In the coming months, the European Union will be changing its entry process for foreigners, and I imagine people will have mixed feelings about this.

European Union replacing passport stamps with biometrics

On November 10, 2024, the European Union will be introducing its new electronic Entry/Exit System (EES) for foreign visitors. With this, visitors from most countries will no longer get their passports stamped.

Instead, under the new system, foreign visitors entering the European Union will have their fingerprints and face scanned digitally upon entry. That biometric data will then be used to confirm a visitor’s entry and exit from the European Union.

To use this system, travelers will need a biometric passport. These have been issued in the United States since 2007, so at this point, everyone in the United States with a passport should have one. Visitors who don’t have a biometric passport will have to go through a longer process, and won’t be able to use self-service passport control lanes.

As the European Union’s commissioner for home affairs describes this:

“At every single airport, every single harbor, every single road into Europe. We will have digital border controls. When that happens, it will be goodbye to passport stamping, hello to digital checks.” 

Note that this development is separate from the new European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), which is expected to be implemented as of May 2025 (though may be delayed again). Once this is introduced, up to 1.4 billion people from 60+ visa waiver countries will need to obtain a travel authorization prior to traveling to the European Union.

This is a common sense development

Passport stamps are kind of a funny thing, and the idiom “too much of a good thing is a bad thing” comes to mind. Some people get really excited by passport stamps, because of course they can be a fun memory of the places you’ve traveled to. However, for frequent travelers, these stamps can become a pain, since your passport can fill up pretty quickly, requiring you to get a new one.

The novelty of passport stamps aside, using biometric data and making the system electronic is just generally a smart move in terms of border security. Also, this new system should increasingly allow travelers to use automatic gates for entering the country, which is a positive development as well.

Bottom line

As of November 10, 2024, the European Union is expected to implement its new electronic system for entering and leaving the region. With this, we’ll see biometric data required from travelers, rather than reliance on passport pictures and stamps. Then next year, we should see the new travel authorization requirement introduced, for those arriving from many countries.

What do you make of the EU phasing out passport stamps, and switching to biometric data?