UK ETA for Maldivian Citizens

Do Maldivian Citizens Need a UK ETA?

The rule follows the person and the passport. It does not follow the airline, the ticket price or the airport of departure. Someone leaving the Maldives and reaching Britain through another country answers the same two questions as someone flying in directly: what passport is being used, and does an exemption apply to that traveller?

When the Requirement Took Effect

The National List is organised by travel date. Maldives belongs to the group whose travel starts on 8 January 2025. Earlier groups covered Qatar and the Gulf states, while the later group added European countries from 2 April 2025.

Applications for the January group could be lodged from 27 November 2024. Travellers who depart on or after 8 January 2025 must already hold an approval when they board. An applicant who submits early has room to correct a mistake in the passport data or photograph before the travel date arrives.

This guide describes the list as it stood on 13 October 2026. Because lists change, look again before you book a journey that is some distance away.

Who Needs a UK ETA

The requirement covers a Maldivian national who wants to enter the UK as a Visitor for a stay of no more than six months, or who must pass through UK border control on the way elsewhere, using a Maldivian national passport. Holidays, family visits, short meetings, brief courses and connections that bring you through passport control all fall in this category.

Each person is assessed separately. A family travelling together means several approvals, one for every member who needs one, and an exemption that applies to one member does not extend to the others.

Who Is Exempt

Under the published rules, the following people do not need an ETA to come to the UK:

• Holders of British or Irish passports, who show proof of that citizenship at the border.
• People already holding a valid UK visa suitable for the journey.
• People entitled to live, work or study in the UK, such as those with settled status, pre-settled status or a right of abode.
• Holders of Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man permission to live, work or study there.
• British Overseas Territories citizens using a BOT passport, and British National (Overseas) passport holders.
• Passengers who transit a UK airport airside, without passing UK border control, under the current airside rule.
• Residents of Ireland who travel in from elsewhere in the Common Travel Area, under ETA 1.3.
• Those exempt from immigration control or otherwise not needing permission to enter.

The exemption is linked to the person and the document. Being accompanied by a British relative or travelling with a partner who holds a visa does not transfer the exemption to you. Evidence should be packed in your luggage alongside the passport.

Your Passport and the ETA

An application has to be made on a national passport that proves both identity and nationality, here as a Maldivian national. Under ETA 4.3, the approval allows travel only on the passport named in the application.

The passport details you type must match the biodata page exactly. Spelling differences, transposed digits and missing middle names can delay a decision or lead to a rejection, and an approval created on incorrect data can cause problems at the border.

Passport expiry

Approval lasts for two years from the grant date or until the linked passport expires, whichever comes first. A passport with a short remaining life therefore gives a short approval, even if the paperwork suggests otherwise. Read the expiry date on the passport and then the expiry date on the approval.

This guide does not describe how Maldivian passports are issued or renewed. Those procedures belong to the issuing authority, and the details were not confirmed from a primary source for this page. The UK side is simpler: the passport in your hand at the border must be the one named in the approval.

Photograph

The facial image must follow the UK photograph rules. Passports issued recently usually come with a new photograph, which means a picture from an earlier document may not be accepted. Choose a neutral background, remove filters and keep the lighting even.

New or Replacement Passports

The approval is not portable. If a passport expires, the approval tied to it ends at the same moment, even if it was granted with time remaining. A lost, stolen or damaged passport that is replaced also leaves the old approval attached to the old booklet.

The working rule is to apply again with the replacement passport before travel, if the requirement still applies to you. Booking a flight on the strength of the earlier approval, and hoping for acceptance, is a common route to being refused boarding or entry. Keep the earlier documents until the new position is confirmed.

How to Apply as a Maldivian Passport Holder

Applications are completed in the UK ETA app or online. The app reads your passport with the camera and takes a live photograph of your face. The online route asks for a photograph of the biodata page and a face image that meets the same standard.

A working email address, a payment card or a digital wallet, and the passport you intend to fly on are needed to finish. The application includes a fee that is paid during the process. Use the official route only. Sites that copy government branding or promise shorter processing are not part of the official process, and paying a third party does not speed up the decision.

After submission

Decisions normally come through by email within a day. Allow for up to three working days. The confirmation includes a 16-digit reference. Do not commit to flights until that message has arrived. When nothing turns up after three working days, look in spam and junk folders before contacting UK Visas and Immigration.

Applications are not refunded once submitted. Refusals and changes to the details both mean reapplying. Where several people apply together, their decisions can land on different days.

Documents and Details to Have Ready

Assemble these items before you open the application:

• The travel passport, with its biodata page available to photograph.
• Your legal name as printed, including every middle name.
• Passport number, date of issue, date of expiry, birth date and birthplace.
• An email inbox that you check regularly, since the Home Office contacts applicants by email.
• A card or a supported digital wallet for payment.
• A recent face image meeting the UK photo standard.
• Planned dates of travel and a clear sense of why you are visiting, so the activities can be checked against the Visitor rules.

A Maldivian identity card does not replace the passport in this process. The application is made on a passport and the passport is the document shown at the border.

