Entry/Exit System: key points to note about the new rules and travel to France

The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) begins phasing in at Schengen borders on October 12, 2025, eventually aiming at replacing passport stamping with a digital record of travellers’ movements. 

Non-EU visitors should expect new checks — and possibly longer queues — while residents with valid long-stay visas and residency permits remain exempt.

Here are some key points to remember as the clock ticks down towards the start.

• If you are non EU/non-EEA/non-Swiss national visiting from October 12, 2025 or leaving Schengen to go to a non-Schengen state, plan for possibly longer queues and expect to have to provide passport information and answers to the questions for an EES database entry to be created. You may be asked to have your biometrics taken (a facial image and a scan of the fingerprints of the right hand).
• If you are a non-EU etc national who lives in France or another Schengen state, showing your residency card or passport with visa will exempt you. However, families with under-18s who do not have their own cards, are being urged to obtain a Document de circulation pour étranger mineur (Dcem). This document is expected to be required so as to prove that the young person is a resident and exempt from the EES process.
• France must provide the EU details of its phased rollout by September 24. At the moment, all that is known is that the checks will begin for some passengers at some border crossing points from October 12, and the number of points/passengers will gradually increase over six months. Check our website for further information, or see here. 
• Contrary to some media claims, passport stamping will not stop immediately on October 12, but will continue through ' phasing-in' (ie. the first six months). Then the EES alone will be used to monitor trips within the Scengen area's 90/180 days rule.
• Several readers have asked which passport queues to use with EES. The Police nationale have confirmed to The Connexion that close family members of EU citizens (who are exercising their EU free movement by visiting or living in France) will be able to continue to use EU lanes with them. If they have a French or EU residency card or long-stay visa they can show this to be exempt; if not they will be registered in EES under special ‘family member’ rules meaning they will not be subject to an automatic 90/180 days stay calculator.
  
  We have not so far obtained confirmation that close family of French people will be able to continue accompanying them in EU lanes, however we have previously been told by EU officials that they are at present permitted also to use EU lanes when accompanying them to and from France. If they (the non-EU citizens) are not residents of France or the EU they will in future be entered in the EES system in the usual way.
  
  As a general rule, the Interior Ministry says, nothing is expected to change with regard to lanes when EES starts, ie. there will be no new permission for non-EU residents of France to use 'EU' lanes as a way to bypass bypass longer queues. However, some airports/ports/stations are expected to aim to locate 'pre-registration' kiosks for collection of some EES information away from passport queues so as to assist with passenger flows.

• It is likely that France will in due course allow use of the EU's Travel to Europe app as a way of speeding up the EES process by giving some information in advance. However, it will not be ready by the October launch as testing is ongoing in the last months of 2025 to improve it for use at French borders. 
• From October 2026 the EU is expected to operate Etias, an online application for pre-approval to visit the Schengen area, complementary to EES. This is similar to the UK’s ETA.
  
  With regard to the UK's ETA, note that dual UK (or Irish)/other nationality citizens are exempt from this, but take care if you have an expired UK/Irish passport, as a valid passport is required to prove exemption. The Home Office says rules are not being strictly enforced, so such nationals should still be able to visit and leave with their other passport until full enforcement in 2026.
  
  France's Interior Ministry reports having planned ahead so dual French-British nationals can continue to show their French passport to French border officials and UK passport to UK officials to avoid the EES/Etias and ETA systems. This will include when going through 'juxtaposed' controls where both French and British checks are made on the same side of the Channel (eg. for Eurostar, Eurotunnel and at Dover port).