The Council of the European Union approved its negotiating mandate for a brand-new EU Digital Travel Application (DTA) regulation on 19 November 2025. Once adopted, the law will let airlines, ferry operators and travellers upload passport data and biometric credentials to a secure EU platform before departure. Border officials in Finland and the other 29 Schengen countries will be able to run advance checks against security and migration databases, meaning most passport inspections can be reduced to a quick QR-code scan on arrival.
Finland’s Border Guard, which already operates automated eGates at Helsinki-Vantaa, told local media it is preparing to pilot the DTA as soon as 2026. Because the Entry/Exit System (EES) went live across the EU in October 2025, Finland has the hardware in place—biometric kiosks, authentication readers and network links—to integrate the new digital wallet with minimal extra investment. Officials expect the average processing time for non-EU passengers to fall from the current 45-60 seconds to under 20 seconds per traveller once DTA is operational.
![EU Council green-lights Digital Travel Application, paving way for friction-free border crossings to Finland and rest of Schengen]()
For Finnish companies the implications are immediate. Multinational employers can pre-enrol frequent business travellers and assignees, reducing the risk of missed connections in tight transfer windows at Helsinki’s hub airport. Travel-management firms say the DTA will dovetail with corporate booking tools, allowing HR teams to verify that work-permit holders and posted workers meet Schengen stay limits before tickets are issued.
The regulation also links directly to ETIAS, the EU’s forthcoming travel authorisation. In practice, a Canadian or U.S. national flying to Finland for a project could submit DTA data, receive an ETIAS approval, and have both records attached to their airline booking in one transaction. Privacy safeguards are embedded: data are encrypted end-to-end and automatically deleted after the legal retention window.
Next steps: the Council presidency will open trilogue talks with the European Parliament in early 2026, aiming for final adoption by the summer break. Industry stakeholders expect voluntary onboarding late that year and compulsory use for air and sea carriers by mid-2027. Businesses with large traveller volumes to Finland are advised to start updating their employee-data feeds and travel-risk policies now.
Finland’s Border Guard, which already operates automated eGates at Helsinki-Vantaa, told local media it is preparing to pilot the DTA as soon as 2026. Because the Entry/Exit System (EES) went live across the EU in October 2025, Finland has the hardware in place—biometric kiosks, authentication readers and network links—to integrate the new digital wallet with minimal extra investment. Officials expect the average processing time for non-EU passengers to fall from the current 45-60 seconds to under 20 seconds per traveller once DTA is operational.
For Finnish companies the implications are immediate. Multinational employers can pre-enrol frequent business travellers and assignees, reducing the risk of missed connections in tight transfer windows at Helsinki’s hub airport. Travel-management firms say the DTA will dovetail with corporate booking tools, allowing HR teams to verify that work-permit holders and posted workers meet Schengen stay limits before tickets are issued.
The regulation also links directly to ETIAS, the EU’s forthcoming travel authorisation. In practice, a Canadian or U.S. national flying to Finland for a project could submit DTA data, receive an ETIAS approval, and have both records attached to their airline booking in one transaction. Privacy safeguards are embedded: data are encrypted end-to-end and automatically deleted after the legal retention window.
Next steps: the Council presidency will open trilogue talks with the European Parliament in early 2026, aiming for final adoption by the summer break. Industry stakeholders expect voluntary onboarding late that year and compulsory use for air and sea carriers by mid-2027. Businesses with large traveller volumes to Finland are advised to start updating their employee-data feeds and travel-risk policies now.
