The EES Entry/Exit System in 2026: what changed and what to do

What changed

The Entry/Exit System (EES) is the EU's electronic register of short-stay visitors crossing the Schengen area's external borders. It started gradually on 12 October 2025 and has been fully running at every external border since 10 April 2026. It replaces passport stamps.

• It applies to non-EU citizens on short stays: the people the 90/180 rule applies to.
• It records your name and passport details, a facial image, fingerprints (from age 12), and the date, time and place of each entry and exit. Refusals of entry are recorded too.
• It covers the 29 Schengen countries. Cyprus and Ireland, which are in the EU but not in Schengen, don't use it.
• People with a residence permit or long-stay visa are outside it.

No stamps: what that means for you

Your passport used to be a record you carried with you. Now the record is held by the authorities, and you can't flick through it. During the changeover (12 October 2025 to 9 April 2026), passports were stamped as well as recorded. Where a stamp and the EES record disagree, the transition rules say which one wins, and stamps from before EES keep their weight, so keep any stamped passports.

The official check tool

The EES rules provide an online service where you can check how long you can stay. The EU's version is "Check how long you can stay" (opens in a new tab): you enter your passport details and, if you like, the dates you plan to travel.

The EU's page says it answers OK or NOT OK and shows how many days you're still allowed to stay, and that the figure doesn't reflect any time in the Schengen area that began before 10 April 2026. It doesn't show the entries and exits behind its answer. So it can tell you what the system thinks, but not why. If its answer differs from your own count, that's a sign something in the record may be wrong, such as a missing exit. How to check your remaining days in the EES walks through it.

It's worth checking before each trip, and taking a screenshot of the answer with the date.

How to get your full record (Article 52)

To see every entry and exit the system holds about you, you make a formal request under Article 52 of the EES Regulation, which gives you the right to access your data and to have it corrected.

1. Send your request to the authority responsible for EES data in any Schengen country. It doesn't have to be the country where the problem happened.
2. Include the minimum needed to identify you: typically your full name, date of birth, nationality and passport details. No form is set by the Regulation, but some countries publish their own.
3. Ask for a copy of your file and all your entry and exit records. If something's wrong, list each record you dispute (date, place, what it shows, what's correct) and attach your evidence.
4. The authority must reply within 45 days. If it corrects your data it must confirm this in writing; if it refuses, it must explain why in writing and tell you how to challenge it.

If you don't get an answer, or you disagree with it, the national data protection authority must help you on request, and you can go to court. Send the request in a way you can prove, and note the date you sent it.

When the record is wrong

The worst error is a missing exit. If the system has no exit for you after your allowed stay ended, the authorities may presume you overstayed. The law lets you rebut that with credible evidence "by any means", and names transport tickets and proof you were outside the Schengen area as examples. Records with no exit are also kept longer: the EES Regulation keeps an ordinary entry and exit record for three years after the exit, but where there is no exit record it keeps the data for five years from the day your allowed stay ended (Article 34). So it's worth correcting a mistake quickly.

Why keep your own log

• You can't see the official record day by day without a formal request that can take 45 days.
• Records can be wrong, and it's up to you to show it.
• Time before April 2026 was recorded with stamps, which are often hard to read or missing.
• Permit holders may have no border record at all.
• Plans need a forward view: the question is usually "can I take this trip?", not just "what's my count today?"

A log you keep at the time, with your boarding passes and bookings, is what lets you check the official answer and back yourself up if it's wrong.

Enter your trips in our free calculator to see your own count now, or create a free account to keep a dated record with entry points and flight numbers, a change history you can rely on, and alerts before you run short.

Not legal advice. This guide explains the published rules as we understand them on the date above. Rules and how they're applied change, and border officers make the final decision. Check the official sources below, and get professional advice for your own situation.