The European Union is working towards altering its entry course of for foreigners, and I think about individuals may have combined emotions about this. In mid-2024, I coated how the European Union deliberate on introducing a brand new system for getting into and exiting the area, although it was delayed. There’s now a brand new launch date, so let’s go over the small print.
European Union changing passport stamps with biometrics
The European Union plans to step by step introduce its new digital Entry/Exit System (EES) for international guests. This can begin to be rolled out as of October 12, 2025, and the expectation is that it will likely be totally operational by April 10, 2026. With this improvement, guests from most international locations will not get their passports stamped.
As an alternative, below the brand new system, international guests getting into the European Union may have their fingerprints and face scanned digitally upon entry. That biometric information will then be used to substantiate a customer’s entry and exit from the European Union.
To make use of this method, vacationers will want a biometric passport. These have been issued in the US since 2007, so at this level, everybody in the US with a passport ought to have one. Guests who don’t have a biometric passport should undergo an extended course of, and gained’t have the ability to use self-service passport management lanes.
Because the European Union’s commissioner for residence affairs describes this:
“At each single airport, each single harbor, each single street into Europe. We may have digital border controls. When that occurs, it will likely be goodbye to passport stamping, hiya to digital checks.”
Be aware that this improvement is separate from the brand new European Journey Data and Authorization System (ETIAS), which is predicted to be applied as of April 2026 (although could also be delayed once more). As soon as that is launched, as much as 1.4 billion individuals from 60+ visa waiver international locations might want to receive a journey authorization previous to touring to the European Union.
This can be a frequent sense improvement
Passport stamps are sort of a humorous factor, and the idiom “an excessive amount of of a superb factor is a nasty factor” involves thoughts. Some individuals get actually excited by passport stamps, due to course they could be a enjoyable reminiscence of the locations you’ve traveled to. Nonetheless, for frequent vacationers, these stamps can turn into a ache, since your passport can replenish fairly rapidly, requiring you to get a brand new one.
The novelty of passport stamps apart, utilizing biometric information and making the system digital is simply typically a sensible transfer when it comes to border safety. Additionally, this new system ought to more and more enable vacationers to make use of computerized gates for getting into international locations, which is a constructive improvement as properly.
Backside line
The European Union plans to implement a brand new digital system for getting into and leaving the area. With this, we’ll see biometric information required from vacationers, moderately than reliance on passport photos and stamps. The plan is now for this to be step by step launched as of October 12, 2025.
Separate from this, subsequent 12 months we must always see a brand new journey authorization requirement launched within the European Union, for these arriving from many international locations. After all it’s attainable that both or each of those initiatives are delayed additional.
What do you make of the EU phasing out passport stamps, and switching to biometric information?
Supply hyperlink
