Several British travellers have told The Local and consumer organisation Which? how they were incorrectly accused of overstaying their 90-day allowance due to the chaotic introduction of the EU's new EES biometric border checks. While teething troubles with the new passport check system have mostly focused on long queues, some travellers faced more serious problems as their days in the EU Schengen zone were wrongly recorded.
British author Jojo Moyes told Which? that French border guards in Marseille accused her of overstaying when departing from her second home in France because her exit from a previous trip to Portugal had not been registered correctly. She was warned by a senior border control officer that attempting to re-enter Europe before the issue was resolved could result in a €10,000 fine and a two-year ban. Which? reported being contacted by dozens of people with similar stories, including elderly parents whose exits via Bilbao airport were not recorded and travellers temporarily detained on the Serbian-Romanian border due to an unlogged Channel Tunnel journey.
The UK-France border has been a source of concern, with the EES system not yet fully implemented at some entry points like Eurostar and the Port of Dover, where it applies to only a small minority of travellers. Additionally, a British carte de séjour residency permit holder in France contacted The Local France after being incorrectly registered with EES and flagged as an overstayer. Non-EU citizens resident in the EU or Schengen zone should not be subject to EES checks and should instead present their passport and residency permit or visa at a manned control point.
The EU 90-day rule allows citizens from non-EU countries including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Japan to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the Schengen zone without a visa. Travellers who overstay face sanctions ranging from fines to entry bans or deportation. The chaotic implementation of EES, including occasional suspensions to ease delays, has caused entry and exit dates to be missed, meaning unrecorded exits lead the system to assume travellers remained in the zone continuously.
The EU has created an online calculator allowing people to check their remaining allowance days and challenge incorrect calculations by contacting relevant data commissioners.
Source: The Local. Read the original report ↗