Tallinn, Estonia – After years of confusion, delays, and technical difficulties, the new Entry Exit System (EES) came into full force on April 10 following a 6-month transition period.
Adopted by Europe’s Schengen Zone – an area comprising 25 EU member states and four other countries – the EES replaces manual passport stamping with electronic checks for travellers visiting Europe for short stays. The aim is to speed up border checks and automatically flag non-EU/European Economic Area nationals who overstay in the Schengen Zone.
Following long delays and the lack of preparation among certain Schengen states, it had been unclear whether full implementation of the EES would be delayed. However, despite some countries seemingly still not being ready, most Schengen states are now fully applying the EES.
For some, however, the end of passport stamping represents the end of one of the novelties of travel. But is this truly the end of passport stamping?
After reports of travellers still being stamped, EU Reports reached out to the border authorities of Schengen countries to ask.
Magdalena Rast, a spokesperson at Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Migration, said: “I hereby confirm that travel documents are no longer stamped manually upon entry into or exit from Switzerland. The EES has been fully implemented in Switzerland.”
However, according to Marko Voog, project manager of the Border Management Bureau in Estonia, this policy will only apply to short-stay travellers.
“Stamping will continue for travellers with long‑stay purposes – such as holders of a D‑visa – as they are not included in the EES and passport stamps remain necessary for recording their border crossings,” Voog noted.
In Lithuania, too, border control authorities will continue to stamp the passports of specific travellers physically: Russian citizens who hold Facilitated (Rail) Transit Documents and are travelling by transit train through the country between Belarus and the Russian Kaliningrad territory without disembarking will be manually stamped in and out of the country, according to Andrius Jarackas, a communications officer at the country’s State Border Guard Service.
The full implementation of the EES has been chaotic. At Milan Linate Airport, travellers were left stranded due to long delays at border control points, while Vienna-Schwechat Airport staff urged flyers to arrive at least three hours prior to departure following similar issues.
While European authorities are attempting to present the full implementation of the EES as a completed project, full acceptance will take time as border officials and travellers alike become used to the new system.
Featured image: Getty Images via Unsplash+
