The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has refreshed its France travel-advice page—current as of 25 September—to incorporate guidance on the European Entry/Exit System (EES). The notice reminds British nationals that non-EU passport-holders will have their biometric data captured at the border each time they enter or leave the Schengen Area and warns of possible longer queues while France fine-tunes the technology. Although the information was first added in August, many British corporates only run duty-of-care sweeps when the page’s ‘still current’ date changes, which happened overnight. The alert is especially pertinent given Paris’s heavy visitor numbers this weekend and the prospect of additional checks linked to the papal security perimeter. For mobility managers the key action point is to brief travellers about the need for at least 90 days’ passport validity beyond the planned stay and to remind crews that the automatic PARAFE e-gates at CDG and Orly can be switched off without warning during peak flows, forcing all third-country nationals into staffed lanes. Companies with frequent cross-channel commuters should also note that EES time-stamps are used to calculate days spent in the Schengen Area; inaccurate stamps can complicate applications for French talent-passport and ICT cards. Employees are therefore advised to check their passports are correctly scanned and to keep boarding-pass copies as back-up evidence. While the update carries no change to the overall travel-advisory level (still Tier 2: ‘Exercise increased caution’), it signals that the UK is paying close attention to the operational roll-out of EES—useful leverage when pushing French authorities for smoother fast-track lanes for business travellers.
