The Entry/Exit System will become fully operational on 10 April 2026

The EU's new Entry/Exit System (EES) started operations on 12 October 2025 with a progressive roll-out in 29 European countries. As of 10 April 2026, the EES will become fully operational. The system will replace passport stamping with digitally recorded entries, exits or refusals of entry of non-EU nationals coming for short stays. Travellers' facial image, fingerprints and personal data from the travel document will be also recorded.

Early results from the progressive roll-out of the EES

Since the EES started, over 45 million border crossings were registered when travellers entered or left a European country using the system. Over 24 000 people had been refused entry for different reasons, such as not appropriate justification of their visit, expired or fraudulent documents. The system also helped identify over 600 people who posed a security risk to Europe. They were refused entry and recorded in the system. As a result, if they attempt to enter another European county using the system, border authorities will be able to see their previous refusal of entry.

Thanks to the biometric data collected by the EES, identity fraud can now be detected more easily. At each border crossing, travellers' fingerprints and facial images are now checked against biometrics stored in the system. Schengen countries have reported several cases where travellers who attempted to cross with different identifies were detected. Most recently in Romania, when border guards collected the biometric data of a traveller revealed that the same person was using two different identities with two separate documents issued under another name. Further investigations showed that this person had already been denied the entry to the Schengen area for three times by different Member States. Without biometric identification through the EES, this case of identity fraud would likely have gone undetected. These early results confirm the importance of the Entry/Exit System for the security of Europe's external borders.

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Entry/Exit System (EES)

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