Who is exempt from EES? The full official list

The EU’s official list of people the Entry/Exit System (EES) does not apply to has 13 entries. Here it is in the order the official EES portal publishes it. The portal gives Article 2(3) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 as the legal base, and we note the point of the law behind each entry where the text names one.

Who is exempt from EES?

1. Nationals of the countries using EES, and of Cyprus and Ireland.In practice that is every EU citizen plus nationals of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The Regulation only covers “third-country nationals”, and its definition leaves these people out (Article 3(1)(6)).
2. Non-EU family members of an EU citizen who hold a residence card under the EU free movement directive, whether or not they travel with that EU citizen (Article 2(3)(a)).
3. Non-EU family members of a non-EU national who has EU-style free movement rights, such as the family of a Swiss or Norwegian citizen, if they hold a residence card or residence permit (Article 2(3)(b)).
4. Non-EU nationals moving within the EU as part of an intra-corporate transfer, or for research, studies, training, voluntary service, pupil exchange schemes, educational projects or au-pairing, under the EU directives on those schemes (Article 2(3)(d)).
5. Holders of residence permits and long-stay visas (Article 2(3)(c) and (e)).
6. Nationals of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, and holders of a passport issued by the Vatican City State or the Holy See (Article 2(3)(f)).
7. People exempt from border checks or given special treatment at them, such as heads of state, accredited diplomats and cross-border workers. The portal adds that diplomats on a short stay may be exempt under certain conditions. The Schengen Borders Code list behind this point (Article 6a(3)(g)) names heads of state and government, cross-border workers, aircraft crew, seafarers, rescue services and police in an emergency, offshore workers, cruise passengers and crew checked under the cruise rules, and some people on pleasure boats (Article 2(3)(g)). It does not name diplomats.
8. Armed forces on NATO or Partnership for Peace business who hold an identification and an individual or collective movement order under the NATO Status of Forces Agreement. The exemption may also cover the civilian component and dependants.
9. NATO International Civilians based in any of the 29 countries using EES, and their dependants.
10. People allowed to cross external borders away from border crossing points or outside the fixed opening hours (Article 2(3)(h)).
11. Holders of a valid local border traffic permit (Article 2(3)(h)).
12. Crew of passenger and goods trains on international connections (Article 2(3)(h)).
13. Holders of a valid Facilitated Rail Transit Document or Facilitated Transit Document, provided they travel by train and do not get off anywhere in an EU member state (Article 2(3)(h)).

If you are a non-EU national on a short stay and none of these fits, EES applies to you, whether or not you need a visa. The European Commission also set out the main groups in an explainer on 27 July 2026. The sections below cover the groups most travellers ask about.

EU, EEA and Swiss nationals: never registered

If your passport is from any of the 27 EU member states, or from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, EES does not apply to you. It makes no difference whether you live in Europe or abroad. No biometric enrolment, no 90-day count, no EES file. EU and Schengen country nationals cross under free-movement rules rather than the short-stay visitor framework that EES tracks.

Non-EU family members of EU or EEA citizens

The exemption stretches to some non-EU nationals as well. If you are the spouse, registered partner, child under 21 or dependent parent of an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, and you hold a residence card or residence permit as their family member under EU free-movement rules, you are exempt from EES registration. The Commission says the exemption applies whether or not you are travelling with your EU family member on that particular trip.

The residence card is the trigger, not the family relationship alone. A US citizen married to a French national but living in the US with no residence card is still registered in EES on arrival. The card is what counts.

Family without a card: registered, but treated differently

There is a middle case. The official EES FAQs give two American examples. A 17-year-old US citizen who is the son of a German national, visiting his father who lives in Spain, is registered in EES as a family member. The reduced retention rules apply to him and the automated stay calculator does not. A US citizen married to a French national, visiting them in France where they live, is registered as a regular traveller, so the general retention rules and the calculator both apply.

