European Entry/Exit System (EES)
 

As this is about to happen, I thought I'd start with the official EU website for the system. Travel in Europe with the European Entry/Exit System (EES)
Obviously search engines return a slew of stuff based on speculation.

Once in operation, if those with experience could feedback that would be great.

Kicks in on the 12th - expect media meltdown on the 13th................

Indeed ... all and any political views that emerge in here will be removed and posters locked in the toilet.

I wonder if this system will deter unwanted visits from British relatives? One can but hope!

Why? The UK has had it's equivalent in place for many months.

As my immigration experiences at Amsterdam and Lisbon these past months have been abysmal, I can only see this adding to their appalling performance unfortunately. Next visit to Lisbon in 3 weeks time so will soon find out!

Largely because the numbers of foreign passengers arriving by surface modes (ferry, Eurotunnel and rail) are comparatively low into UK and I don't believe the UK system requires registration of finger prints prior to going through the immigration desk.

It is the surface modes that will attract media attention as French border controls are carried out at Folkestone and Dover for Eurotunnel and ferry traffic meaning that any disruption will be very obvious if it spills on to the M20 and roads approaching Dover.

Isn't the current UK system more akin to the much delayed ETIAS system than the EEA procedure coming in next week?

Newspapers are giving fairly good advice but one radio report (I read a transcript) did not make clear that the delay is only the first registration and then valid for three years. Our first visit to Schengen will be in late February, so matters should have settled in a bit.

I was pleased to read this in The Independent:

An article yesterday in Travel Trade Gazette said that only 35% of people booked to travel after EES comes in are aware of it.

The 65% are likely to cause the issue not the system itself.

I am British, I live in France and have a Carte de Séjour. The face recognition photo and the taking of finger prints for that were exactly the same as for the EES. British people should be pleased that these requirements are there to protect, not only the whole of Europe, but, by extension also the UK. What's the problem?

It's the 65% in front of you that I would worry about .....

It won't affect me, as I have an EU passport, but I expect LHR to go into meltdown. It only just functions as it is.

I travel through T2 and T3 often and rarely experience any issues unlike airports such as Lisbon and Amsterdam which are horrendous

Like Bergerie1 I have a valid Resident's Card and from careful trawling of official websites, my UK passport should serve me for entry into the UK and my Carte de Resident for entry back into France. I think the problem will be exacerbated by ignorance (not necessarily intentional or cultural) by UK passport holders and the physical need to exit one's vehicle and interact with a machine where there is a high volume of passing traffic and very little geographical space to park vehicles whilst the procedure is being carried out .... for example the Port of Dover.

Many holidaymakers or irregular travellers wanting to go to, or through, Europe, do not realise that since Brexit a great deal has changed ..; certain newspapers regularly run sob stories about folk who were refused boarding because their passport had a validity of more than 10 years ... and whilst ignorance is no defence, the UK Government should be 'protecting' their nationals who wish to leave the UK for 'the continent' by informing them more clearly (and regularly) of the changes underway.

We are flying back from the US with KLM on Monday evening arriving in Amsterdam on Tuesday afternoon with a 1hour 25 minutes transfer time to Teesside. If we are on time all should be fine, however, if delayed we shall take it as it comes. My wife has a Dutch passport and I am UK but have never had any problems with Schiphol.
Not really a third world problem, some seem to be looking for problems, a little bit of knowledge and research is always useful.

If your wife has a Dutch Passport and you've been married a while, you too can have a Dutch Passport. EU Entry problems solved!

Dutch is Schengen, you won't have to enter via the EU channel. I think it's only Ireland that is EU but not Schengen (because of the CTA with the UK). I'm not an expert, I stand to be corrected.

My next flight out of Mainland UK is to....Jersey. will I be affected??
Tongue in Cheek Emoji...

I think you are correct. The pre-Brexit situation was that both the UK and Ireland were outside of the Schengen area, so perhaps even without Brexit, UK passport holders would still have needed to go through some sort of entry/exit check.

EES applies to EFTA states too, so a pre-Brexit UK would have been inside the tent, and indeed when the UK was inside the tent we were supporters of EES (because our government loves hugely over engineered, unnecessarily complex and impractical IT projects).

Justapax, lived and worked in NL for 42 years and being married for 40 years next month. Never thought about a Dutch passport, being a Brit, yet might be worth considering, thanks.

zed

List of exemptions is finally available..since there has been a few confusions about it

To whom does the EES not apply? (European Union Website)

• Nationals of the European countries using the EES, as well as Cyprus and Ireland
• Non-EU nationals who hold a residence card and are immediately related to an EU national
• Non-EU nationals who hold a residence card or a residence permit and are immediately related to a non-EU national who can travel throughout Europe like an EU citizen
• Non-EU nationals travelling to Europe as part of an intra-corporate transfer or for the purposes of research, studies, training, voluntary service, pupil exchange schemes or educational projects and au-pairing
• Holders of residence permits and long-stay visas
• Nationals of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino and holders of a passport issued by the Vatican City State or the Holy See
• People exempt from border checks or who have been granted certain privileges with respect to border checks (such as heads of state, accredited diplomats, cross-border workers, etc.). Diplomats travelling on short stay may be exempt from EES registration under certain conditions.
  
