French airports and ports received welcome breathing room on 3-4 February after the European Commission confirmed that Member States can **partially suspend the new Entry/Exit System (EES)** for up to 90 days after the 10 April deadline, with a possible 60-day extension to cover the July-September peak.
The EES replaces passport stamping for all third-country nationals entering or leaving the Schengen area. Travellers must enrol fingerprints and a facial image at a kiosk the first time they cross an external border, and the data are checked automatically on subsequent trips. Since the system went live in October 2025, Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, Orly, the Channel ports and Eurotunnel terminals have experienced queues of up to three hours, largely because many kiosks are still being installed or tested.
![EU gives France leeway to pause biometric border checks, easing EES roll-out pressure]()
Travellers and mobility teams looking for real-time guidance on Schengen entry requirements can turn to VisaHQ’s France portal (https://www.visahq.com/france/). The platform’s experts monitor EES developments daily and can walk users through biometric enrolment steps, visa options, and document checklists—saving time at the border and reducing the risk of non-compliance.
Under the new flexibility, France can revert to traditional stamping or collect only biographical data when congestion builds, provided the Interior Ministry notifies Brussels and logs the reason. Mobility managers can therefore advise staff that border processing will remain a hybrid of manual and biometric procedures through the summer. Companies are still urged to brief travellers on kiosk procedures, allow extra connection time and retain passport-stamp evidence in case of system outages.
Behind the scenes, Aéroports de Paris and ferry operators are accelerating staff recruitment and kiosk commissioning to meet the April target. The Commission stresses that the grace period is not a postponement: full EES use must resume once infrastructure stabilises. For multinational firms rotating assignees in and out of France, the message is clear—plan for variability, but stay the course toward a biometric border regime that will eventually speed throughput and tighten over-stay enforcement.
The EES replaces passport stamping for all third-country nationals entering or leaving the Schengen area. Travellers must enrol fingerprints and a facial image at a kiosk the first time they cross an external border, and the data are checked automatically on subsequent trips. Since the system went live in October 2025, Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, Orly, the Channel ports and Eurotunnel terminals have experienced queues of up to three hours, largely because many kiosks are still being installed or tested.
Travellers and mobility teams looking for real-time guidance on Schengen entry requirements can turn to VisaHQ’s France portal (https://www.visahq.com/france/). The platform’s experts monitor EES developments daily and can walk users through biometric enrolment steps, visa options, and document checklists—saving time at the border and reducing the risk of non-compliance.
Under the new flexibility, France can revert to traditional stamping or collect only biographical data when congestion builds, provided the Interior Ministry notifies Brussels and logs the reason. Mobility managers can therefore advise staff that border processing will remain a hybrid of manual and biometric procedures through the summer. Companies are still urged to brief travellers on kiosk procedures, allow extra connection time and retain passport-stamp evidence in case of system outages.
Behind the scenes, Aéroports de Paris and ferry operators are accelerating staff recruitment and kiosk commissioning to meet the April target. The Commission stresses that the grace period is not a postponement: full EES use must resume once infrastructure stabilises. For multinational firms rotating assignees in and out of France, the message is clear—plan for variability, but stay the course toward a biometric border regime that will eventually speed throughput and tighten over-stay enforcement.
