ETIAS Visa & EES Explained: Essential things you need to know

Hey guys, I'm still dealing with the remnants of my chest infection but I just wanted to jump in and film a quick video about something I'm getting so many emails about and that is about the ETIAS visa and the EES system, it's not easy to say that is it, and about the differences and what you've got to do and oh my god is that going to ruin your holiday. It's okay it's it's well it's annoying and it's gonna cost us all more money but let's dive into actually what the reality of it all is and what you need to do right now. So the first thing to know is that the ETIAS and the EES system are not the same thing, it's not just one visa that does all the things, they're two very very different things. The first one, the ETIAS, is a visa similar to what the ESTA is for the United States that you have to apply for in advance. Now they're saying that you should be able to apply for online and it will be done within a matter of minutes but there are situations they can envision where perhaps they need more information or something from you and it will take at least a couple of weeks to be able to get the documents to them or whatever it is that they ask you for to provide but they don't expect that to apply to many people. The ETIAS system or ETIAS visa is not yet live, it has actually been talked about now for years and it keeps being delayed and it keeps being delayed but it does look like it is coming more and more or getting closer and at the moment they're saying something like May 2025 and I guarantee the second I film this and then release this video the date will have moved again but at the time of me filming this May 2025 but there's also talk that for UK residents it might not even be until November 25 so do keep an eye out on any updates but for now you don't need to do anything it's not going to affect any holidays for 2024 or even the beginning of 2025 but just know that it is coming and that potentially sometime within the next sort of 12-18 months we will need to apply for a visa before we head into any of the EU or Schengen area countries so that's the ETIAS visa. Now the EES system which stands for entry and exit system which is actually a lot easier to say than EES but never mind that is totally different that is a way of them monitoring you and basically they're going to track you using your biometrics so it means that when the system goes live because again that one is not live but that is now scheduled firmly apparently to become live in November 2024 so in a couple of months what that means is when you go into your first EU country and it covers covers most of the Schengen country covers 29 I'll put up the countries that it covers here so it's basically the EU and then it covers I think it was Iceland and Liechtenstein Norway and Switzerland but Ireland and Cyprus are still going to be manually done so the point of the EES is it's to replace having to manually stamp passport it's supposed to do it all electronically and the way that they're going to do that is they're going to take photos of your face and they can take your fingerprints they're going to biometric take photos of your face not just a normal photo and then take your fingerprints and that means that then when you go through a border crossing they will use that information along with your passport to know how long you've been inside the EU or the Schengen zone if you've overstayed your 90 days and then you've also going to go on some sort of watch list if you've overstayed it there's all sorts of things that they're talking about with the EES but you do not have to do that in advance that is going to be done at the very first border so what it will mean especially at the beginning are huge queues huge delays while they try and do everybody's biometrics and as with everything the more it goes on and as time goes on and more people are in the system it will get a lot quicker to move people through but just expect at the beginning of these trips into the EU it is going to be chaos and lots and lots of delays so bear that one in mind now a few more details about each of these that you might find useful so the point of ETIAS is so that the EU can screen people before they are allowed to come into the EU so people who have been offenders people of course carnage I'm thinking specifically of like football hooligans and things they perhaps won't be allowed back in again people who have overstayed their welcome in the Schengen zone in the past they perhaps won't be allowed back in again there are lots of ways that the ETIAS visa is going to allow the EU to stop people coming inside their borders in advance so they're basically going to deny them visa access the ETIAS visa is going to be valid for three years from the date of when it is approved now that be really really clear here that does not mean you can spend three years inside the EU or the Schengen zone it means that it is valid for three years and as far as I understand it you can cross as long as you stay within your 90 out of every rolling 180 day period you can cross back and forth under the same ETIAS approval for the duration of that three-year period unless you have to change your passport so the ETIAS will be linked to your passport number or your ID number if you don't have a passport for 99% of us it's going to be your passport so if you have to change your passport for any reason during that period you'll have to apply for a new visa because the two will be linked together but it means then you don't have to apply every single time it will cost seven euros at the moment who knows whether that will stay that price or not but that then will be for the duration of those three years so yeah annoying and it will cost us a little bit more money but not horrendously difficult no more difficult than having to get a visa for any other country around the world that you travel to now EES is designed eventually to make it quicker to track across the border like I said once they've got your data in the system it will make it quicker for them to keep track of people rather than having to stamp everyone and check everyone there will actually be these self-service booths which I imagine are very similar when you come to an airport and you put your passport and it scans you I think it's gonna be something similar to that don't know how that's gonna work if you're traveling in a vehicle whether you're gonna need to get out the vehicle and go through one of these booths or not no clue how that's all gonna work yet but I think that is the plan certainly through airports and things as a way of moving people through a little bit quicker so that's it that's literally all there is to it one will be a visa that you have to apply for in advance and one will be the biometric data that is applied for or got when you actually first enter through one of the EU borders don't forget that none of those will affect how long you can stay in the EU if you are restricted to the 90 days like most of us are then you will still have to comply with the 90 and 180 day rolling period if you're confused by what that all means and want to know how to get the most out of it and understand how long you've been in the system this is the video to watch I have been told it's really helpful help so many people understand how it all works and how to make the most out of their time so I hope it does that for you as well as always feel free to subscribe if you want to do more tips and advice for touring around the UK and Europe thank you for your time and I'll see you on the next video take care bye