Do you need a visa for a layover? Airport transit rules

Sometimes. It depends on three things: your passport, the country you change planes in, and whether you pass through passport control on the way.

If you hold a Nigerian or Ghanaian passport, the answer for Europe and the UK is usually yes, even if you never leave the airport. Both countries are on the EU’s common airport transit list and on the UK’s airside transit list. A valid visa for certain other countries can exempt you, and the lists of which ones are different in each place.

In the United States there is no transit without papers. Everyone changing planes needs a visa or an ESTA, Canadians aside.

Everything below was read on the official pages on 30 September 2026.

Airside and landside

These two words decide most of this.

Airside means you stay in the international transit area. You get off one flight and on to the next without going through passport control. UK guidance gives the example of arriving at Heathrow Terminal 3 and leaving from Terminal 5.

Landside means you go through passport control. Legally, you are entering the country, even if only for a few hours. You do that if you collect your bags, change airports, leave the airport, or your airport does not let you stay airside.

A transit visa for airside transit does not let you go landside. If your connection takes you through passport control, you need whatever someone entering the country needs.

The Schengen airport transit visa

The EU’s Visa Code defines an airport transit visa as “a visa valid for transit through the international transit areas of one or more airports of the Member States”. The European Commission puts it more simply: some nationals need one “even to simply transit through the international (non-Schengen) part of an EU airport”.

The common list

Article 3(1) of the Visa Code says nationals of the countries in its Annex IV need an airport transit visa at every Schengen airport. On the consolidated text on EUR-Lex, the one the Commission links to, Annex IV lists 12 countries:

Afghanistan	Eritrea	Iraq
Bangladesh	Ethiopia	Nigeria
DR Congo	Ghana	Pakistan
Iran	Somalia	Sri Lanka

Nigeria and Ghana are both on it.

National lists

Individual Schengen countries can add their own. The Commission publishes them in one table, individual airport transit requirements. A few examples from it:

Nationality	Countries that require an airport transit visa
Cameroon	Greece, Spain, France, Cyprus
India	Czechia, Romania
Kenya	Spain
Senegal	Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal
Turkey	Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Spain, France, Cyprus, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland
Burundi	Belgium, from 1 August 2026

Several entries carry footnotes, for example exempting service passports. Read the row for your passport and the country you connect in.

Who is exempt

Article 3(5) of the Visa Code exempts these people from the airport transit visa, whether it comes from the common list or a national one:

• (a) holders of a valid uniform visa, national long-stay visa or residence permit issued by a Member State
• (b) holders of a valid residence permit issued by an EU country that does not take part in, or does not yet fully apply, the Schengen rules, or of one of the permits listed in Annex V issued by Andorra, Canada, Japan, San Marino or the United States. For Canada that means a permanent resident card or travel document. For the United States it includes a valid Form I-551, the green card.
• (c) holders of a valid visa for such an EU country, or for Canada, Japan or the United States, when travelling to the issuing country or any other third country, or when returning from the issuing country having used the visa
• (d) family members of EU citizens
• (e) holders of diplomatic passports
• (f) flight crew who are nationals of a party to the Chicago Convention

Note what is not there. A UK visa does not exempt you from the Schengen airport transit visa. The countries named are Canada, Japan and the United States.

So a Nigerian with a valid US visa, flying Lagos to Houston through Amsterdam, does not need an airport transit visa. The same traveller flying to London through Amsterdam on a UK visa does.

When an airport transit visa is not enough

If your connection is between two Schengen airports, you are entering the Schengen area at the first one. Lagos to Berlin through Paris means passport control in Paris. That needs a full Schengen visa, not a transit one.

The United Kingdom

The UK has two transit visas. Both are on gov.uk.

	Direct Airside Transit visa	Visitor in Transit visa
For	Changing flights without going through UK border control	Going through border control and leaving within 48 hours
Fee	£41.50	£74.50
Decision	Usually within 3 weeks	Usually within 3 weeks

Who needs a Direct Airside Transit visa

The list is Schedule 1 of the Immigration (Passenger Transit Visa) Order 2014. On the current text of the Order, read on 4 October 2026, there are 70. They include Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan, Kenya, South Africa, China, Turkey, Egypt, Jamaica and Vietnam. The latest additions, Nicaragua and St Lucia, took effect on 6 March 2026.

The Home Office’s own transit guidance (version 9.0, 25 March 2026) still prints an older, shorter list that leaves out 15 of them, including Botswana, Colombia, Georgia, Jordan and Russia. The Order is the law; go by it. The full list is on our transit visa page.

Who does not

gov.uk says you do not need either transit visa if you hold a valid UK electronic travel authorisation, EU Settlement Scheme family permit, Home Office travel document, Standard Visitor visa or Marriage Visitor visa.

