Less than four months after the Entry/Exit System (EES) went live across the Schengen Area, Brussels has issued new guidance spelling-out who will – and who will not – have their fingerprints and facial image captured at the border. The clarification, published on 27 July, is timely for France, whose airports expect record traffic in August ahead of the Paris 2027 Expo. Under the EES, every short-stay third-country traveller is automatically logged on arrival and departure, replacing the manual passport stamp. Since launch, the database has already recorded more than 145 million crossings, according to the Commission. The news is crucial for multinational companies moving assignees to France. Long-stay visa holders and foreign residents – for example, a Canadian engineer posted to Toulouse on a four-year “passeport talent” – remain exempt and will clear the border as before. Equally, non-EU family members of EU citizens who hold French residence cards will not be registered, avoiding the biometric queues that have appeared at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle since Easter. Airports are nonetheless accelerating preparations. Aéroports de Paris confirmed this week that 190 additional PARAFE e-gates and 140 mobile kiosks will be installed by mid-August, while airlines have been instructed to brief passengers about the four-day “clock-reset” rule that will replace physical stamps. Business-jet operators at Le Bourget are setting up dedicated border counters to minimise turnaround times for executive travellers. Immigration advisers say companies should update pre-departure checklists: copying long-stay visa stickers or residence permits before travel can help prove an employee’s EES-exempt status if a carrier or guard is unsure. HR teams are also warned that, once ETIAS starts in 2027, incorrect EES records will automatically trigger carrier liability fines. “Get the data right from day one,” urges a Big-Four mobility partner. Longer term, the French Interior Ministry plans to link the EES database to its foreign-resident portal, meaning overstays could automatically block future permit renewals. Corporations are therefore advised to track exit dates just as closely as entry dates.
