New entry rules will come into force from October 12 but it will take several months for the system to be fully rolled out
UK tourists could face ‘double red tape’ at the EU border from next year(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)
British holidaymakers could face ‘double red tape’ at the EU border from next year as the Entry/Exit System (EES) rolls out across the Schengen Area.
UK tourists will start experiencing changes when travelling to Europe from October 12, when the scheme comes into effect across 29 countries.
The EES will require British travellers to have their fingerprints and photograph taken when they first enter the Schengen area. This will then create a digital record which will be valid for three years.
At first the scheme will be phased in gradually, so depending on which country you’re travelling to you may not experience the full EES checks right away. While it is being rolled out British travellers will continue to have their passports stamped.
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The aim of the scheme is to tighten up border security and to monitor how long UK travellers and other third-country nationals spend in the EU – as this is limited to stays of 90 days in an 180 day period.
UK travellers will have to have their fingerprints and photographs taken at the EU border as new entry rules come into force (Image: Ethan Wilkinson/Pexels)
According to the European Union, the EES is set to be “fully operational” from April 2026.
But travel journalist Simon Calder has explained the finer details of the rollout in The Independent. He explains that for the first 60 days of the scheme it will not be mandatory for each frontier post to collect the “biometric elements – face and fingerprints– for the first 60 days”.
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From December these will become mandatory and member states will have to operate the EES at “a minimum of half of their border crossing points”. He warned that come January 2026 British travellers will face “double red tape” at the border, with both biometrics being taken and passports being stamped as well.
By April 9 passport stamping should cease, and the roll-out of the entry-exit system will be complete.
However, Calder reveals that if queues build up in the Schengen area, the checks can be reduced to just one in 10 travellers, at the discretion of local immigration officials.
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