The same guidance lists documents that let someone from a Schedule 1 country transit airside without a visa. Among them:

• a valid visa for Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the USA. You do not have to be travelling to that country. Syrian nationals cannot use a US B1 or B2 visa for this.
• an expired visa for one of those four, if you last entered that country on a valid visa less than six months ago
• permanent residence in Australia or New Zealand, a Canadian permanent resident card, or a US green card
• a long-stay (category D) visa for an EEA state or Switzerland
• a residence permit issued by an EEA state or Switzerland
• a valid biometric visa issued by Ireland

A short-stay Schengen visa is not on that list. The documents must be originals or verifiable by the airline.

Two UK traps

Ireland is not transit. UK guidance says a person travelling on to Ireland is seeking entry to the UK, not transiting. You need a UK visa, not a transit one, unless you hold an Irish biometric visa.

ETA holders going landside. If your nationality does not need a UK visa, you still need an ETA, £20, if you pass through border control at a UK airport before your onward flight. You do not need one if you stay airside. See our UK page.

The United States

The US works differently. There is no airside exemption for passengers who stay in the airport.

The official ESTA FAQ says that nationals of Visa Waiver Program countries “require either a travel authorization or a visa to transit the United States”. The ESTA costs US$40.27 until 15 October 2026 and US$40.62 from 16 October 2026, under a Federal Register notice of 1 October 2026. It is valid for two years or until your passport expires, whichever comes first.

Most other travellers need a visa. Canadian citizens travelling on a Canadian passport do not need an ESTA, the same FAQ says. The State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual describes the transit visa, C-1, as for people in “immediate and continuous transit” through the US, with no stopover for sightseeing or visiting friends. It records that the old Transit Without Visa programme “has been suspended indefinitely”.

In practice: if you need a visa to visit the US, you need a visa to change planes there. Our US page covers the fee and the interview.

Canada

Canada’s transit page says you need a transit visa if you are from a visa-required country and your flight stops in Canada, or you connect between two international flights there. That covers a transit of 48 hours or less. If you are from an eTA-required country, you need an eTA to transit by air.

There are two exceptions, the Transit Without Visa Program and the China Transit Program. They are for passport holders of China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan who are travelling to or from the United States and meet further conditions set out by Canada. If that is you, read the conditions on canada.ca before you book. More on our Canada guide.

Self-transfer: the separate-ticket trap

Cheap routings often combine two tickets from different airlines. The first airline usually will not check your bags through to the second. So you collect them, go back to check-in, and go through security again.

To do that you must go through passport control. That is landside. UK guidance lists re-checking baggage as landside transit, and gov.uk says the Visitor in Transit visa is for people going through border control to check in luggage.

So on separate tickets:

• In the Schengen area, an airport transit visa is not enough. You need to be able to enter.
• In the UK, a Direct Airside Transit visa is not enough. You need a Visitor in Transit visa, an ETA, or another visa that lets you in.
• In the US, nothing changes. You needed a visa or ESTA anyway.

Even on one ticket, ask the airline whether your bags go through and whether your connection stays airside. gov.uk says it directly: your airline can tell you if you will go through border control.

The rules side by side

Transit through	Airside, visa-required passport	Main exemptions	Landside
Schengen	Airport transit visa if on the common list (incl. Nigeria, Ghana) or a national list	Valid visa for Canada, Japan or the US; Schengen visa or residence permit; listed residence permits	Full Schengen visa
UK	Direct Airside Transit visa, £41.50, if on Schedule 1 (incl. Nigeria, Ghana)	Valid visa for Australia, Canada, NZ or the US; EEA/Swiss residence permit or D visa; Irish biometric visa	Visitor in Transit visa, £74.50, 48 hours
US	No airside option	None	Visa (C-1 or other) or ESTA for VWP nationals
Canada	Transit visa for visa-required nationals, 48 hours or less; eTA for eTA-required nationals	Transit Without Visa or China Transit Program, for five passports on US routes	Check canada.ca

Checklist

• Find out whether your connection is airside. Ask the airline. Separate tickets usually mean landside.
• Europe. Check Annex IV and the Commission’s national table for your passport and your connecting country. Nigeria and Ghana are on the common list.
• Hold a US, Canadian or Japanese visa? It exempts you from the Schengen airport transit visa. A UK visa does not.
• UK. Check Schedule 1. A valid visa for Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the US exempts you from the DATV. A short-stay Schengen visa does not.
• Going on to Ireland through the UK? That is entry to the UK, not transit.
• US. Visa or ESTA, always. No airside exception.
• Canada. Transit visa or eTA, unless you qualify for one of the two transit programmes.
• Carry the exempting document itself, valid on the day, not a copy.
• Check again before you fly. These lists change. The date at the top of this page is when we read them.