On 3 March the House of Lords Grand Committee approved the Immigration & Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2026, raising the statutory ceiling for multiple immigration charges – most notably the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) maximum, which jumps from £16 to £20. The change does not automatically alter the payable fee but enables ministers to enact the increase by secondary legislation later this year.
The Home Office argues the higher cap aligns the UK with the US ESTA (US$21) and forthcoming EU ETIAS (€7) and will generate additional revenue to fund front-end border controls. Opposition peers accepted the principle but pressed the minister on the impact a 25 % rise might have on tourism to Northern Ireland, where visitors often cross the land border from Ireland.
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For businesses, a higher ETA fee is unlikely to deter C-suite travel but will inflate the cost of rotating technicians and project workers who currently enter visa-free. Multinationals budgeting for post-Brexit mobility should factor in ETA expenses for short-term visits by EU, US, Canadian and Australian staff once the scheme is fully rolled out to 85 visa-exempt nations on 25 February 2026.
Importantly, the same order nudges maxima for long-term visit visas, settlement visas and citizenship applications by 6.5 %, signalling that actual fee hikes could be announced around the Spring Statement. Employers holding sponsorship licences may therefore face higher costs for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) reimbursements written into expat contracts.
Practically, global-mobility teams should update cost-projection templates, brief travellers that ETA approvals remain valid for two years, and remind dual UK/Irish citizens that they are exempt if they use their British or Irish passport to travel.
