Do you need to register for EES before you travel?

How you register for EES at the border

1. Your first trip: your passport is scanned, your fingerprints are taken and your photo is captured — at a border guard’s desk, or at a self-service kiosk first.
2. When you leave: you may be asked for a fingerprint or your photo again.
3. How long it lasts: GOV.UK says your EES record is valid for 3 years.

There’s no fee to register for EES.

Can you pre-register for EES online?

Not on a website. The one way to give EES your details before the border is the EU’s Travel to Europe app: within 72 hours before you arrive in or leave a country that uses it, you can send your passport details and photo, or answer the entry questions. The EU’s EES website lists two countries using it so far:

Country	What the app does there
Sweden	passport details, photo and the entry questions
Portugal	the entry questions

The other countries using EES may add the app later. Using it is voluntary, and your fingerprints are still taken at the border, in front of a border guard.

Pre-registering for EES in Italy, France or Spain

Not yet: Italy, France and Spain aren’t among the countries using the app, so you register at the border on your first trip there, like anywhere else — passport, fingerprints and photo. Which countries use EES at all: EES, the Entry/Exit System.

Leaving from St Pancras, Dover or Folkestone

The EES checks happen there, before you leave the UK. At St Pancras you may be asked to use self-service pre-registration kiosks before the ticket gates — at the station, on the day you travel, not in advance.

Once you’re registered, EES logs every entry and exit against your 90 days in any 180 — the day you arrive counts. More on the system: EES, the Entry/Exit System.