
European travellers coming to the UK after 1 October 2021

European travellers coming to the UK will no longer be able to enter the country using the photo ID cards from 1 October 2021. The accepted document for Europeans will be passport instead. The same will apply to students holding EU, EEA, or Swiss national ID cards meaning that they require to have a valid passport, a document they will have to apply for and pay a fee to obtain it. The decision is especially relevant to the British ELT sector, whose members are particularly worried that the change will affect enrolments from EU juniors.
On a positive note, students will still be able to enter using ID cards in the summer of 2021 that is usually the peak season in enrolments for short-term junior programmes. 2020 has been hard for ELT businesses due to the pandemic and the delaying of the removal of ID as a travel document until October is a piece of good news.
The change of the ID cards to passports as permitted entry documents for students would come sooner but the campaign conducted by English UK resulted in the later date. The main intention was to protect ID cards for EU juniors altogether, but the proposal did not go through and the government acknowledged the importance of summer 2021 for the ELT sector and pushed the date to autumn.
English UK stated that it will continue to call for policies that make travelling to the UK and the cost of obtaining passports easier for junior students.
The idea which is being explored for juniors to travel without passports would be to use collective passports. These type of passports were agreed in a 1961 Council of Europe treaty by up to 18 European countries and it might be a cost-effective option for groups. It is being considered at the moment.
Several politicians from different parties voted against the removal of ID cards and warned that the ELT industry which currently accounts for about 35,000 jobs in the UK might struggle to survive the combination of Brexit and COVID-19.
Nearly 200,000 young people come to study English in the UK annually. The majority are European schoolchildren travelling with their schools and colleges using national ID cards. By allowing only passports as a document to travel to the UK, the parents of those students will be choosing between purchasing passports or not sending their children abroad. The final result might be that many European schools will choose a different country such as Malta or Ireland.
Many language schools have a long history and if there is a decrease in the numbers of students, they will struggle to keep their doors opened.
Views on how the situation will affect the enrolments after autumn 2021 are mixed among agents. However, there seems to be enough time to prepare students and their families to obtain travel documents.
Besides the ID cards, the ELT sector is hoping for no more obstacles in its recovery from the pandemic in 2021. Brexit and the immigration have been a concern but the UK government provided some hope with the announcement that all travellers, including students, can now enter on the same type of visitor’s visa and stay and study for up to six months. This is really positive for the industry as it should make the system simpler for students who enrol for short study programmes, juniors and group mini stays.