Entry rule

What does the EES record about you, and what if it is wrong or you overstay?

In short

What is stored, for how long, and can a mistake be fixed?

The EES stores your travel-document data, every entry and exit, your face and fingerprints, and any refusal of entry. Entry and exit records are kept 3 years; your file 3 years and 1 day after your last exit, or 5 years if no exit was ever recorded. Overstaying puts you on a list border, immigration and visa staff can see — and there is a published route to have a record amended.

Back to entry rules

Applies to

Non-EU travellers on a short stay in the European countries using the EES.

Check before you rely on it

Fine amounts, detention rules and re-entry bans are set by each country's own law and are not published on the pages we opened, so no figure appears here.

Information checked: August 8, 2026

An overstay used to be an argument about ink. Now it is a record, and a record can be both used against you and — this is the part almost nobody publishes — corrected.

Back to entry rules What happens at the border

Retention

How long each kind of record is kept

Note the third row: the longest retention is the one that applies when an exit is missing.

Record	Kept for	Counted from
Records of entries, exits and refusals of entry	3 years	The date on which the record was created Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, on the official EES site travel-europe.europa.eu (developed and hosted by eu-LISA) — Data held by the EES (read August 8, 2026)
Your individual file containing personal data	3 years and 1 day	The date of your last exit, or of your refusal of entry if you were not permitted to enter Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, on the official EES site travel-europe.europa.eu (developed and hosted by eu-LISA) — Data held by the EES (read August 8, 2026)
Your file when no exit has been recorded	5 years	The expiry date of your authorised stay — the longest retention on the list, and it is the one that applies if an exit is missing Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, on the official EES site travel-europe.europa.eu (developed and hosted by eu-LISA) — Data held by the EES (read August 8, 2026)
Entry and exit records for a family member of an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen who holds no residence document and is accompanying them	1 year	The date the exit record was created Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, on the official EES site travel-europe.europa.eu (developed and hosted by eu-LISA) — Data held by the EES (read August 8, 2026)
The same family member, where no exit has been recorded	Not kept at all	There is no retention and no calculation of the length of the authorised stay for this group Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, on the official EES site travel-europe.europa.eu (developed and hosted by eu-LISA) — Data held by the EES (read August 8, 2026)

After each period expires the data is erased automatically. The legal basis is Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 establishing the Entry/Exit System — Articles 14, 16 to 19 and 23 (Chapters II and III); transfers to third countries are governed by Article 41(1), (2) and (6), and Article 42.

The published facts

What the European Commission publishes about your record

Each line links the official page and the day we read it. Sources read 2026-08-08.

The count is now the system's, so ask for it

You have the right to receive information from passport control officers on the maximum remaining duration of your authorised stay. There is also an official online tool, and equipment installed at some crossing points. With no stamp in the passport, asking is how you find out.

How to check the duration of your authorised stay

Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, on the official EES site travel-europe.europa.eu (developed and hosted by eu-LISA) — Data held by the EES (read August 8, 2026)

Overstaying puts you on a list, not just in a file

Stay longer than permitted and you are identified as an overstayer, and your data is automatically added to a list that passport control officers, immigration officers and visa-issuing staff can all see. It follows you into the next application, not only the next border.

What happens if you overstay

What follows the list is national law, not one European penalty

Consequences depend on the national legislation of the country concerned: you may be removed from the territory, be subject to administrative fines or detention, or be prevented from re-entering. Because each country sets its own, no single figure applies, and this page does not invent one.

What happens if you overstay

There is a published way off the overstayer list

If you provide the competent authorities with credible evidence that you exceeded the authorised duration because of unforeseeable or mitigating circumstances — the official example is hospitalisation due to a serious injury — your data can be amended in the system and you can be removed from the list. Keep the documents that prove it.

What happens if you overstay

You can ask to see, correct or delete your record

You have the right to request access to data relating to you, to request that inaccurate or incomplete data is corrected, and to request that unlawfully processed data is erased. To use any of these you must contact a data controller or data protection officer in one of the countries using the EES — preferably one you actually travelled to.

What rights do you have as regards your personal data

If they say no, there is a second door

Lodging a complaint means asking for a fresh assessment, for instance when your request to access, delete or amend your data is refused. It goes to the supervisory authority of the country that processed your data, or to the European Data Protection Supervisor for processing by European agencies such as Frontex, eu-LISA or Europol.

How to make a complaint about your data

Who can look at it

Border, visa and immigration authorities in the participating countries, plus law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes. Carriers can check only whether a short-stay visa holder has used up the entries their visa allows, and see no further personal data.