  The exception from registration in the EES apply to members of the armed forces travelling on NATO or Partnership for Peace business, who hold an identification and individual or collective movement order provided for by the Agreement between the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty regarding the Status of their Forces and may apply to civilian component or dependents referred to in the NATO Status of Forces Agreement.
• People not required to cross external borders solely at border crossing points and during fixed opening hours
• People holding a valid local border traffic permit
• Crew members of passenger and goods trains on international connecting journeys
• People holding a valid Facilitated Rail Transit Document or valid Facilitated Transit Document, provided they travel by train and do not disembark anywhere within the territory of an EU Member State

Do you have a valid residence permit? If so, you qualify through having lived in the Netherlands for more than 15 years and having been married to a Dutch citizen for more than three years. https://ind.nl/en/dutch-citizenship/...through-option .

You don't even need to talk to an immigration lawyer. It all looks very straightforward.

Justapax/Zed3

A friend meets all the requirements for a Dutch passport - as you do - except for the Dutch language qualification... He found it easier to get a Greek passport - and therefore EU passport - having lived on one of the islands for a number of years with no necessity to learn Greek, than to hang onto his Dutch connection through his wife and go down that route.

S

Sounds like it got off to a bad start, then sorted itself out.
In Prague, at least....
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/...stem_launches/

At Prague certainly. However the UK media has not said a sausage about delays at the UK border at St Pancras, Dover or Eurotunnel suggesting, perhaps, that with a few exceptions to soft roll out is working OK.

What Brits need to understand is that the UK were four square behind EES and ETIAS when we were inside the block, and any disruption to our travel is a consequence of our decision. I don't want to see whinging from politicians here because of inconvenience they responsible for.

Possibly more to the point, what's all thjis about France requiring UK citizens to have mandtory health insurance effective about now? I've heard it from travel industry colleaues but seen nothing in the media. If true and it's actually applied/checked it's going to come as one heck of a nasty surprise to 98% of the travelling public at the border.

Thats news to me, certainly didn't see anything on the Eurotunnel website last time a looked which was a few days ago. I'd have thought that the UK replacement for the EHIC would suffice and anyone who travels without that is certainly taking a big risk.

I arrived at Hamburg on 12th expecting to go through an electronic gate but had my UK passport manually stampted - no queue at all. No fingerprinting. There was a queue outbound, yesterday, 14th, but not too bad. I did see some pre-registration gates but they were not in service.

Presumably the system is being rolled out over time - and if you get a manual stamp you will not to be manually stampted out.

I received an e-mail saying that Eurostar (and presumably French airports) will adhere to French regulations requiring you to have insurance, hotel details and a return ticket (how will airline staff cope)? I'm not sure how this will be enforced - either a simple yes/no answer or having to provide evidence (which I wouldn't have thought possible without completed snarling the system). My sister lives in Switzerland which is in the Schengen zone so I suppose that I could always give her address.

It's called a 'UK Global Health Insurance Card' now, and the first two things it says on the back of the card are:
- This card may not cover the full cost of treatment abroad
- Make sure you have valid travel insurance

Ignore these at your peril.

I have one, when I wrote my post I couldn't immediately find my wallet with it in!!

We have travelled in NW Europe for years just on the EHIC / UKHIC, had to use local health services a couple of times but nothing major and just paid the fees due. If we travel further afield we take insurance, we currently have annual cover for 2025/6.

My issue with travel insurance is in our experience, as with all insurances, companies are far to reluctant to pay claims having readily snapped up the premium. That and as independent travellers they bundle in loads of stuff that we just don't need.

Agreed. Insurers add a long list of very rare events to make it look like more and the list + values change each year. I have been lucky with a particular company when I have needed help down route but it is not cheap.

Just entered via Helsinki All entry machines out of order or switched off!!!

Can I recommend the travel insurance that comes with the Nationwide Flexplus account. It costs £18 per month for a couple, gives you worldwide cover, with no upper age limit. As always, you have to declare existing medical conditions, which may require an additional payment. Crucially, once you have taken out the policy, you do not have to declare any new medical conditions that may develop over the next twelve months. I just run the account alongside my existing account with another bank.
Here ends the commercial!

Thanks Wowzz I will look at that. Rather 'amusingly' half an hour ago, my regular and long term travel insurer eamiled a warning of the day I turn 70 - that they will no longer insure me. No alternative offered! As they have been very good with both an illness and a severley delayed travel claim, I would have considered paying a supplement.

They're rolling the new system out slowly - I think its pretty much restricted to Bus passengers using the Chunnel /ferries this week for France. They have to get out of the coach anyway

Then they're gradually extending it over the next few months

I had NW cover, problem is that chuck in a couple of long term health problems in the cardio vascular department and they don't really want to know. While I have no issues sadly Mrs ATN is not so fortunate.

Sorry - I don't understand. What do you mean by " no risk without many many months forewarning'' ?

I agree that such issues are obviously going to cause problems. I'm assuming that you can get cover elsewhere but at a cost ?
Perhaps the NW cover is good value because they do not insure those with conditions such as your wife's, thus in effect cherry picking low risk customers.

Lets stay on subject - start another insurance thread? Unless you all want to hear details of everyone's medical conditions in grim detail.:yuk:

Just reentered EU at Porto. Again all machines switched off but no queues and through immigration in 2 minutes.