Tourists in EU countries will no longer be stamped in passports: what will change

Some travelers have an interesting hobby - they collect passport stamps when crossing borders, creating a nostalgic paper trail of their travels. However, the EU has announced that putting stamps in passports will cease.

There will be a new automated entry system in the Schengen area. The details were told by Euronews.

Stamping passports manually is time-consuming and does not systematically identify people who have exceeded the period of stay.

As early as November 10, 2024, a new automated entry/exit system (EES) for the Schengen area will become operational. It will register persons from non-EU countries digitally, eliminating the need for physical stamps.

The European Commission's Migration and Home Affairs department said in a statement that the new system will replace the current technology of manually stamping passports.

"The manual system is time-consuming, does not provide reliable border crossing data and does not systematically identify those who have exceeded their EU stay," the migration and home affairs department said.

The EU Entry/Exit System (EES) is an automated IT system for registering travelers from third countries.

Each time a person crosses the EU's external border, the system will record their name, type of travel document, biometric data (fingerprints and facial image), as well as the date and place of entry and exit. EES will also record refusals of entry.

Experts express hope that automated border checks will improve security in the EU and be faster for travelers. The system, by the way, was supposed to be launched in 2022.

According to the EES, travelers with visa-free access to the Schengen area will have to obtain travel authorization online through the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). This will begin in stages when the EES is operational. And until November 10, it is still necessary to put stamps in the passport.

Earlier OBOZ.UA published a rating of the cheapest European cities to visit in the fall.

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