Who can access your personal data

The stay clock does not run for some family members

The calculation of authorised stay, and the alerts raised when it expires, do not apply to non-EU family members of EU, EEA or Swiss nationals who are accompanying or joining them in a country other than the national's own. If that is you, the overstay machinery described here is not aimed at you.

What happens if you overstay

If the record is wrong

Five steps to have an EES record amended

1.Work out which country recorded the entry or exit you believe is wrong — the request goes to a country, not to the EU in general.
2.Contact the data controller or the data protection officer in that country, using the official contact list on the EES site; the official advice is to prefer a country you actually travelled to.
3.State which of the three rights you are exercising: access to your data, correction of inaccurate or incomplete data, or erasure of unlawfully processed data.
4.If the overstay was caused by unforeseeable or mitigating circumstances, attach the credible evidence — the official example is hospitalisation for a serious injury — because that is what allows the record to be amended and the overstayer flag removed.
5.If the request is refused, lodge a complaint with that country's supervisory authority, or with the European Data Protection Supervisor where a European agency did the processing.

In short

Overstay and record questions

Counting days without a stamp, what an overstay flag leads to, and the route back.

How do I know how many days I have left in Europe without a passport stamp?

Ask the passport control officer — you have the right to be told the maximum remaining duration of your authorised stay. There is also an official online tool, and some crossing points have equipment you can use. Because there is no stamp any more, this is now a step you take rather than something you can read off your passport.

What actually happens if I overstay in the Schengen area now?

You are identified as an overstayer and added automatically to a list that border, immigration and visa staff can see. What follows depends on the country's own law and can include removal from the territory, administrative fines or detention, and being prevented from re-entering. No single European figure exists, so treat any specific number you read elsewhere with suspicion.

I overstayed because I was in hospital. Can that be fixed?

There is a published route. If you give the competent authorities credible evidence that you exceeded the authorised duration because of unforeseeable or mitigating circumstances — the official example is hospitalisation due to a serious injury — your data can be amended and you can be removed from the overstayer list. Keep the hospital documentation.

The EES has my entry or exit wrong. How do I get it corrected?

Contact a data controller or data protection officer in one of the countries using the EES, preferably one you travelled to, and ask for correction of inaccurate or incomplete data. If they refuse, you can lodge a complaint with that country's supervisory authority, or with the European Data Protection Supervisor when a European agency did the processing.

How long does the EES keep my data?

Entry, exit and refusal records are kept for 3 years from creation, and your individual file for 3 years and 1 day from your last exit or refusal. If no exit was recorded, the file is kept for 5 years from the expiry of your authorised stay. After each period expires the data is erased automatically.

Could not confirm

Numbers this page will not give you

Figures that circulate but were not on a page we could open. We name the gap rather than fill it.

Any actual fine amount, detention rule or re-entry ban length. The official page says these depend on national legislation and publishes no figures, so neither does this page.
How long a correction or complaint takes to be decided. No published service standard was on the pages we opened.
What counts as credible evidence beyond the official example of hospitalisation for a serious injury. The wording is open, and we will not narrow it by guessing.
Whether an amended record removes the overstay from every downstream system a visa officer might consult. The page states removal from the list, and no more.

What happens at the border

The companion page: first-crossing registration, why there is no stamp, and what refusing the scan means.

Open page

Entry rules

Where this sits among the other entry-and-document rules on the site.

Open page

Stay extension and overstay rules

The same class of problem on a different border, with its own penalties and its own paperwork.

Open page

What does the EES record about you, and what if it is wrong or you overstay?

What is stored, for how long, and can a mistake be fixed?

How long each kind of record is kept

What the European Commission publishes about your record

The count is now the system's, so ask for it

Overstaying puts you on a list, not just in a file

What follows the list is national law, not one European penalty

There is a published way off the overstayer list

You can ask to see, correct or delete your record

If they say no, there is a second door

Who can look at it

The stay clock does not run for some family members

Five steps to have an EES record amended

Overstay and record questions

How do I know how many days I have left in Europe without a passport stamp?

What actually happens if I overstay in the Schengen area now?

I overstayed because I was in hospital. Can that be fixed?

The EES has my entry or exit wrong. How do I get it corrected?

How long does the EES keep my data?

Numbers this page will not give you

What happens at the border

Entry rules

Stay extension and overstay rules

Leave each page knowing what to do next.

I need the next step

I know the problem

I am ready to choose