Why Italy and Portugal are pausing EES biometric checks

Reports from European airports are confusing summer travellers. Some passengers arriving at Rome or Lisbon have their fingerprints taken and face scanned as normal. Others pass through with just a passport stamp, the old way. Both are legal and both are happening right now. Italy and Portugal have activated a temporary EU mechanism that allows them to pause biometric registration when airport queues get long. Here is what it means for your trip, and what does not change.

What “pausing” actually means

The EES regulation gives each member state a narrow safety valve. After the full rollout on 10 April 2026, countries had 90 days to temporarily suspend biometric collection at specific border crossings when congestion makes normal processing unworkable. Each suspension must be formally notified to the European Commission, cannot target a single nationality, and is capped at six hours per incident (renewable). The fallback window runs until early September 2026, with one possible 60-day extension.

When a suspension is active, border officers revert to passport stamping as under the pre-EES system. Your entry is still logged in the central EES database using your passport details. The only thing not collected at that moment is the biometric data: fingerprints and facial image.

Italy: the 45-minute trigger

Italy has set a specific threshold. Whenever the live wait time in an arrivals hall exceeds 45 minutes, border police at Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Venice Marco Polo and other airports can switch to passport stamps until the queue clears. The arrangement covers the whole country and stays in force until 30 September 2026.

Officers switch back to biometric capture once the hall empties again. A single busy afternoon could see both modes used at the same border post.

Portugal: peak-time suspensions at Lisbon, Porto and Faro

Portugal notified Brussels in late May 2026 that it would suspend biometric registration at Humberto Delgado (Lisbon), Porto and Faro during peak periods. The move came under pressure from airlines including easyJet, which called for a suspension before the half-term rush after queues at Lisbon stretched well beyond an hour for non-EU arrivals.

Like Italy, Portugal can pause but not opt out permanently. Each suspension window must be reported to the Commission with the border crossing point and duration specified.

Your 90-day clock starts regardless

This is the part that matters most. Whether or not biometrics are collected when you arrive, your stay clock starts on entry day and the Schengen 90/180-day rule applies in full. EES records your crossing by passport data even during a pause. The biometric file is simply incomplete until the next crossing fills it in.

Your fingerprints and facial image will be collected the next time you cross a Schengen border, whether that is on your way out or on a future trip. The system then links that data to your earlier entry records. Overstaying is still detected. Nothing about the 90-day limit is suspended, only the fingerprint scan.

Why this is different from what Greece tried to do

Greece made headlines in April and May when it stopped taking biometric data from British visitors specifically. That was not the same thing. The European Commission told Athens the exemption was unauthorised because it targeted a single nationality, which the rules do not allow. Athens reversed course on 31 May 2026.

The Italy and Portugal suspensions are different on two counts: they apply to all non-EU travellers equally, and they have been formally notified to Brussels. They are the mechanism working as intended, not a workaround.

What about ETIAS?

ETIAS, the pre-travel authorisation expected in Q4 2026, will run through the same border infrastructure as EES. When it goes live, airlines will check your ETIAS status before boarding and border officers will verify it at the crossing, regardless of whether biometrics are collected on that day. The temporary summer pauses will have expired long before ETIAS launches. For the full picture of how the two systems relate, see the EES vs ETIAS guide.

What to expect at the border this summer

• If biometrics are being collected (the standard case): present your passport and have fingerprints and a facial image taken at a kiosk or staffed desk. First-time visitors should allow extra time; our guide to EES queue times covers how much buffer to build in.
• If biometrics are paused: you will receive a passport stamp. Your entry is still recorded by EES. Biometrics are taken on your next Schengen crossing.
• Either way: your 90-day allowance starts from the day of entry. Keep a note of the date, or use the 90/180 calculator to track your remaining days.
• If you have crossed Schengen before: if your biometrics are already on file from a previous trip since April 2026, you are not affected. The system identifies you by passport and pulls the file it already holds.