EU updates list of Schengen internal-border controls – France keeps six-month checks in place as Nordic states add fresh restrictions

Business travellers entering or transiting France should brace for continued passport inspections at normally open Schengen frontiers after the European Commission quietly updated its public list of temporary internal-border controls on 12 November 2026. The refreshed table, published on the Commission’s Migration & Home Affairs portal, reconfirms that France is maintaining controls at all land, sea and air borders with Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Spain and Italy from 1 November 2026 through 30 April 2027. Paris cites persistent jihadist threats, a rise in antisemitic incidents and migrant-smuggling networks around Calais and the Channel coast as justification. While France’s regime is unchanged, the same update shows that Denmark, Norway and Sweden have each opened new six-month periods of checks running 12 November 2026–11 May 2027. Travellers driving or flying to France via Copenhagen, Oslo or Stockholm hubs will therefore face identity controls in both directions. Germany, Austria, Italy and Poland already had controls in force; taken together, nine Schengen members are now inspecting travellers on at least some internal borders. For companies moving staff across Europe the practical impact is longer queues on major road corridors such as the A2/A7 (Denmark-Germany), Øresund Bridge rail link (Sweden-Denmark) and EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse (FR-CH). Airlines report adding 15--30 minutes to block times on regional flights so that police can board and screen documents before disembarkation. Employers should build extra time into itineraries, ensure staff carry passports rather than national ID cards, and review posted-worker notification lead-times, which restart when an employee is stamped into France. Immigration counsel also remind non-EU assignees that visas issued for the “Schengen Area” do not exempt them from showing proof of accommodation, medical insurance or sufficient funds when controls are active. Failure to present paperwork can lead to refusals of entry even when an employee is only connecting via Paris-CDG. The Commission urges member states to keep measures “strictly proportionate and of the shortest possible duration”, but in practice France has renewed its controls every six months since November 2015. Observers therefore see little prospect of an open land border before the Paris 2027 Summer Olympics.