The Entry/Exit System (EES) and your 90 days

What the EES is

The Entry/Exit System is an automated EU database that registers non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay each time they cross the external border of a country using the system. It records your name, travel document, the date and place of every entry and exit, any refusal of entry, and biometric data: fingerprints and a facial image.

It applies to you whether or not you need a visa. EU citizens and citizens of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are not registered, and neither are people who hold a residence permit for one of the participating countries.

What happens at the border

On your first crossing after the start of the system, your fingerprints and photo are taken and you may be asked the usual questions about the purpose of your trip. On later trips within three years, a fingerprint or a photo is enough to match you to your record. The Australian government reported delays of up to 4–6 hours at some airports after the launch, so plan extra time for connections.

What it changes for the 90/180 rule

The rule itself did not change. What changed is enforcement. With stamps, an overstay was only found if a border guard counted them carefully. Now the system does the counting and flags overstays automatically, and the record is tied to your biometrics rather than to a passport. In the official wording, short stay means "up to 90 days within any 180-day period", calculated as a single period for all the countries using the EES.

The official day checker, and its limits

The EU offers an online tool that tells you whether your entry is allowed and how many days you can still stay. You need your passport type and number, the issuing country and the country you are visiting, plus your planned dates.

• It does not reflect time spent in the Schengen area that began before 10 April 2026, even if the stay continued after that date. If you travelled in the months before, count those days yourself.
• It checks one trip at a time; it does not plan a series of future trips.
• It only knows what the border recorded, so it is the best final check before you travel.

That is why we built 90180.app for planning: add all your trips, past and future, see when days come back, and then confirm the result with the official tool.

Countries using the EES

The EES is used at the external borders of the 29 Schengen countries:

Austria · Belgium · Bulgaria · Croatia · Czechia · Denmark · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Greece · Hungary · Iceland · Italy · Latvia · Liechtenstein · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malta · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland

Cyprus and Ireland are EU members but do not use the EES; passports are still stamped there, and days there do not count towards the Schengen 90. More on places that do not count.