single authorisation covers every one of these four regions. If you land in Lisbon and later fly to Helsinki, you do not reapply. That is the core benefit of the system compared with the patchwork of national rules it replaces.

Why Ireland Is Exempt

Ireland is the single EU member that is absent from the ETIAS list, and the reason is political rather than technical. When the Schengen Area was built, Ireland negotiated a permanent opt-out and has never adopted the common visa policy or the abolished internal border controls. Its concern was never continental security — it was the land border on the island of Ireland.

Instead, Ireland and the United Kingdom maintain the Common Travel Area, an arrangement that predates both the EU and Schengen by decades. Under the CTA, Irish and British citizens move freely between the two states, live and work in each other's country, and access public services. Keeping that border soft has consistently been treated as more important than aligning with Schengen.

The knock-on effect for travellers is straightforward:

• Entering Ireland — no ETIAS. Ireland applies its own immigration rules, and nationals of many countries, including the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, do not need a visa for short stays.
• Leaving Ireland for France, Spain or Germany — this is an external Schengen border, so you need an ETIAS (if you are visa-exempt) or a Schengen visa.
• Going the other way, from the continent into Ireland — no ETIAS is checked, because Ireland is not in the scheme.

This creates the single most common ETIAS misunderstanding: an itinerary like Dublin, then London, then Paris. The Dublin and London legs need no ETIAS at all; the London-to-Paris leg does, because Paris is in the zone. Plan the trip as two separate legal journeys rather than one.

If the Ireland-UK portion of your trip is the part you are least sure about, our UK visitor visa checklist and our ESTA guide both explain how the neighbouring pre-travel schemes work.

The Four Non-EU Countries in the List

Four of the 30 are not members of the European Union at all. They are in Schengen, and the ETIAS regulation names them explicitly, so travellers often find them surprising when they scan a list of "EU countries".

• Iceland — an EEA member through the European Economic Area agreement, Schengen since 2001.
• Liechtenstein — an EEA member, and the most recent country to join Schengen, in 2011.
• Norway — an EEA member with an opt-out on EU membership, Schengen since 2001.
• Switzerland — not in the EEA either; it joined Schengen through a set of bilateral agreements, in 2008.

Because these four are inside Schengen, they enforce the same external border as France or Spain does. A flight from New York to Geneva or from London to Oslo is an entry into the ETIAS zone. There is no separate Swiss or Norwegian authorisation to buy — the EU's system covers them.

The same logic works in reverse for anyone assessing a destination: if a country is not on the 30-country table, assume you do not need an ETIAS, then verify that country's own visa rules separately.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania Explained

These four are the group that generates the most confusion, because their EU membership, their Schengen membership and their ETIAS membership have all arrived at different times.

The Cyprus case is the one worth remembering. Because ETIAS is set by regulation rather than by a simple mirror of Schengen membership, Cyprus is written into the scheme in advance of its accession. If you are flying to Larnaca or Paphos, treat ETIAS as required. Meanwhile the island's de facto division means border conditions on the ground remain a separate matter from the ETIAS question.

The broader point: EU membership does not automatically mean Schengen membership, and Schengen membership does not automatically mean ETIAS membership. Only the third of those is what actually gates your boarding pass, which is why this page keeps the two columns separate in the main table.

Microstates and Open Borders

Europe has four tiny states that are neither EU nor Schengen members but share an open border with a Schengen neighbour: Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. None of them appears on the 30-country list, and the nationals of all four are explicitly exempt from ETIAS.

The practical reality is more interesting than the legal one:

• Andorra is wedged between France and Spain and has no airport. Everyone arrives by road through one of those two countries, so you clear the Schengen external border first and then drive in.
• Monaco has an open border with France on the Riviera. There is no routine passport check, so your entry into France is your entry into the zone.
• San Marino is completely surrounded by Italy, with open access on all sides. Reaching it means crossing Italy's border, not San Marino's.
• Vatican City sits inside Rome. Passing through the Holy See's gates involves no border formality whatsoever.

So the answer to "do I need ETIAS for the microstates" is no, not for the microstate itself — but yes, almost certainly for the journey there. A visa-exempt traveller on a two-week Italy and Vatican itinerary needs one ETIAS. Adding Monaco and Andorra to the same trip does not require a second one.

There is one genuine exception to watch: Andorra is not in the customs union or Schengen, so the exit from Andorra back into Spain or France is technically an external border crossing. In practice controls are light and rarely enforced, but the legal position is stricter than for Monaco or San Marino.

European Countries Not Covered by ETIAS

The ETIAS zone covers 30 countries, which leaves most of Europe's map outside it. Knowing what is not covered is just as useful as knowing what is.

Two of those rows deserve a second look because they invert the usual question. Ukraine and Moldova are not places you need an ETIAS to visit, but Ukrainian and Moldovan nationals are on the visa-exempt list, so they do need an ETIAS to visit the 30. Always check the question from both directions: where am I going, and what passport am I holding.

If you hold a passport from a country that needs a full visa rather than an ETIAS, the starting point is our Schengen visa guide for US citizens for the process, or run your profile through the visa eligibility checker to see which route applies to you.

Who Needs an ETIAS

The country list only tells half the story. ETIAS is a visa-exemption screening system, so it applies to you based on the passport you travel on, not on where you live or where you are flying from.

In short:

• You need an ETIAS if you hold a passport from one of the 59 visa-exempt countries and territories — including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates — and you are travelling to any of the 30 countries above for a short stay.
• You do not need an ETIAS if you hold an EU or EEA passport, if you are a national of one of the 30 countries or of Ireland, if you already hold a valid Schengen visa or a residence permit, or if you are a family member of an EU citizen travelling with your residence card.
• You need a Schengen visa instead if you hold a passport from a country that is not visa-exempt — India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Russia and many others. ETIAS is not an option for you at all, because ETIAS only exists to screen people who currently travel without a visa.

That last distinction is the one travellers most often get wrong, particularly the assumption that ETIAS is simply "the new European visa for everyone". It is not. Our dedicated page on ETIAS for US citizens covers the American case in depth, and our companion guide to ETIAS eligibility runs through every nationality group, the age rules and the fee exemptions.

Before you book anything, confirm your position with the visa eligibility checker, keep the official checklist in our tourist visa complete guide to hand, and see our full ETIAS guide for the cost, timing and document requirements of the authorisation itself.

Frequently Asked Questions