EES and children: the under-12 fingerprint rule explained

Children under 12 do not give fingerprints at the Schengen border under EES. That is the rule set in EU Regulation 2017/2226, the legislation that created the Entry/Exit System. Under-12s still have a facial photograph taken and their passport and biographic data recorded in the system, so they are registered on entry. But the fingerprint step is skipped. Children aged 12 and over go through the full EES process, identical to the one for adults.

What happens at the booth for a child under 12

The officer scans the child’s passport, captures a facial image and logs the entry. There are no fingerprint pads involved. For most young children this takes a minute or two, depending on whether the airport is using staffed booths, self-service kiosks, or a mix of both. The child must present their own passport. They cannot be processed as part of a parent’s entry record.

This matters in queues. A family of two adults and two children under 12 is four separate EES registrations at the booth, not two. Airports that are seeing the longest waits this summer are largely those where booth numbers have not kept pace with family volumes during peak school-holiday weeks.

Children aged 12 and over: same process as adults

The partial exemption ends at 12. From their twelfth birthday, a child provides both fingerprints and a facial image at the EES booth, exactly as their parents do. The first time takes longer. On return trips, the system recognises the stored record and the interaction is shorter.

A teenager who crossed a Schengen border for the first time after 12 October 2025 already has an EES file. Their biometric data is stored for three years from the date of their last exit from the Schengen area.

Every child needs their own passport processed

There is no family-group exemption and no way for a child to travel on a parent’s document. The days of children being listed on a parent’s passport ended for UK travellers in 2010, and EES has no mechanism for shared entries. Each person in a travelling party, from infant to adult, has their own EES record built from their own passport.

For infants and very young children, border officers handle the facial image capture. The process is brief, but it can be awkward with a wriggling child. Arrive with extra time, particularly on your first crossing.

The first crossing is the slow one for everyone

Once a child is registered in EES, subsequent crossings are quicker. The system has already stored the data and the officer is verifying against it rather than building a new file. For families whose children crossed Schengen borders before EES began, or who are visiting Europe for the first time, the first EES crossing is always the longest part of the process.

The airports with the worst queues this summer are mostly smaller holiday destinations in Spain and Greece where kiosk numbers are limited. Hub airports have more booths but also far more passengers. Building in an extra hour of buffer on your arrival day is still the sensible approach, particularly with children in tow.

Does this affect the ETIAS application?

ETIAS is a separate pre-travel authorisation, expected in 2027. It is applied for online before travel, not at the border. Children of all ages from visa-exempt countries will need their own ETIAS, though the fee is waived for those under 18. The ETIAS application asks about past travel history. Entries and exits logged by EES since 12 October 2025 form part of the record that the ETIAS Central System will be able to cross-reference when assessing applications.

For now, no ETIAS application is possible anywhere. The ETIAS status page carries the official launch position. No action is required yet. Applications are not open.