The EU's new Entry/Exit System (EES) has been gradually introduced since 12th October 2025 and fully operational from 10th April 2026.
The EES records in an EU-wide database each entry and exit to the Schengen area of non-EU short-term visitors. The system, designed to detect overstayers, replaced the manual stamping of passports.
However, biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images have to be registered in front of a guard at the first crossing into the Schengen area. This extra step has caused queues at busy border posts, including the port of Dover in the UK, and travel organisations have warned the situation might get worse during the summer travel season.
In autumn 2024, the EU border agency Frontex developed the Travel to Europe app, a mobile application allowing non-EU travellers to pre-register their passport data and facial image and fill in the entry questionnaires within 72 hours before travelling.
This was expected to make it quicker to go through passport control, while not replacing checks.
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Which European countries are already using the EES pre-registration app?
The deployment of the app is however voluntary for countries of the Schengen area (EU member states minus Ireland and Cyprus, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland).
Each country can also choose the app functionalities they intend to use.
The app was initially tested at Stockholm Arlanda airport and results showed a 25 percent improvement in the efficiency of the procedure compared to usual EES checks.
It can now be used in Sweden, where it supports passport data, facial image and entry questionnaire, according to the European Commission website.
The app has also recently been introduced in Portugal, where it supports the entry questionnaire only, the Commission says.
The Portuguese government announced in June that the app will initially be available at Lisbon Airport, with other locations added in the coming weeks.
The Local understands that two other countries are working on the deployment of the app, although their names have not been disclosed yet.
Ahead of the summer season, organisations representing European airports and airlines have urged the European Commission to adopt urgent measures to limit delays due to the implementation of the EES. They also called for the EU-wide deployment of the app to reduce pressure at border controls.
“The more widespread use of the pre-registration app is one of [the] industry key asks to make the process smoother for passengers. They should be enabled to pre-register in the EES before arriving at the airport, so that they can skip the self-service kiosk registration stage altogether, speeding up the process significantly and avoiding the formation of long queues,” a spokesperson for the Airport Council International (ACI) Europe told The Local.
More information about the app and guidance on how to use it are available at this official European Commission page.
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