EES with children: what actually happens at the border
Checked against official sources. This page last updated .
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Yes — every child is registered, including babies.
Children under 12 do not give fingerprints, but they are photographed and they get their own EES record. What changes your morning is not the biometrics: it is that under-12s cannot use the self-service machines, so your family is processed one by one at a staffed desk.
What applies at what age
- Babies and children under 12
- No fingerprints. A facial image can be taken, and the child is registered like any other traveller. The UK government puts it plainly: children aged 11 or younger will not have their fingerprints scanned but can be required to have their photo taken.
- From 12 years old
- Fingerprints and facial image, the same as an adult. If your child already has an EES record from an earlier trip, the fingerprints are added to it on the first crossing after their twelfth birthday.
- Everyone, at every age
- Their own valid travel document and their own record. There is no family record and no way for a parent to register a child in their place.
The part that changes your morning
Under-12s cannot use the self-service kiosks. Berlin Brandenburg lists children under 12 among those who cannot use the self-service facility, and Munich says children under 12 are processed manually at staffed counters. A parent or guardian may help a child aged 12 or over at a kiosk, but a younger child has to be seen by an officer. In practice that means the fast lane is not available to your family on the crossing where you would most want it, and you should plan for the staffed queue rather than the machines.
A child who is only listed on a parent’s passport cannot be registered. Berlin Brandenburg warns that in that case EES registration is not possible and entry may be refused. If any child in your group does not hold their own document, that is the thing to fix before anything else.
Before you travel
- Their own passport, and check the two dates
- For the Schengen area the passport must have been issued less than ten years before the day you arrive, and still be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave. Both rules have to be met.
- Children’s passports run out sooner
- A child’s passport is normally issued for fewer years than an adult’s, so the one that expires first in a family is usually a child’s. It is worth checking every passport in the house on the same afternoon, not the week before the trip.
- If one parent is travelling alone with the child
- This is the most common cause of trouble at the desk, and it is not an EES rule: border officers and airlines may ask for a birth certificate, a consent letter from the other parent, or both, and the requirements differ by country and by carrier. Check the official guidance for your destination and carry more paper than you think you need, especially if your surname and your child’s do not match.
- Allow real time on the first crossing
- A check that used to take 20–25 seconds now takes around 90 seconds a person on first registration, and a family of four is four registrations at a staffed desk. Go to passport control first and shop afterwards.
- Tell the children what will happen
- A camera and, for the over-12s, a fingerprint scanner. It goes faster when nobody is surprised by it.
- The UK is a separate system
- If you are travelling to the UK and you are not British or Irish, every traveller needs their own ETA — see the UK ETA for children.
Questions parents ask
Do children need to be registered in EES?
Yes. Every traveller is registered, including babies. Children under 12 are exempt from giving fingerprints, but they are still photographed and still get their own record.
At what age does my child have to give fingerprints?
From 12. Before that, no fingerprints are taken. The first crossing after a child turns 12 adds fingerprints to the record they already have.
Can I register my child myself, or do it on their behalf?
No. Each traveller is registered individually. A parent or guardian can help a child aged 12 or over at a self-service kiosk, but a child under 12 has to be processed by an officer at a desk.
Can my family use the self-service machines?
Not if any of you is under 12. Children under 12 cannot use the self-service facilities and are processed manually at staffed counters, so plan for that queue rather than the kiosks.
My child is on my passport, not their own. Is that a problem?
Yes, and a serious one. A child who does not have their own travel document cannot be registered in EES, and entry may be refused. Sort out the child's own passport before you travel.
Does my baby need an ETIAS?
When ETIAS starts, yes — every traveller needs their own, including children, although under-18s are exempt from the fee. ETIAS is not running yet; we track it on our ETIAS status page.
Does my baby need a UK ETA?
If you are not British or Irish and you are travelling to the UK, yes. GOV.UK says each person travelling needs an ETA, including babies and children.
How long should we allow at the airport with children?
More than you are used to. First registration runs to roughly 90 seconds a person and your family cannot use the automated lanes, so a family of four should assume a staffed desk and a queue, particularly in peak season.
Is EES running where you are going?
This page covers the rules for children, which are stable. Whether the system is actually operating at your crossing is a different question, and it has been changing month to month — at the Channel crossings in particular, where cars are still not being registered. We keep that on our EES status page, and the separate ETIAS authorisation on our ETIAS status page.
Travelling with children? We’ll tell you when this changes
Border rules for families have moved three times in a year. We’ll email you when something changes that a family actually needs to act on — no newsletter, no marketing.
We’re building it with real travellers. If you’ve taken children through an EES border, or you are about to, your experience could help us build something genuinely useful.
Change log
- Checked against the official sources. Nothing on this page needed to change.
- Page published.
Sources
Checked on .
- European Commission — official EES information
- GOV.UK — Foreign travel advice: France, entry requirements (fingerprint and photo rules for under-12s, passport validity)
- Berlin Brandenburg Airport — European Entry/Exit System (self-service eligibility, children without their own document)
- Munich Airport — EES, the new Entry/Exit System (manual processing for under-12s)
- House of Commons Library — The EU Entry/Exit system and EU travel authorisation system (CBP-10676)
- GOV.UK — Apply for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA)
About this page
VIARYO is not a government body and this page is not an official source. We read the official information and the guidance published by border authorities and airport operators, summarise what it says, and record the date we last checked — you can read how we check our information. Where they disagree with us, they are right — confirm your own situation at the official EES page and with the authorities of the country you are travelling to.
We are building VIARYO so that families do not have to keep checking pages like this one themselves.