Validity and How Long It Lasts

Two years from the grant date is the maximum. The approval can be shorter if the passport expires sooner. Under ETA 4.1 the earlier of those two dates controls, so a passport in its final months will limit the approval accordingly.

Each approval is attached to one passport. A replacement booklet is a separate document. When you need to travel after a passport change, check the approval against the new booklet before departure, and reapply if the details do not line up.

Multiple Journeys and Length of Stay

During the validity period, repeat travel is allowed on one approval. Every arrival is nonetheless assessed afresh by the border officer, and each stay can last up to six months under the Visitor rules.

The six-month cap is applied per visit, so it does not add up over a year. Frequent returns with long stays can invite questions. Keep a simple record of entry and exit dates, and make sure each visit has a visitor purpose.

Children, Babies and Family Applications

Children are not included in a parent’s approval. Every child who needs an ETA requires one linked to the child’s passport, including infants. A parent cannot use a child’s approval, and a child cannot use the parent’s.

Adults may submit applications for children. If the child is with you, the mobile app is available. If the child is elsewhere, the process has to be carried out online using the child’s passport and a face image of the child. Each child’s outcome arrives separately.

Children’s passports can expire sooner than expected, and the approval ends with them. Compare the dates before you purchase tickets, most of all where a passport was recently renewed or is close to its expiry during the trip.

Families looking at the bigger picture can read our children, babies and families article.

Maldivian Dual Nationals

Anyone with British or Irish citizenship in addition to Maldivian nationality is outside the ETA system. British travellers show a British passport, or another valid passport with a certificate of entitlement confirming right of abode in the UK. Irish citizens travel on an Irish passport.

For a second nationality that is subject to the ETA or to a visa, the rules attach to the passport you carry. An application made on a Maldivian passport covers that passport only. Settle on the passport before applying, and never present two documents in the hope the officer chooses the more convenient one. Our dual citizens article covers how this works in practice.

The Irish-Residence Exemption

The Common Travel Area brings together the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. It removes routine immigration controls on many movements inside the group, yet a Maldivian citizen flying into the UK from a place outside the group still needs the ordinary ETA answer.

ETA 1.3 says an applicant lawfully resident in the Republic of Ireland, who travels to the UK from elsewhere in the CTA, does not need an ETA. ETA 1.4 defines lawful residence as residence in Ireland under the relevant rules, together with freedom to leave Ireland without an Irish minister’s consent.

The caseworker guidance uses different words. It refers to non-visa nationals who are lawfully resident in Ireland, and it says the exemption does not cover travel into the UK from outside the CTA. Those statements are consistent with the rule once you read them together.

What to carry

Anyone aged 16 or above may be asked to show lawful residence. The caseworker guidance includes the Irish Residence Permit among accepted documents, and it describes that permit as available to third-country nationals resident in Ireland aged 16 and over. The description concerns the document; it does not add a limit to ETA 1.3. Sixteen and seventeen year olds may be asked for evidence, while younger children are not normally asked, although they or an accompanying adult can be questioned.

Travelling from the Maldives

Where the trip starts makes no difference to the ETA rule. A Maldivian passport holder setting out from the Maldives needs the same approval as anyone else on the same document, unless an exemption intervenes. The test is the passport and the purpose of the journey.

The presence of a connection depends on the routing you are given. Once you know the airports involved, check every change of aircraft against the transit rules below, because whether you cross UK border control depends on where you change.

Approval should be in hand before you leave the Maldives. Repairing a passport or contact error from a foreign airport is slower and more stressful than doing it at home, so settle doubts early.

Airside and Landside Connections

The line between the two kinds of connection is drawn by border control. An airside connection keeps you in the international zone between flights, so you never pass UK immigration. A landside connection puts you through UK immigration, even if you step out briefly and return.

Under the current guidance, an ETA-eligible traveller in airside transit, with no passage through border control, does not need an ETA for that leg. An ETA-eligible traveller passing through border control, landside, generally needs an ETA before setting off, unless another exemption applies. The airside position is not described as a permanent arrangement, so check it again before travel.

Ask the carrier which terminal you will use and whether your itinerary includes passport control. If there is any doubt, treat the connection as landside and sort out the approval before you depart.

For a worked explanation, see our transit and layovers article.

Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man

The three islands are self-governing dependencies of the Crown. They sit outside the UK, yet they are part of the Common Travel Area. The ETA can cover a visit to any of them for up to six months, which often means one approval serves a combined trip.

Island entry arrangements are set locally and may depart from UK practice. The approval does not write those arrangements aside. Look up the specific island before you travel and do not assume that a UK rule answers a question about the island.

Published guidance on the Irish-residence exemption names Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man as departure points as well as Ireland. That detail matters only to a person who lives in Ireland and departs from one of those places; it does not alter the rule for a Maldivian citizen living in the Maldives.

Holidays and Visiting Relatives

Sightseeing, a seaside break, a long-weekend in London and a visit to relatives are all examples of Visitor activity. On one approval, a stay of up to six months per visit is available, so long as the trip stays a genuine visit.

Within those activities, the rules permit short recreational courses of up to 30 days, though English-language study is excluded from that allowance. Visits connected with a state-funded or independent school, such as an educational exchange, also fit within Visitor permissions.