The difference is whether the EU citizen is travelling or living in a country other than their own. The EU’s data held by the EES page says a family-member record is kept for one year from the exit record, and if no exit was recorded the data is not kept at all and no length of stay is calculated.

Residence permit and long-stay visa holders

Non-EU nationals who hold a national long-stay visa (type D) or a residence permit from a country that operates EES are also outside the system. That covers permits issued by France, Germany, Spain, Italy and every other EES member state.

There is an important exception: permits and long-stay visas issued by Ireland or Cyprus do not qualify. Ireland is not in the Schengen area and does not operate EES. Cyprus is an EU member state but has not yet joined Schengen and is not part of the system. A US citizen living in Ireland on a Stamp 4 permit still goes through EES biometrics at Paris, Madrid or Frankfurt. The Irish residence permit and ETIAS guide covers this in detail for both EES and the upcoming ETIAS authorisation.

Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican

The EES Regulation itself exempts nationals of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino and holders of a passport issued by the Vatican City State or the Holy See. Their entries and exits are not registered in the system. For the ETIAS picture for these travellers, the Andorra, Monaco and San Marino guide covers each microstate separately.

Cruise passengers on round-trip sailings from outside Schengen

Cruise ships have their own border-check regime, in which passengers and crew are checked against the ship’s passenger and crew lists. The Schengen Borders Code, as amended for EES, lists cruise passengers and crew checked under those rules among the people whose data is not entered in EES. That is why travellers on a round trip from a non-Schengen port, such as Southampton, are generally not enrolled at each Schengen port of call. Fly-cruise passengers who arrive by air, and anyone starting or ending their trip in a Schengen port, go through the normal border process. The cruise EES article sets out the full distinction.

Other exempt categories

Aircraft crew and seafarers covered by the Schengen Borders Code’s crew rules are outside EES, as are crew on international passenger and goods trains. Armed forces personnel travelling on NATO or Partnership for Peace business with the right documents are exempt, and the exemption may extend to their civilian component and dependants. Holders of local border traffic permits are also outside the system. These categories are narrow and mostly relevant to professionals working at or near the Schengen external border rather than leisure travellers.

What is not an exemption

A few common misunderstandings are worth clearing up before travel.

Already being enrolled in EES from a previous trip does not exempt you. Your biometrics are on file, which makes the check faster on repeat crossings, but EES still creates an entry record every time. Being a frequent visitor does not change that.

Transiting airside through a Schengen airport without passing through border control is a different situation. If you land, stay in the international zone and board a connecting flight without clearing the border desk, you have not entered the Schengen area, so nothing is registered. But that is not the same as being exempt from EES. The moment you do cross that desk, registration happens.

Being the family member of an EU citizen without a residence card is not an exemption either. You are registered, but under Article 2(4) of the EES Regulation the 90-day calculation and overstay alerts do not apply to you when Directive 2004/38/EC covers your trip.

Being from a visa-exempt country is also not an exemption. The official EES FAQ says EES applies to short-stay visitors whether they hold a short-stay visa or do not need one. The 90-day rule in any 180-day period that EES tracks applies in full to this group, whatever their nationality.

Do the same exemptions apply to ETIAS?

Broadly, yes. ETIAS, the EU’s pre-travel authorisation, is not yet live, and press reporting points to 2027 for its start. It uses a similar exemption structure. The ETIAS Regulation excludes EU family members holding a residence card, holders of residence permits and long-stay visas, and the micro-state nationals listed above, and EU and EEA nationals will not need an ETIAS either. The official ETIAS FAQ confirms that residence permits issued by Ireland or Cyprus do not exempt you from ETIAS, just as they do not exempt you from EES. One difference: a family member’s residence card issued under EU free-movement rules by Ireland does count for ETIAS.

No action is required yet. Applications are not open. The exemptions are already set out in the ETIAS Regulation and the official FAQ. For the launch position, the ETIAS status page carries the current official position.