Getting a stamp in your passport as you enter a country has been a long-standing tradition….and a source of pride for those who love to boast about how many countries they have visited.
Europe, with 50 countries, is compact in most cases so that distances between countries are really quite small; especially compared to the U.S., Canada or Australia, for example.
Well, the ritual of having your passport stamped is about to go away in the European Union.
A start date for the European Union’s much-delayed new system of automated border crossings has been announced. Known as EES (Entry/Exit System) it will finally begin rolling out in various countries on Sunday, October 12th. It is expected to be fully implemented in all E.U. countries by April 10th, 2026. This system will be used to register non-EU nationals for short stays.
The 29 countries participating in the E.U.’s Entry/Exit(EES) are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The system will use travelers’ biometric data to register the border crossings of non-EU citizens, including Americans, Canadians and Australians.
Travelers will have to scan their fingerprints and allow a facial photo to be taken at the first European border crossing point they encounter. That biometric data is then stored by the EES for the next three years, tracking the traveler’s entries, exits, and any refusals of entry.
You’ll only have to do this the first time you cross a E.U. border.
But, be informed, there are two exceptions: Cyprus and Ireland will continue to stamp passports manually.