In detail: Who is exempt from Europe's EES passport checks?

In the autumn of 2024, the EU will put in place - if there are no further delays - a new border system to digitally register the data of non-EU citizens every time they enter and exit the external Schengen borders.

Passports will no longer be manually stamped, but will be scanned.

The EU Entry/Exit System (EES) aims to increase security and ensure that short-term visitors do not stay more than 90 days in any 180-day period.

You can read a full explanation of how it works HERE and see our frequently-asked-questions section HERE.

Under the system, non-EU travellers will have to register their data in an EU-wide database and, at the first crossing, fingerprints and photos will have to be taken in front of a guard.

This has caused concerns of long queues, especially in the UK, where there are juxtaposed border controls.

READ ALSO Why is the UK-France border such a problem for EES?

But many people will not need to register in the EES database.

Who will be exempt?

The general rule is that the EES will apply to travellers to European countries for no more than 90 days in any 180-day period - so that would include tourists, people visiting family or friends or second-home owners who do not have a visa.

The European Commission website lists the groups of people who will not need to register with the EES.

These include;

• Citizens of a European Union country or Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland - this includes dual nationals, but they would have to be travelling on their EU/EEA passport in order to benefit.
• Citizens of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino and holders of a passport issued by the Vatican or the Holy See
• Non-EU nationals who hold residence permits and long-stay visas
• Non-EU nationals who are family members of EU citizens and hold a residence card
• Non-EU nationals who are family members of non-EU citizens who have free movement rights and hold a residence card or a residence permit.

For clarity, EU rules consider family members in this context a spouse, a registered partner if the applicable legislation treats registered partnerships as equivalent to marriage, direct descendants who are under the age of 21 or are dependants, those of the spouse or the registered partner, dependent direct relatives in the ascending line, as well as those of the spouse or registered partner.

The rules are clear that non EU/EEA citizens will be be required to complete EES registration, but among the exempt groups of non-EU citizens, probably the biggest group is non-EU citizens who are resident in an EU country with a visa or residency card - for example Brits living in Spain, Americans living in Italy, Canadians living in France etc.

Also excluded from the EES are;

• Persons exempt from border controls, such as cross-border workers, or with certain benefits regarding border checks, such as heads of State, heads of government, members of national government with accompanying spouses, members of their official delegation, sovereigns and other senior members of a royal family
• 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 under the EU blue card
• Those holding a valid local border traffic permit which allows regular crossings from certain bordering EU external regions (e.g. between Ceuta and Melilla and the Moroccan provinces of Tetuan and Nador)
• Crew members of passenger and goods trains on international connecting journeys
• Persons holding a Facilitated Rail Transit Document or Facilitated Transit Document (for people who must cross the territory of one or more EU countries in order to travel between two parts of their own country, e.g. for the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea), as long as they travel by train and do not disembark anywhere within an EU member state.

Which countries will use EES?

The EES will be used by 29 European countries; 25 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) and the 4 Schengen associated countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).

EES is only used at EU external borders - travel within the EU or Schengen zone (eg between Spain and Sweden, or France and Switzerland or Italy and Germany) does not involve EES. It's only when crossing an EU/Schengen zone external border that the checks are required.

However guidance provided by the EU border agency Frontex for air, sea and land carriers, which will be responsible for some of the checks, provides details on some geographical exemptions.

Ireland and Cyprus are EU members that do not use the EES. Visitors to these countries will not need to register in the EES, but if they travel from there to Schengen countries they will.

The same applies to Norway’s Svalbard and Finland’s Aland Islands.

Visitors from outside the EU to Greenland and the Faroe Islands will be checked against the EES, but this won’t be needed when travelling to and from other EU and Schengen countries. The same applies to the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish territories where the Schengen visa policy applies. Travellers from a third country to Ceuta or Melilla, as well as from either town to Spain or any other European country that uses the EES, will be checked against the database. Travellers from EES countries to these territories, however, will not.

The French overseas territories - including Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint-Martin - are not part of Schengen zone, so the EES will not apply but visitors will be checked when travelling from there to EES countries. The same applies for the Netherlands' overseas territories. 

You can find more detail on EES and its application in our EES passport checks section.