The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs published an FAQ on 27 July clarifying which travellers are not recorded in the Entry/Exit System (EES), the biometric platform Spain and other Schengen states have used since April. Exempt groups include holders of long-stay visas or residence permits, family members of EU/EEA citizens with residence cards, and nationals of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican. Although the guidance applies EU-wide, it is particularly relevant to Spain, which processes one of the bloc’s highest volumes of British holidaymakers—many of whom mistakenly assume that a Spanish residence permit (TIE) exempts them from EES registration when returning on their UK passports. The Commission confirms they are indeed exempt, provided the TIE is valid and presented at border control. The document also warns that residence permits issued by Cyprus or Ireland—countries not yet in Schengen—do not grant exemption, meaning such holders will be captured in Spain’s EES kiosks on arrival or departure. By mid-July, EES had already logged more than 145 million movements and flagged 44 000 refusals across the bloc. Spanish airports, which saw peak summer traffic last weekend, remain under pressure to balance speedy processing with strict data capture. Knowing who is exempt helps border officers channel passengers correctly, reducing queues.
