Navigating the New Normal: Understanding Europe’s Entry-Exit System Part 1

This November (a precise date remains to be confirmed, with 10 or 17 November being the most likely), the Entry-Exit System (EES), Europe's digital automated IT system for registering the entry and exit of non-EU nationals travelling to Europe for short stays, will finally become operational.

While the EU’s smart borders have been in preparation for a long time, discussions with businesses and individuals show that not everyone understands their implications and is ready for these changes.

This blog series provides a look at what you need to know, with Part 1 focusing on an overview of EES and the importance of compliance and Part 2 focusing on travel considerations related to the new system.

What is the EES and how does it affect future travel to Europe?

The EES is an automated IT system which will register non-EU travellers travelling to the Schengen area for short stays, both those who are required to obtain an entry visa (holders of a Schengen C visa) and those who are exempt from this requirement and can travel based on their passport (such as UK, US and Japanese nationals).

It will only apply to short-term travel, not to long-term visa holders who arrive, for example, for work or study. The EES will record some basic biographical information and data (name, travel document, fingerprints and captured facial images) each time a traveller crosses an external border of the Schengen area, as well as the date and place of entry and exit.

The EES will replace the current system of manual passport stamping at the border and will make it much easier to detect so-called “overstayers,” (i.e., travellers who have exceeded the maximum length of their authorised stay). It will also check whether the person presenting themselves to the border guard is who they say they are and whether they have been refused entry or have overstayed in the past.

Regardless of whether you need a visa or not to travel to the Schengen Area, the new system will change the recording of your movements from a paper version (stamping) to an online check and will collect the additional biometric data outlined above.

The system will not apply to EU citizens entering or leaving the Schengen Area with their EU passport, nor to categories of people who can travel in a similar way to EU/EEA citizens. These are, for example, non-EU nationals holding a residence permit, or a long stay visa issued by an EU country, or other special categories of persons to whom specific rules apply, as explained below.

How long can you stay in the Schengen Area?

There are generally two groups of short-term travellers in the Schengen area: those who require a visa and those who can travel without a visa, based on their valid passport.

If you have a Schengen C visa, you can see the allowable duration of stay directly on your visa sticker. A visa is limited to a certain number of days from the date of entry. This should not be confused with the overall validity of a visa, which can be several years. If you have a multiple-entry visa, it is also important to track your days to ensure compliance. The ESS will be able to extract data from the Visa Information System (VIS). It is therefore able to identify which visa you have, including the number of days you can spend in Schengen. Based on the entry/exit monitoring the EES will be able to assess how many of these days have been consumed already.

If you are a national of a visa-exempt country, you can stay in the Schengen area based on your valid passport for up to 90 days in any 180-day rolling period for business, tourism or other purposes. This is called the Schengen allowance and should be tracked carefully to avoid overstaying. Many travellers either forget about this limit or miscalculate their remaining days.

For this group, it is particularly important to be vigilant now that the new system reinforces the monitoring of overstays. An automated Entry/Exit System (EES) calculator will allow travellers to work out exactly how many days they have left. Travellers will also be able to inquire with border guards upon entry how many days they are still left in the Schengen Area. Pre-travel planning will be crucial.

The IT system will not record any movement prior to its implementation date, but only entry/exit and remaining future travel day allowances following this date. Persons who entered before that date will therefore be first recorded on exit.

For the first six months of operation, the calculator will consider the first day of entry as the first day in Schengen and will not automatically flag any overstay - even if it occurred. However, it is possible that during the first six months, border guards manually check whether an overstay has occurred or not based on previous entry and exit stamps in the passport.

What about non-compliance? 

Depending on the individual circumstances, overstayers are registered in the Schengen Information System, face fines and may be banned from entering the Schengen area for up to several years.  

Diplomatic missions may decide to refuse to issue a long-stay visa to an applicant with a VIS overstay record. This applies to both short-stay visa-required and visa-exempt nationalities.

In addition, persons who apply for a Schengen C visa in one Schengen country and then enter or exit the area frequently from another country, will be easily detected. The new system will make this practice, known as "visa shopping," more visible and easier to monitor. While individuals may indeed apply for the Schengen C visa in a country other than their first country of entry to Schengen, they should be aware of the rules governing this practice to ensure compliance.

Information collected by the EES will be kept for three years from the date of entry or exit. However, for family members of EU nationals, the retention period is limited to one year. If no exit data is recorded, the person is flagged as an overstayer in the EES after the authorised stay has expired and this information will be kept for five years. Persons flagged as overstayers have the right to request the deletion of their data if they can prove that their overstay was due to unforeseen circumstances.

Need to know more?

Please contact Fragomen Consulting Europe at [email protected] for any questions related to the EES and stay tuned for Part 2 in this blog series to be published in the coming weeks.

This blog was published on 1 October 2024, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram.