Warsaw’s eastern frontier has overnight become the EU’s busiest proving-ground for the new Entry/Exit System (EES). From the early hours of 15 February, every non-EU national entering Poland—including the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who move back and forth each month—faces a fully-automated border procedure that replaces the traditional passport stamp with biometric scans. The change, reported by Kyiv Post, marks the first day on which all 38 Polish land, air and rail checkpoints are operating the EES end-to-end after a four-month rollout that began in October 2025.(kyivpost.com)
Under the system, travellers present their passport at a self-service kiosk where their photograph and four fingerprints are captured and stored for three years. Subsequent crossings require only a facial scan, cutting processing time for compliant passengers but flagging anyone who has overstayed the Schengen 90/180-day rule. The Polish Border Guard says more than 600,000 third-country nationals have already been registered, 40 % of them Ukrainian citizens who depend on Poland as their primary gateway to the EU labour market. Carriers have been instructed to direct first-time EES users to manual lanes to avoid bottlenecks.(kyivpost.com)
Travellers keen to make that first EES passage as smooth as possible can enlist help from VisaHQ, whose portal (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) lets users check real-time Polish entry rules, obtain Schengen or national visas, arrange insurance certificates and, when it launches, pre-apply for ETIAS authorisations—all without leaving home. The service keeps corporate mobility teams and individual passengers up to date on new biometric procedures and can courier any documents that still need a physical stamp.
![Digital Border Era Begins: Poland Implements Full EES Checks for Ukrainians Crossing the Frontier]()
For Ukrainians under temporary-protection status (PESEL UKR), crossing procedures are now fully digital. The Diia.pl mobile residency document must be scanned together with the biometric data, while children under 13 continue to be processed at staffed booths. Officials emphasise that the electronic checks do not affect the right to enter but do enforce health-insurance and proof-of-funds requirements—at least PLN 75 (€17) per day of stay for adults. Drivers also need a printed international “Green Card” insurance certificate until QR-code validation is introduced later this year.(kyivpost.com)
Poland’s Ministry of the Interior argues that the technology is already paying dividends: in January alone 412 attempted overstays were detected at the Dorohusk and Medyka crossings, up from 67 in the same period last year. Still, the first day of full deployment brought queues of up to three hours for bus passengers as biometric enrolment took longer than expected—a teething problem the Border Guard says will ease as more travellers complete their initial scan. Businesses that rely on shuttle drivers or project engineers moving between Ukraine and Poland are advised to factor extra time into February travel schedules and to carry paper copies of CMR waybills in case network glitches slow the data upload.(kyivpost.com)
Looking ahead, the EES is only the first layer of Europe’s digital border revamp. From late-2026, most visa-exempt nationals—including Ukrainians—will also need an electronic travel authorisation (ETIAS) before departure. Polish airports have begun upgrading e-gates so that an ETIAS QR code can be read in the same transaction as the biometric match, creating a one-stop “face-and-phone” process that border authorities say could eventually cut an average land-crossing to under 30 seconds. For now, however, the advice to corporate mobility teams is clear: warn assignees of possible delays on their first post-EES trip and make sure their smartphones—and their patience—are fully charged.
Under the system, travellers present their passport at a self-service kiosk where their photograph and four fingerprints are captured and stored for three years. Subsequent crossings require only a facial scan, cutting processing time for compliant passengers but flagging anyone who has overstayed the Schengen 90/180-day rule. The Polish Border Guard says more than 600,000 third-country nationals have already been registered, 40 % of them Ukrainian citizens who depend on Poland as their primary gateway to the EU labour market. Carriers have been instructed to direct first-time EES users to manual lanes to avoid bottlenecks.(kyivpost.com)
Travellers keen to make that first EES passage as smooth as possible can enlist help from VisaHQ, whose portal (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) lets users check real-time Polish entry rules, obtain Schengen or national visas, arrange insurance certificates and, when it launches, pre-apply for ETIAS authorisations—all without leaving home. The service keeps corporate mobility teams and individual passengers up to date on new biometric procedures and can courier any documents that still need a physical stamp.
For Ukrainians under temporary-protection status (PESEL UKR), crossing procedures are now fully digital. The Diia.pl mobile residency document must be scanned together with the biometric data, while children under 13 continue to be processed at staffed booths. Officials emphasise that the electronic checks do not affect the right to enter but do enforce health-insurance and proof-of-funds requirements—at least PLN 75 (€17) per day of stay for adults. Drivers also need a printed international “Green Card” insurance certificate until QR-code validation is introduced later this year.(kyivpost.com)
Poland’s Ministry of the Interior argues that the technology is already paying dividends: in January alone 412 attempted overstays were detected at the Dorohusk and Medyka crossings, up from 67 in the same period last year. Still, the first day of full deployment brought queues of up to three hours for bus passengers as biometric enrolment took longer than expected—a teething problem the Border Guard says will ease as more travellers complete their initial scan. Businesses that rely on shuttle drivers or project engineers moving between Ukraine and Poland are advised to factor extra time into February travel schedules and to carry paper copies of CMR waybills in case network glitches slow the data upload.(kyivpost.com)
Looking ahead, the EES is only the first layer of Europe’s digital border revamp. From late-2026, most visa-exempt nationals—including Ukrainians—will also need an electronic travel authorisation (ETIAS) before departure. Polish airports have begun upgrading e-gates so that an ETIAS QR code can be read in the same transaction as the biometric match, creating a one-stop “face-and-phone” process that border authorities say could eventually cut an average land-crossing to under 30 seconds. For now, however, the advice to corporate mobility teams is clear: warn assignees of possible delays on their first post-EES trip and make sure their smartphones—and their patience—are fully charged.
