The EU’s new Entry‑Exit System (EES) is fully operational across borders in 29 Schengen Area countries as of today (10APR), after reports of delays at airports already using the system.
The digital EES rollout across European airports began on 12OCT, 2025, replacing traditional passport stamps for non-EU travellers entering the Schengen area for less than 90 days, including those from visa-exempt countries like Canada.
The Schengen area covers a bloc of European countries with open internal borders, allowing people to travel freely between member countries without going through border controls. Ireland and Cyprus are not part of the Schengen area.
The 29 countries were given until 10APR to fully implement the system, with travellers experiencing a mixture of manual checks and biometric ones until now.
As Open Jaw previously reported, some airports have seen passport queues of five or six hours since switching to the new biometric EES system.
Back in February, Olivier Jankovec, director general of Airports Council International Europe, representing over 600 airports, told the BBC that processing times at border control had increased by "four to five times". He said travellers were waiting up to two hours on average and warned the situation could get worse over the summer. He cited machines not working properly and not enough border staff as issues with the new system.
Glitches with the initial rollout have prompted the European Commission to offer some flexibility for countries in the Schengen Area over the summer. In February, commission spokesperson Markus Lammert said member states would be able to partially suspend EES checks for up to 90 days after the 10APR deadline, with a possible 60-day extension.
The process for your clients travelling in or out of Europe as of 10APR:
- Travellers coming into contact with the system for the first time will undergo biometric registration.
- At passport control, instead of having their passport stamped, they will:
- Have their passport scanned
- Photograph taken
- Fingerprint taken (visa-exempt travellers only, children under 12 are exempt)
- Have their information verified
- Have a digital record created
- The system will then automatically calculate how many days travellers spend in the Schengen area.
