Poland has officially entered the era of “smart borders.” At 00:01 on 21 November 2025 Border Guard technicians simultaneously activated the EU-wide Entry/Exit System (EES) at 38 land, sea, rail and air crossings, including Warsaw-Chopin, Kraków-Balice and the busy Korczowa and Dorohusk road gates to Ukraine. EES replaces the familiar ink-stamp with a fully digital record that captures four fingerprints, a high-resolution facial scan and the traveller’s passport data in under a minute. Officers say the change ends guesswork over the remaining days in the “90/180-day” rule and allows automatic cross-checks against Interpol, SIS and VIS alerts.
The launch follows a six-week pilot on the Ukrainian frontier that processed more than 600,000 passengers and proved that average first-time processing takes about 90 seconds; repeat crossings can use e-gates in as little as 20 seconds. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński framed the €47 million upgrade as both a facilitation tool and a security layer in Poland’s ongoing response to “hybrid threats” from Russia and Belarus. He confirmed that a further 140 secondary crossings will come online by 4 December, giving Poland the bloc’s first nationwide EES perimeter.
![Poland Switches On EU Biometric Entry/Exit System at 38 Checkpoints]()
For corporate mobility teams the implications are immediate. Travellers must now factor an extra five-to-ten minutes on their first arrival while biometrics are taken, but can expect faster subsequent trips. HR policies are already being updated to instruct staff to keep Polish residence cards handy until databases are fully synced; failure to match a residence-permit record to an entry scan could trigger an over-stay alarm. Multinationals are also reviewing data-privacy clauses, because EES logs will become discoverable evidence in tax-residency, posted-worker and social-security audits.
Strategically, Poland’s early move starts the countdown to ETIAS, the electronic travel authorisation that the European Commission says cannot launch until EES has run for nine months without major incident. Warsaw hopes its head-start will strengthen calls to lift the temporary checks that Germany and Lithuania re-introduced this autumn, arguing that a pan-EU biometric perimeter removes the need for internal border controls. Airlines have welcomed the change, predicting shorter queues at peak times once travellers have enrolled.
Practically, global mobility managers should: a) brief travellers on the new fingerprint and face-scan requirement; b) budget for marginally longer first-entry transits; c) ensure that business visitors keep evidence of onward travel and accommodation in case officers use the new system’s real-time analytics to query stay purpose; and d) review internal processes for collecting and retaining EES data in compliance with EU-GDPR rules.
The launch follows a six-week pilot on the Ukrainian frontier that processed more than 600,000 passengers and proved that average first-time processing takes about 90 seconds; repeat crossings can use e-gates in as little as 20 seconds. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński framed the €47 million upgrade as both a facilitation tool and a security layer in Poland’s ongoing response to “hybrid threats” from Russia and Belarus. He confirmed that a further 140 secondary crossings will come online by 4 December, giving Poland the bloc’s first nationwide EES perimeter.
For corporate mobility teams the implications are immediate. Travellers must now factor an extra five-to-ten minutes on their first arrival while biometrics are taken, but can expect faster subsequent trips. HR policies are already being updated to instruct staff to keep Polish residence cards handy until databases are fully synced; failure to match a residence-permit record to an entry scan could trigger an over-stay alarm. Multinationals are also reviewing data-privacy clauses, because EES logs will become discoverable evidence in tax-residency, posted-worker and social-security audits.
Strategically, Poland’s early move starts the countdown to ETIAS, the electronic travel authorisation that the European Commission says cannot launch until EES has run for nine months without major incident. Warsaw hopes its head-start will strengthen calls to lift the temporary checks that Germany and Lithuania re-introduced this autumn, arguing that a pan-EU biometric perimeter removes the need for internal border controls. Airlines have welcomed the change, predicting shorter queues at peak times once travellers have enrolled.
Practically, global mobility managers should: a) brief travellers on the new fingerprint and face-scan requirement; b) budget for marginally longer first-entry transits; c) ensure that business visitors keep evidence of onward travel and accommodation in case officers use the new system’s real-time analytics to query stay purpose; and d) review internal processes for collecting and retaining EES data in compliance with EU-GDPR rules.
