European Entry / Exit System (EES):
Stricter Swiss Control of Schengen Days

• On 10 April 2026, the European Entry/Exit System (EES) became fully operational across all Schengen states, including Switzerland.
• The EES has material practical implications for corporate executives, employers managing globally mobile workforces and private individuals who travel frequently to Switzerland or other Schengen states.
• Swiss border control authorities can now enforce the 90/180-day rule under the Schengen regime with considerably greater accuracy and rigour than was previously the case.
• The EES raises data protection concerns for third-country nationals who are neither EU nor EFTA citizens, and employers are advised to ensure staff carry valid residence documents, keep track of travel to prevent overstays, and update internal policies and privacy notices accordingly.

The Core Change with the EES
Under the – unchanged – Schengen rules, individuals who are neither nationals of an EU Member State nor of any of the EFTA Member States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) may stay in the Schengen area for no more than 90 days in any rolling 180-day period.

While seemingly straightforward, the calculation has long been difficult for travellers and border officials, especially with multiple Schengen stays: Before the EES, non-EU/EFTA travellers typically only showed passports at entry into the Schengen area, with passport scans, if at all, recorded in national data systems. Swiss border authorities had to rely on manual passport stamps and incomplete records to monitor compliance with the 90/180-day Schengen stay rule, focusing mainly on overstays within Switzerland – effectively counting only "Swiss days". This led to some leniency where travellers exceeded the overall Schengen limit but not their time in Switzerland alone.

Under the EES, that approach ends. The new system provides Swiss border officers with an automated, Schengen-wide record of each non-EU/EFTA traveller's entries and exits, and it generates overstay alerts automatically. Swiss authorities can now identify and enforce overstays based on the traveller's cumulative time across the entire Schengen area, even where only a small portion of that time was spent in Switzerland.

Private aviation offers no exception. Non-EU/EFTA nationals arriving or departing the Schengen area via Switzerland by corporate aircraft or private jet must use a designated Swiss customs airport or airfield and are processed under the EES in the same manner as commercial passengers, including biometric registration and border checks.

Overstaying continues to carry administrative and criminal consequences, including refusal of entry, removal measures, fines and long-term entry bans. The difference is that detection is now largely automated and comprehensive.

Data Protection Implications
Under the EES, travellers registered in the EES for the first time must provide a facial image and fingerprints (with few exceptions, such as children under a certain age), which constitute biometric data. Refusal to do so results in refusal of entry. Holders of valid residence permits issued by a Schengen state are generally exempt from EES registration, but only if they can present a valid residence document at the border.

EES data is retained for three years from the last recorded exit, with the retention period effectively extended by subsequent exits. Where no exit record exists, the data may be retained for five years from the expiry of the authorised stay period, to enable authorities to trace the individual concerned and take appropriate measures.

Access to EES data is available to border and visa authorities. Designated law-enforcement authorities may also consult EES data for the prevention, detection or investigation of terrorist offences or other serious crime.

Travellers must be informed, including at the time of entry, of the maximum authorised duration of their stay, and they may check the remaining duration at any time using the European Commission's public short-stay calculator (https://home-affairs.ec.europa).

Travellers may request access, rectification or completion, restriction of processing and, where data was unlawfully recorded, erasure of their data. In Switzerland, such requests must be submitted to the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). The Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) has published model request templates to assist data subjects in exercising these rights.

Practical Consequences and Recommendations
The shift from national to Schengen-wide enforcement has a practical impact for executives, employers managing globally mobile workforces and private individuals who travel frequently to Switzerland for business or personal purposes. Time already spent in other Schengen states now verifiably reduces the days available under the 90/180-day rule for stays in Switzerland.

Therefore, employers should ensure that cumulative Schengen-area days are managed proactively rather than (or in addition to) determining them on a country-by-country basis. To this end, employers are advised to: (i) implement "shadow tracking" by maintaining independent logs of all Schengen-wide travel (including personal trips), and (ii) update internal privacy notices and travel policies
to reflect the employer’s need to track travel itineraries and permit statuses.

Furthermore, non-EU/EFTA nationals with a residence permit in the Schengen area should carry the original of such permit with them when travelling, as failure to do so may result in them being erroneously registered as "short-stay visitors", triggering a 90-day countdown that is administratively burdensome to rectify.