Schengen internal border checks in 2026: nine countries

Nine Schengen countries are running temporary passport and document checks at their internal borders right now. If you are travelling by road or rail from France into Spain, crossing the French-Italian frontier, or driving through Germany this summer, there is a real chance you will be stopped and asked to show your passport. These are not EES biometric registrations. They are national police document checks, reintroduced under the Schengen Borders Code and logged formally with the European Commission.

Which countries have reintroduced checks, and until when?

The European Commission’s State of Schengen report, published on 18 May 2026, named nine member states currently running internal controls: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden.

Germany and France are the most significant for long-haul travellers arriving from outside Europe. Germany has extended controls at all its land borders until 15 September 2026. France has controls in place at its borders with Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland, covering land, air and sea crossings, until 31 October 2026. Paris cites persistent terrorist threats and migrant-smuggling networks as its justification.

What does a check actually involve?

It varies. At some crossings it is a brief glance at a passport before waving you through. At busier routes you will stop, hand over your document, and wait while a guard runs a quick verification. At popular summer crossings the cumulative wait can stretch to 30 minutes or more. If you are on a train crossing the French-Spanish or French-Italian frontier, the check happens on board, without a station stop.

Unlike the EES registration you go through at an external Schengen border, none of this takes biometrics or logs data to an EU system. It is a human check: is your travel document valid, and does anything in national databases flag a concern? For the overwhelming majority of visitors, it takes a minute and you move on.

Why is this happening?

The Schengen Borders Code has always allowed member states to reintroduce temporary internal checks when there is a genuine security or public-policy threat. Every country on the list has cited some combination of terrorism risk, irregular migration and cross-border crime. France has renewed controls repeatedly since 2015. Germany brought back full land-border checks in September 2024 and has since extended them.

The Commission’s May report is direct on the point: controls “must remain temporary and exceptional.” It called on all nine countries to work towards phasing them out. The argument is that EES, fully operational since 10 April 2026, already strengthens external border security, reducing the case for additional internal checks. Irregular crossings into the EU fell by 40% in the first four months of 2026, which the Commission cited as further grounds for winding the measures down.

That said, the Commission cannot force a member state to remove checks immediately. The report is a political signal, not a binding order. For now, the controls remain in place.

Does this affect me if I arrive on a long-haul flight?

Internal checks only apply at borders between Schengen countries, not at the external border where you first arrive. Flying into Paris or Frankfurt from outside Schengen, you will face the standard EES registration at the airport as usual. It is only if your trip then crosses an internal Schengen land frontier that you might encounter a document check.

If your whole trip stays within one country you will not notice anything different. The crossings where checks are most visible to international tourists are the Franco-Spanish border at Irun and La Jonquera, the Franco-Italian route through Ventimiglia, and Germany’s borders with Austria, Switzerland and France.

What should I carry?

Your passport (or a national ID card if you are an EU or EEA citizen) should be on your person any time you cross a land border within Schengen this summer. A phone photo of your passport does not satisfy a document check. The physical document is what border police need to see.

Keep an eye on your Schengen day count as well. The 90/180-day rule applies to your total time inside the Schengen area, not to any single country. EES logs every entry and exit at the external border automatically, and crossing an internal frontier does not reset your count.

Does ETIAS change any of this?

No. ETIAS is a pre-travel authorisation for the external border. It covers whether you can enter the Schengen area at all, not what happens once you are moving between member states inside it. Internal border checks are a national decision under the Schengen Borders Code and will continue to be, regardless of whether ETIAS is live.

ETIAS is expected in Q4 2026. No action is required yet. Applications are not open. For the current timeline, see the ETIAS status page. For a full explanation of how EES and ETIAS relate to one another, the EES vs ETIAS guide covers both systems side by side.