The small Baltic republic of Estonia will be the first country to be fully ready for the EU entry-exit (EES) system at air, sea and road frontiers from day one – 12 October.
The Independent has surveyed 28 countries in the Schengen area, which is introducing the digital border scheme progressively between October 2025 and April 2026.
“Third-country nationals” including UK passport holders will be required to register facial biometrics and fingerprints before crossing a Schengen area frontier. On subsequent crossings only a facial image will be required.
During the rollout, third-country nationals will also be subject to the current analogue passport checks and “wet stamping” – requiring double red tape for those at EES-enabled frontiers.
Under the European Commission’s direction, member states have 180 days to implement full checks on travellers. Germany, for example, will have only one frontier post running the entry-exit system on 12 October: Dusseldorf airport.
But a spokesperson for Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board said: “All our border control points will start using EES from day one.”
This will include the international airport in the capital, Tallinn, along with the main seaports, and road and rail crossings from Russia.
It will not apply to the curious “Varska-Saatse road”, a gravel track that connects two Estonian villages through Russian territory. Cyclists and motorcyclists are allowed to travel along it, but must not set foot on the road.
The author of the Bradt guide to Estonia, Neil Taylor, said: “Estonia seems to be ahead of the pack here, as it was with visa abolition for most Europeans in the early 1990s.
“Given that Tallinn airport prides itself on speedy but secure border controls, Brits should still find Tallinn airport one of the easiest to use, both on arrival and on departure.”
The European Union Agency for Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems (eu-LISA), which will administer the entry-exit system, has its headquarters in the Estonian capital.
Luxembourg is the only other country The Independent has identified as being ready to operate the EES system in full from day one – but the nation has only one frontier, Findel airport. The Grand Duchy’s home affairs minister, Leon Gloden, told local media: “We're ready for it, but unfortunately many other countries aren’t yet.”
Irish passport holders will not be required to give fingerprints or facial biometrics, even though Ireland is outside the Schengen area.
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