Starting from November 2024, if you're an American, you should expect to get fingerprinted and registered upon crossing the European border, and there's just no getting around it:
https://www.traveloffpath.com/americans-will-have-to-get-fingerprinted-and-registered-traveling-to-europe-from-november/As confirmed by Ylva Johansson, the European Union Commissioner, the much-delayed Entry-Exit System (EES) of the European Union will launch on November 10 in an attempt to modernize the continent's borders and strengthen security.
The EES is hardly a novelty–we've been reporting on it extensively over the past three years–but this is the first time the EU commissioner herself has confirmed a start date following multiple setbacks.
In case you're still wondering what the EES entails, it refers to a biometric system that will use a traveler's digital photograph, personal information and fingerprints to control their border movements, as well as their length of stay.
In general, Americans can only remain in the continent, or more specifically, the 29-country Schengen Area for 90 days out of any 180-day period; this means any time spent in any participating country counts towards the established limit.
For example, if you're traveling long term and staying in Italy for a whole month, savoring your way through the southern Puglia region and going on a museum haul across the cultural hotspots of Florence and Rome, you'll then only have 60 days to travel around 28 other Schengen countries.
As you should know by now if you've ever flown across the pond, European border officials continue to stamp passports of foreign arrivals, and those timed entries are usually their only indication as to how long an individual has remained in the Schengen territories.
What Changes From November 10?‘When that happens, it will be goodbye to passport stamping, hello to digital checks for all passengers from outside the EU‘, noted Johansson.
In effect, Americans––as well as all other non-European travelers––will be required to have their biometric data registered landing in Europe starting from November 10, with the information being stored in a database for three years.
