ETIAS for refugees and stateless people: who must apply

It depends on where you live and who issued your travel document. The EU’s ETIAS FAQ says refugees and stateless persons “do not need an ETIAS travel authorisation if they reside in and hold a travel document issued by any of the European countries requiring ETIAS”. If you live in a visa-exempt country such as the United States and hold a travel document that country issued, you “may need” one. ETIAS is not in operation yet, the EU has announced no start date and nobody can apply today.

I am a refugee or a stateless person: do I need an ETIAS travel authorisation?

That question starts the relevant entry in the official ETIAS FAQ, and it gives two answers, one for each place you might live.

• You live in a European country that requires ETIAS and hold its travel document. You do not need ETIAS. For EU Member States the ETIAS Regulation says so directly: under Article 2(2)(a), it does not apply to refugees, stateless persons or other persons without the nationality of any country who reside in a Member State and hold a travel document issued by that Member State.
• You live in a visa-exempt country, or in Ireland, and hold a travel document from that country.The FAQ says you “may need” to apply. Whether you do depends on the country you are visiting.

Why does the answer depend on the country I visit?

Because the EU visa rules leave part of this to each country. Under Article 6(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, a Member State “may exempt” recognised refugees and stateless persons from the visa requirement if the third country where they live, and which issued their travel document, is on the list of visa-exempt countries (Annex II). “May” is the operative word. Some countries use the option and some do not.

The FAQ turns that into a simple test. If your destination exempts you from the visa requirement, you need ETIAS to go there. If it does not, you need a visa. The FAQ also warns that you may need ETIAS for some countries and a visa for others, so a trip across several borders needs checking country by country.

How do I check which rule applies to my trip?

The FAQ points to a Commission spreadsheet of national visa rules. Its steps, paraphrasing the FAQ:

1. Open the spreadsheet linked from the FAQ and go to the tab “2. Exemptions Article 6(2)”.
2. Find section “2.2”, the visa exemption for refugees and stateless persons who are legally resident in a listed third country and hold a travel document issued by that country.
3. Find the country that issued your travel document, then check the entry for the country you intend to visit.
4. If the answer is “yes = visa exempted”, you need an ETIAS travel authorisation for that country. If the cell is empty, you need a visa.

Repeat the check for every country on your itinerary. We have not reproduced the spreadsheet’s entries here, because they are the Commission’s to maintain and can change.

What does this look like for someone living in the United States?

Take a recognised refugee who lives in the United States and holds a travel document issued by the US. This is our example, not one from the EU. The United States is on the visa-exempt list, so the route in the FAQ applies: check the spreadsheet for each destination. Where a country exempts you, ETIAS will be the requirement. Where it does not, you would need a visa. A US passport holder gets the plain visa-exempt answer on our US citizens page, but a travel document is not a passport, so the nationality shortcut does not carry over.

What does not change?

An exemption from ETIAS is not an exemption from the border. On a short stay, you still have to meet the normal entry conditions and the 90-day limit in any 180 days. If you are unsure, ask the embassy or consulate of the country you plan to visit before you book. Our guide to the countries whose passport holders will need ETIAS covers the standard case, and the ETIAS status page has the current position on launch.