A relative visit that runs long, or that starts to resemble a move to the UK, moves outside Visitor permissions. Our visiting family and friends page explains where that boundary falls.

Business Activities

The Visitor rules provide for a broad set of work-related meetings. Those include attending meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops and debates, interviews, one-off or short speeches that are not profit-making events, signing contracts, promotional attendance at trade shows, site inspections and customer briefings.

Restrictions apply too. Trade-show attendance must be purely promotional, with no direct selling at the stand. Work done for a UK customer has to take place outside the UK. Remote work for your overseas employer can happen from the UK, though it cannot be the main purpose of the trip.

Volunteering counts as a permitted activity for up to 30 days in total, and only for a registered charity. A trip cannot become employment, so a role filling a UK post needs a separate route. Our business visits guidance provides more examples.

Short Courses and Study

Study is available to a Visitor for up to six months, subject to the conditions for study in the Visitor rules. Study does not open a route to working, and the stay has to finish within that six-month cap.

Courses lasting longer, or leading to extended residence, belong to another category. A student planning more than six months, or intending to take paid part-time work, should look at alternatives first. The ETA is not a student visa. Our short-term study page has the detail.

Permitted Paid Engagements

Visitors can take on some paid engagements. The conditions are that the engagement is completed within 30 days of arriving in the UK and that the specific requirements of the permitted paid engagement rules are satisfied. A paid job that stretches beyond that window, or that lies outside those rules, is not a Visitor activity.

Confirm each engagement against the rule before accepting payment, and record the dates and the paying party. Our permitted paid engagements page sets out the criteria.

Creative Work and the Creative Worker Route

A separate Creative Worker route exists in the Immigration Rules. ETA 1.1(f)(ii) covers an applicant seeking entry as a Creative Worker under the Temporary Work rules, and ETA 4.2(b) lets that person make repeat journeys for that purpose.

The Visitor rules, for their part, allow artists, entertainers and musicians to perform, rehearse, attend auditions and take part in promotional events. That allowance is narrower than the Creative Worker route. Paid creative work beyond those activities should be assessed against the concession. See our creative worker concession page first.

ETA or Standard Visitor Visa

Whether an ETA or a visa applies turns on nationality and purpose. Maldives sits on the ETA National List, meaning the nationality generally travels under an ETA rather than a visa, provided the Visitor purpose fits.

When the purpose, the length or the circumstances step outside Visitor territory, a visa route is the right one. Long study, employment and settlement are the usual examples. Check your position before paying for anything. The UK visa guide lists the common situations.

Schengen Is a Separate System

The UK does not belong to the Schengen Area. Its entry conditions are its own. A permission to be in a Schengen country does not authorise entry to Britain, and a UK approval does not authorise movement inside Schengen.

For a multi-stop itinerary, treat the UK segment as a distinct trip with its own approval, documents and limit on length of stay. An approval for one destination never covers another.

Criminality and Other Refusal Grounds

The rules name circumstances in which an application must be turned down. Two criminality provisions carry most weight. ETA 2.2(a) bites where a person was convicted of an offence, in the UK or overseas, and received a custodial or suspended term of at least 12 months. ETA 2.2(b) bites on any conviction, in the UK or overseas and regardless of sentence, unless 12 months or more have elapsed since conviction.

The provisions operate independently. A long sentence triggers the first, irrespective of how old the conviction is. A recent conviction triggers the second even when the penalty was small or financial. Neither should be dismissed because the penalty looked minor. Our refused and rejected applications article covers the follow-up steps.

Further grounds appear in ETA 2.3 to 2.9. They cover non-conducive conduct, specified earlier immigration breaches including certain overstays after age 18, misstatements or withheld facts, previously cancelled approvals, and earlier Visitor refusals. The rules also provide exceptions, so consult the full text before reaching a conclusion.

This page does not forecast the outcome of any application. If one of these grounds might apply to you, review the detail and seek advice before applying.

Common Application Mistakes

• Filling in the form using an identity card rather than the passport you will physically show.
• Using a passport number from a document that has since been replaced.
• Mixing up a child’s details with a parent’s, or the reverse.
• Believing a Schengen permit or another country’s approval covers the UK.
• Purchasing tickets before the confirmation message has arrived.
• Misclassifying a landside connection as airside, or vice versa.
• Paying a website that poses as an official service or claims faster results.
• Overlooking that the approval stops at passport expiry even when the approval date suggests more time.

Travel Preparation

In the weeks before leaving the Maldives, go through this list:

• Verify the passport you will carry matches the approval, including expiry.
• Store the reference number and confirmation message in a second place.
• Map each connection and mark whether it is airside or landside.
• Look up the entry arrangements for any island on your route.
• If you depend on the Irish exemption, carry the original residence document.
• For minors, pack each child’s passport and note their expiry dates.
• Write down the purpose of the visit and the planned activities.

The approval does not promise admission. The border officer decides on entry and may ask about purpose and duration.

UK ETA FAQs for Maldivian Citizens

Want more answers? Browse our UK ETA FAQs or contact us. You can also return to the eligibility checker.