Romania: passport and entry requirements
Romania joined the Schengen area in 2025, so a UK family now visits visa-free on the same passport rules as the rest of the bloc, with the EU's new digital entry checks taken at the border.
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Your passport
Every passport has to have been issued less than ten years before the day you arrive, and still have at least three months left on it after the day you leave. The ten-year test mainly affects passports renewed early, before September 2018, when the extra months added on at renewal don't count towards the ten years. Go through each family member's passport as you book, whatever their age, since children's passports run for five years against an adult's ten and rarely expire together. Renew any that are getting close, as it takes a few weeks to come through.
Getting in
There's no visa for a holiday, and you can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Romania joined Schengen in 2025, so those days are now part of the shared allowance across the whole area, most of the EU plus a few neighbours, rather than a clock of its own. It only comes into play if you're in Europe for long or repeated spells within the same six months.
On arrival you're registered on EES, the EU's entry and exit system, which records your photo and fingerprints digitally in place of a passport stamp. It's free, takes a few minutes and the record lasts three years.
ETIAS, a pre-travel authorisation the EU plans to bring in, isn't running yet and has no confirmed start date, so there's nothing to apply for now. When it starts it'll cost €20 (last checked August 2026) and last three years, and under-18s won't pay the fee, though each traveller still needs their own.
If you're crossing by land or across the Danube into a neighbouring Schengen country like Bulgaria or Hungary, keep passports to hand.
Every child needs their own passport, however young, since none can travel on a parent's. Under-12s aren't fingerprinted for EES, though border staff can still take their photo. When ETIAS starts each child needs their own too, and under-18s won't pay the fee. If you're leaving Romania with a child who's a Romanian national, carry paperwork showing the other parent's consent, which border staff can ask to see.
Official sources
Last checked 11 August 2026. Passport and entry rules change, so always confirm on GOV.UK before you book or travel.
