Can you pre-register for EES before you travel?
Checked against official sources. This page last updated .
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Yes, in some places — and it is free.
There is an official EU app and there are kiosks and tablets at a growing number of crossings. Both are optional, both cost nothing, and neither one skips the border check: they move the form-filling out of the queue, not the queue itself.
What exists, and where
- The official app
- Travel to Europe, published by the Publications Office of the European Union. Its own description says it “allows you to pre-register your personal information for the Entry/Exit System (EES) in advance”. You need to be a non-EU national with a biometric passport, and a phone with NFC and a front camera.
- Kiosks and tablets at the border
- France operates two kinds: fixed self-service kiosks where you enter your own details and biometrics, and tablets carried by staff who walk you through it. The French interior ministry describes both as “optional and free of charge”.
- Where the French devices are
- Twelve airports, including Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Nice. Four railway stations: Gare du Nord, St Pancras, Coquelles and Folkestone. Eleven ports, including Calais, Le Havre and Marseille.
- What it does not do
- It does not replace the border check. After pre-registering you still go to a booth and see an officer. And you are free to skip it entirely and go straight to the booth — nobody can require you to use it.
- What it collects
- Your travel document details, the crossing itself, and your biometrics: a facial image and fingerprints. Children under 12 do not give fingerprints.
- What it costs
- Nothing, through either route. If a website is charging you to “pre-register for EES”, it is not selling you anything you cannot do for free — see which websites are the official ones.
Why nobody can find this out
Why this is hard to find out. The European Commission’s own EES page does not mention the app at all. If you go to the official source for the system — which is the sensible thing to do — you will not learn that pre-registration exists. It is published by a different part of the EU, and the border devices are announced country by country. That is why the question keeps being asked.
Questions people ask
Can I register for EES before I travel?
Partly. You can pre-register your details through the official EU 'Travel to Europe' app, or at a kiosk or tablet at some crossings. You still have to complete the check in person at the border.
Is EES pre-registration mandatory?
No. It is optional everywhere it exists, and you can go straight to a staffed booth instead.
How much does it cost?
Nothing. EES itself is free and so is pre-registering. There is no official fee at any stage.
Does pre-registering mean I skip the queue?
No. It moves the data entry out of the border check, which can make the check itself shorter, but you are still processed in person on your first crossing.
What do I need to use the app?
A non-EU passport with a biometric chip, and a phone with NFC and a front-facing camera. Without the chip the app cannot read the document.
Can I pre-register my children?
Children are registered like everyone else, but under-12s do not give fingerprints — and they cannot use the self-service machines, so the family is processed at a staffed desk. See our guide to EES with children.
Is there an app for ETIAS too?
Not yet, because ETIAS is not running. Anything offering you an ETIAS app or application today is not official — see our ETIAS status page.
Is EES even running where you are going?
Pre-registration only matters where the system is actually operating, and that still varies — at the Channel crossings in particular, where cars are not being registered at all. We track that on our EES status page, and what it means for families on EES with children.
EES is moving. We’ll tell you when it moves again.
Where you can pre-register, and where the system is actually running, has changed several times this year. We’ll email you when something changes that you may need to act on — no newsletter, no marketing.
We’re building it with real travellers. If you’ve crossed an EES border recently, your experience could help us build something genuinely useful.
Change log
- Linked the ETIAS status page and the EES with children guide from the questions where we mention them.
- Page published.
Sources
Checked on .
- French interior ministry — The pre-registration devices for the Entry/Exit System
- European Union — Travel to Europe app (Publications Office)
- European Commission — Entry/Exit System
- European Commission — official EES information for travellers
About this page
VIARYO is not a government body and this page is not an official source. We read what the authorities publish, summarise it, and record the date we last checked — you can read how we check our information. Where an official source and this page disagree, the official source is right.