Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has updated its Smartraveller advice for Czechia, flagging wait times of 25–30 minutes at Prague Airport and selected land crossings following the 12 October rollout of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES). Before EES, passport control for long-haul departures seldom exceeded ten minutes.
EES replaces manual passport stamping with a digital record that includes fingerprints and a facial image. While the process should speed up future journeys, first-time registration is taking longer than expected as officers and travellers learn the new equipment. Airlines have begun urging economy-class passengers to arrive at least three hours before departure during the Christmas peak, mirroring advice already issued by carriers in Spain, France and Germany.
![Australia Warns Citizens of Longer Queues at Czech Borders as EES Teething Issues Persist]()
DFAT’s notice is more than a consumer-travel heads-up; it carries implications for global-mobility managers. Because EES automatically counts stays under the 90/180-day Schengen rule, inadvertent overstays are more likely to be picked up, potentially resulting in on-the-spot fines or multi-year entry bans that can derail project timelines. Companies rotating staff through Prague are therefore advised to audit cumulative Schengen days and build extra buffer time into duty rosters.
Czech Foreign Police say additional officers will be deployed over the holiday period and that software fixes have already trimmed average queue times by around 10 percent. Nonetheless, officials admit that “full stabilisation” may take until mid-2026, when travellers will have completed their first EES enrolment and the digital travel app (now under discussion in Brussels) is expected to further streamline the process.
Other governments—including Canada, New Zealand and the United States—have issued similar bulletins, underscoring that the bottlenecks are a Schengen-wide phenomenon rather than a uniquely Czech failing.
EES replaces manual passport stamping with a digital record that includes fingerprints and a facial image. While the process should speed up future journeys, first-time registration is taking longer than expected as officers and travellers learn the new equipment. Airlines have begun urging economy-class passengers to arrive at least three hours before departure during the Christmas peak, mirroring advice already issued by carriers in Spain, France and Germany.
DFAT’s notice is more than a consumer-travel heads-up; it carries implications for global-mobility managers. Because EES automatically counts stays under the 90/180-day Schengen rule, inadvertent overstays are more likely to be picked up, potentially resulting in on-the-spot fines or multi-year entry bans that can derail project timelines. Companies rotating staff through Prague are therefore advised to audit cumulative Schengen days and build extra buffer time into duty rosters.
Czech Foreign Police say additional officers will be deployed over the holiday period and that software fixes have already trimmed average queue times by around 10 percent. Nonetheless, officials admit that “full stabilisation” may take until mid-2026, when travellers will have completed their first EES enrolment and the digital travel app (now under discussion in Brussels) is expected to further streamline the process.
Other governments—including Canada, New Zealand and the United States—have issued similar bulletins, underscoring that the bottlenecks are a Schengen-wide phenomenon rather than a uniquely Czech failing.
