The Schengen Entry Exit System (EES) – A Step Forward in the Digital Age

Posted on November 19, 2025November 22, 2025 by Angie Weinberger

A Guest Post by Eve Duvoy, Swiss Immigration Expert and Global Mobility Manager

Reading posts on social media in the past few weeks, I sensed a wave of panic among travellers to a Schengen Area country from mid-October 2025. The cause? The introduction of the Entry/Exit System (EES) at the Schengen area’s frontiers.

I see questions like “I have an EU and a non-EU passport, will I have to register both passports with the EES?”, or “I’m travelling to Italy with a one-hour connection at Schiphol, I’m afraid I will miss my second plane because of the EES control!”.

Let me explain what the EES really is, who is impacted, and what changes it could bring to travelling habits.

I’ll start with a quick reminder of the geographical coverage of the Schengen area: all EU countries except Ireland and Cyprus are Schengen member states, along with the 4 EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). If you are more of a visual profile, you may want to have a look at the map at the end of this article.

Border controls at the Schengen area frontiers existed well before the rollout of the Entry/Exit System. They just stamped your passport.

Border guards checked the traveller’s identity, the travel documents, and the dates of entry into and exit from the Schengen area. They could see whether the 90/180-day rule was respected by spotting the entry and exit dates in the passport.

What’s new is how authorities now execute this control: it progressively becomes fully automated and is based on the collection of “biometric data to track stay durations and detect visa overstays more effectively”. So that’s the first thing to understand: self-service systems are now being deployed in airports, train stations, harbours, so that these controls can happen digitally, and the plan is that all Schengen frontiers will be equipped by 10 April 2026.

The second thing to grasp is the effect of this fully automated digital recording of data: because the information will be tracked in the system, all entry and exit dates will be accessible in one place, and the duration of the authorised stay will be easily calculated, and overstays will be immediately flagged.

The EES aims at managing border management in a more secure and more efficient way: with biometric data that reduces the risk of identity fraud, great calculation potential that gives accurate results, and automation that shortens waiting times at border control desks. Travelling history will be captured: previous stays, overstays or entry denials will be recorded, rendering compliance with the Schengen regulation easier to track.

Are you affected by the EES?

It’s easier to answer this question with who is NOT subject to the EES checks: EU/EFTA Nationals or people having legal residency (granted through residence permit or long-term visa) in one of the 29 Schengen area countries. And a few exceptions such as Heads of States, accredited diplomats, or cross-border workers. If none of these situations apply to you, then you are impacted by EES.

What will happen to you?

When you first cross the Schengen border after October 12, 2025, your biometric data (your fingerprints and a facial picture) will be collected at a border kiosk. This will happen only once. Entry and exit data will be recorded each time you will come into or out of the Schengen area, allowing for tracking of your 90-day limit on a rolling 180-day period.

But what can possibly happen during the rollout phase (October 2025 – April 2026)?

First, you could cross the border at a location where no self-service kiosk is operational yet. In that case, you will go on with the manual process and get one more stamp in your passport. What a happy moment for stamp lovers and collectors, who can finally get their last specimens!

Then, let’s face it: there could be long queues at the self-service systems if the IT capacity becomes saturated. But you never know when a good surprise might come along, and maybe it will work perfectly when you cross the border!

While errors could occur, border guards should show understanding and be supportive.

And what will happen in the long term?

Eventually, queues should become shorter when the system has reached cruising speed. The volume of biometric data collected once only (the facial image and the fingerprints) will decrease with time and travellers will become used to the technology.

Be certain that border guards won’t disappear. Although the EES will record your ID and traveller’s data, you may be requested to explain the purpose of your stay and show supporting evidence. Again, the EES is only meant to automate and make the controls more fluid and accurate. But some situations may require explanation and argumentation: border guards will be your contact person then. Imagine you have obtained a discretionary grace period that was not captured by the EES: you’ll be glad you can speak to a human person!

What’s the best way to prepare? A few pieces of advice to occasional/frequent travellers and to Global Mobility teams or Corporate Travel teams

Educate yourself or your travellers: prepare them with a digest of the changes coming with the implementation of the EES and what could happen during the transition phase
Expect errors: the rollout of a new system has never ever been flawless, bugs happen and get fixed
Keep tracking the days in a travel diary: in the end an instant report will be accessible from the EES platform, but in the meantime the Schengen calculator remains the best option
Keep up to date with developments: check official news releases, collect experience from travellers in your environment who can share valuable experiences
Be ready for the unexpected: all Schengen countries implement the system at a different pace and this could show during the transition, and who knows if the EES will be fully live at the due date in April 2026?

And with that, keep calm and travel compliantly!

References:

Official website of the European Union, What is the EES? – EES

Visasnews, site sourcing information from foreign ministries, embassies and consulates, Visas, EES, ETIAS: the new digital era of the Schengen area – VisasNews

Calculator of travel days provided by the European Union, Schengen calculator

About the Author

Eve Duvoy relocated from Paris, France, to Zurich, Switzerland, in September 2024. She says that Global Mobility has shaped her life, not only because she is a Global Mobility professional, but also because she was an expat and has lived and worked in various countries in Europe, including the UK and Belgium, as well as in Asia, such as China and Japan. Thanks to that, she has an acute vision of the assignee’s challenges, and this awareness has acted as a compass in her role as Global Mobility Manager. After several years of experience as a Global Mobility Manager at Danone – a major food company in France – she is now a consultant helping companies manage their employees’ moves and other forms of work abroad.