Finland’s border authorities woke up on Monday, 27 July 2026, to new guidance from Brussels on how to handle travellers who fall outside the scope of the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES). The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs published an explanatory note confirming that, although the biometric border-control database has been fully operational at all external Schengen frontiers since 10 April 2026, several categories of passengers will continue to be processed in the ‘traditional’ way. For Finnish airports—above all Helsinki Airport, which handles more than 85 % of the country’s non-Schengen traffic—this means that long-stay visa holders, residence-permit holders, and family members of EU or EFTA citizens who carry residence cards will not have their fingerprints or facial image captured by the EES kiosks. Instead they must present their passport or ID together with their permit at the manual booth or the automated e-Gate. Nationals of the micro-states Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City are likewise exempt. The clarification ends weeks of uncertainty for airlines, ground-handling agents and multinational companies whose assignees transit Finland regularly. Some employers had voiced concern that corporate residence-permit holders would be caught in lengthy queues as border guards struggled to distinguish exempt travellers from the 145 million entries already registered in the EES. The Finnish Border Guard confirmed on Monday afternoon that signage at Helsinki, Rovaniemi and Turku airports will be updated this week and that carriers have been reminded to pre-screen passenger documentation at check-in. Business-travel advisers say the exemption list should speed up processing for key talent shuttling between Finland and headquarters elsewhere in Europe. “Project engineers arriving on D-visas or ICT residence permits can use the same fast-track gates they have always used,” noted Hanna Rantala, mobility lead at a major Helsinki technology firm. “That removes a headache during our peak August rotation.” Even with the carve-outs, the EES remains a sea-change for Finnish border management. By year-end, the system is expected to flag more than 12,000 over-stayers exiting Finland, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Companies are therefore urged to audit business-traveller days in the Schengen Area and to brief staff on the automatic calculation of their 90/180-day allowance. The Commission promised further technical updates before the EU’s linked ETIAS travel-authorisation scheme goes live in May 2027.
