Select Swiss airports to roll out new entry-exit system on Monday

The Basel-Mulhouse and Geneva airports will be the first Swiss airports to introduce the new Schengen-wide entry-exit system. Keystone-SDA

At Swiss airports, a new entry and exit system will be introduced in stages, starting on October 12. It will allow third-country nationals to be registered electronically, replacing the current manual stamping of travel documents.

The announcement was made on Thursday by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), which said that the new Entry-Exit-System (EES) will gradually come into operation throughout the Schengen area.

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In Switzerland, implementation will take place first in Basel and Geneva on October 12, while in Zurich the date chosen is November 17. Smaller airports, such as Lugano, Dübendorf in canton Zurich, and Bern, will implement the new system by the end of March 2026.

The system will automatically calculate the duration of the authorised stay. The cantonal migration authorities will be able to reliably identify persons who no longer have a right of residence, said the SEM, and those responsible for visas will be able to better identify previous stays and take this information into account.

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Thanks to the compulsory collection of biometric data (facial image and fingerprints), even within the country it will also be possible to identify undocumented persons more reliably and combat identity fraud. Finally, law enforcement authorities will be able, under very restrictive conditions, to indirectly access EES information in order to fight serious crime and terrorism more effectively.

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The introduction of the new system concerns nationals of visa-free third states who wish to stay in the Schengen area for a maximum of 90 days. For Swiss nationals and those from European Union and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, as well as those with a valid residence permit in a Schengen state, there will be no change.

After an introduction phase, the manual stamping of passports will cease as of April 9, 2026 and will be replaced by digital registration. During this transitional period, travellers affected by the EES will have to expect potentially longer waiting times, said the SEM, which therefore suggests that travellers should allow for more time to get through airport procedures.

Translated from Italian with DeepL/gw

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