The Entry/Exit System and what your phone can do about it

What the EES records, and where

The official Travel to Europe site describes the EES as an automated system that registers non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay, up to 90 days in any 180-day period, each time they cross the external borders of the countries using it. It stores personal data from your travel document, the date and place of each entry and exit, your facial image and fingerprints, and any refusal of entry. It applies whether you need a short-stay visa or not.

The 29 countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Cyprus and Ireland keep stamping passports by hand. Among those exempt are citizens of these countries, of Cyprus and Ireland, nationals of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, holders of Vatican passports, and holders of residence permits and long-stay visas; the official list is longer.

What happens at the border

On your first crossing under the EES, your passport is scanned and your facial image is taken. Visa-free travellers also give four fingerprints; visa holders only have their face recorded, because their fingerprints are already on file from the visa application. The official site says that, for now, children under 12 do not have their fingerprints scanned, and that refusing to give your biometric data means being refused entry. On later trips the officer usually verifies what is already stored rather than collecting it again.

Travellers with a biometric passport can use automated border control gates where they exist. Some countries also run National Facilitation Programmes for frequent visitors. And the EES keeps count of your days: the Travel to Europe website, travel-europe.europa.eu, has an online tool to check how many days you still have in the 90 out of 180, which is far easier than counting stamps.

The Travel to Europe app: what it does

Frontex, the EU's border agency, publishes a free app called Travel to Europe in the App Store and Google Play. It lets non-EU travellers pre-register their passport data and facial image, and in some places fill in the entry questionnaire, before reaching the border. It is voluntary for travellers, and each country decides whether, where and how to use it, so the features vary. The app's own FAQ says it works at selected border crossing points; the official EES website keeps the list of countries using it.

Three limits are worth knowing. Fingerprints cannot be pre-registered: they are taken at the border in front of an officer. Pre-registration does not guarantee entry and does not replace the passport check. And if you only stay in the international transit area of an airport, you are not registered in the EES and should not pre-register for that country. If your journey stops in two Schengen countries, the country of arrival is the first one where you cross the external border.

What your phone needs for the app

• A biometric passport, the kind with a chip.
• A phone with NFC, which the app uses to read the passport chip, and a front camera for the live selfie.
• An internet connection to submit the journey.
• A little time: you can create a journey up to 7 days before travelling and submit it at the earliest 72 hours before.

The FAQ adds practical tips. The chip can be on the photo page, the cover or between pages, so move the phone slowly over the passport until reading starts; a thick phone case can get in the way. A slow connection can make the passport or selfie step fail. The PIN you set cannot be recovered, and reinstalling the app erases its data, so turn on biometric login if offered. You can add co-travellers to the same journey. After submitting, the app may show a QR code that border staff can ask for, so keep it reachable without data, as in keeping travel documents offline.

Your data, and deleting it

According to the app's FAQ, your passport data and facial image are stored in a backend run by Frontex and its service provider and deleted automatically after 7 days. Once you submit a journey, the data goes to the border authorities of the country you selected, which store it in their national system; journeys you never submit are deleted after 7 days. If you travel again within those 7 days, you only retake the selfie.

To clear everything on the phone, the FAQ points to Settings, Local data, Delete local data; to remove one traveller, open the Journeys section and select their profile. If you lose the phone after submitting, the data has already reached the authorities; if you had not submitted, it is deleted after 7 days, and you can simply go through the normal border check.

EES or ETIAS: two different systems

The EES happens at the border and applies to every non-EU short-stay visitor, visa holders included. ETIAS is an online travel authorisation for visa-exempt nationals, needed before boarding once it is in operation, for the Schengen countries and Cyprus. You apply on the official ETIAS website or app, fill in a form and pay a fee, from which travellers under 18 and over 70 are exempt. It is valid for three years or until your passport expires. The official site says ETIAS asks for no health information or biometrics, that the EU will announce its start date months in advance, and that applications are only accepted from that date.

The Commission warns against third-party sites that charge extra or misuse data, so apply for ETIAS only through the official channels. And when you land, everything is easier with a working phone. A data eSIM such as Snoozim's Europe pack can be bought before the trip and starts counting when it first connects at your destination; mobile data for US visitors in Europe covers the rest of the arrival.