Biggest EU Border Shake-Up Since Schengen: What the EES ‘passport in your pocket’ app means for your holidays and trips

Europe’s EES ‘passport in your pocket’ starts, letting non-EU travellers upload passport details and selfies before even landing.

Frontex is bringing digital to Europe Travel to Europe App lets non-EU travelers upload selfies and passport details before landing. What is the goal? The aim? To avoid the queues that are expected to form for autumn’s Entry/Exit System.

Dubbed Travel to Europe, the app is being hailed as a potential game-changer for non-EU jet-setters bracing for the autumn launch of the EU’s controversial Entry/Exit System (EES) – a scheme critics say could cause border chaos with longer queues and more checks.

What is the magic of the app? Simple: You can also find out more about us here. The following are some of the ways to get in touch with each other Travellers can upload their passport information. Mugshot Even before they set foot in Europe, many people are already preparing for their trip. This means that border guards have most of the information they would normally have. At passport control, you can tap into the EES system with great care You can send it in advance. Result? In theory, faster checks, happier travellers, and – authorities hope – less risk of chaos at airports.

Don’t toss your passport yet. The agency insists the app won’t replace border checks altogether – it’s designed to make them “smoother and faster”, not disappear entirely. It’s like switching from a horse-and-cart to a sports car. But you still have to be there for the ride.

Sweden leads Frontex App roll-out as Europe prepares a digital frontier revolution: Netherlands France and Italy to Follow us on Instagram

The rollout kicks off later this year with the first confirmed launch at Sweden’s Arlanda Airport – handy for anyone planning a Nordic adventure. Frontex reports that pilots are also expected to take off at major entry ports in the Netherlands France and Italy by 2026. Portugal, Greece, and Hungary are also interested in participating in the digital border revolution.

Frontex confirmed that the app will be ready for use with the EES launch in autumn. The spokesperson added that the app is completely voluntary, both for member states and travelers.

What if the Travel to Europe Could the app be the secret to saving Europe’s border from the EES queues that plague its borders?

What will happen if it crashes? take-off When thousands of people try to download it At once?

Europe’s borders are about to get a high-tech makeover – and it’s happening sooner than you think.

Europe will tighten border controls in 2025.

Meanwhile, Asian travellers should buckle up for a brave new border world: starting late 2025, Singaporean and Malaysian citizens — who previously breezed into Europe visa-free — will need to apply online for an ETIAS travel authorisation before hopping on a flight to the EU. The ETIAS travel authorisation is not a Visa, but an extra step to be completed before departing. Personal information and travel histories are required. And for Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Filipino and other Asian nationals who already need a Schengen visa, nothing changes on that front — but from October, they too will face the EES’s digital dragnet, with every face scan and fingerprint logged instead of the trusty old passport stamp. The message from Europe is clear: the days of a casual walk through passport control, whether you are visa-free or tied to a visa, are over.

In 2025, Europe will replace passport stamps with face scans.

It’s official: Europe’s border is going sci-fi. Frontex is a European border agency. Travel to Europe Apps are set to speed up EES checks starting this fall and ETIAS is looming in the future for Singaporeans and Malaysians. Days of breeze through passport control have officially ended. Thai, Indonesians, Vietnameses, and Filipinos will still require Schengen Visas, but they can say goodbye to stamps with the introduction of face scans, and fingerprints. The phased rollout aims to sidestep border chaos, but one thing’s clear: Europe’s turning the page on old-school queues — and high-tech checks are the new normal across the Schengen frontier.

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