The Entry/Exit System (EES) is the EU's electronic record of non-EU travelers making short stays in the 29 countries of the Schengen area. It started in phases on 12 October 2025 and became fully operational on 10 April 2026, when it replaced the stamping of passports at those countries' external borders. Instead of an ink stamp, the system stores your passport details, the date and place of each entry and exit, a photo of your face and, if you don't need a visa, four fingerprints.
The timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 12 October 2025 | Progressive start of operations at the external borders of the 29 countries |
| 12 October 2025 to 9 April 2026 | Six months of phased roll-out; stamps and electronic records ran side by side |
| 10 April 2026 | Fully operational at all external border crossing points; manual stamping abolished; the automated stay calculator and the list of overstayers start working |
During the phased months, not every crossing point collected fingerprints and photos right away, so some travelers who crossed then may not have been registered. From 10 April 2026, everyone covered by the system is.
Who it applies to
The EES applies if you are a non-EU national traveling for a short stay to one of the countries using it, and you either hold a short-stay visa or don't need a visa for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. EU citizens aren't registered.
Exemptions apply, for example to some holders of residence documents, to certain family members of EU citizens, and to UK nationals covered by the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement who hold one of its specific residence documents. The official EES site keeps the full list; check it if you think you may be exempt.
What happens at the border
The first time you cross after the system started, expect a longer stop:
- Your passport is scanned.
- A photo of your face is taken.
- If you don't need a visa, four fingerprints are scanned. If you have a short-stay visa, only your face is stored, because your fingerprints were already taken for the visa.
- Children under 12 currently don't have their fingerprints scanned.
Refuse the photo or fingerprints and you'll be refused entry. On later crossings, the system checks you against the record it already holds.
Some crossings have self-service kiosks where you register before you see an officer. To use them you need a biometric passport, the kind with a chip. You don't need one to cross: valid non-biometric passports are still accepted at a staffed desk.
What it stores, and for how long
| Record | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Each entry, exit and refusal of entry | 3 years from the date it was made |
| Your personal file | 3 years and 1 day from your last exit (or refusal) |
| Your file if no exit was recorded | 5 years from the day your authorized stay ran out |
When the period ends, the data is erased automatically. You have the right to ask for access to your data and to have it corrected or deleted if it's wrong or unlawfully processed, through the data controller in any of the countries using the system.
What it means for the 90/180 rule
The rule hasn't changed: 90 days in any 180-day period, counted as one total across all the countries, with arrival and departure days counted in full. What changed is who does the arithmetic. The EES works out your remaining days automatically and flags anyone who stays too long. See the 90/180 rule explained for how the count works, and what happens if you overstay for the consequences.
You have the right to ask border officers how long you can still stay, and the EU's official EES site has an online tool for it. You can also run your own dates through the free Schengen calculator.
The end of Schengen stamps, and your own travel record
For travelers who liked flicking through a passport full of stamps, this is a quiet loss. Since 10 April 2026, a week in Italy leaves no mark in your passport, and the EES record isn't something you can browse as a keepsake.
If stamps were how you remembered your trips, start a record of your own now: keep boarding passes, note crossing dates, and make sure your iPhone saves where each photo was taken. How to remember every place you've traveled covers the options, and turning passport stamps into a travel map covers the stamps you already have. Globestamp draws a stamp for every country after its real entry stamp, and you can browse them all on the stamps page.
EES and ETIAS are different things
ETIAS, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, is a separate scheme: an online travel authorization that visa-exempt travelers will need to apply for before a trip. As of 13 November 2026, the European Commission says ETIAS is not yet in operation and no applications are being collected, and that the EU will announce its start date several months before launch. So for now, a website offering to file an ETIAS application for you is not an official EU channel. The EES, by contrast, needs no application: it happens at the border.