EES checks at Prague airport and ETIAS: what non-EU visitors should expect

Since October 2025, non-EU visitors on a short stay who fly into Prague from outside the Schengen area are registered in the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) at passport control. Instead of stamping your passport, the officer takes a photo of your face and/or scans your fingerprints. To handle the longer checks, Prague airport is adding five arrivals passport booths and four EasyGoGate self-service gates in Terminal 1 between September 2026 and the end of April 2027, and it warns that queues may form while the work goes on. ETIAS, the planned travel authorisation, is not in operation yet.

What it means for your trip

• Your first entry takes longest. Your data is recorded the first time you cross since the EES started. On later trips the officers only check your fingerprints or photo.
• Use a self-service kiosk if one is available, and complete every step. You will still see an officer afterwards.
• EU citizens are not registered in the EES and use their own desks and gates.
• Changing planes in another Schengen country? Then you are registered there, for example in Madrid or Frankfurt, not in Prague.
• Turkish citizens need a Schengen visa as before. They go through the same EES registration, but they do not need ETIAS.
• Visa-free visitors, including citizens of Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia, will need ETIAS once it starts. The EU has not set a date yet and says it will announce it several months before the launch. No applications are collected now, so ignore any website that asks you to pay for ETIAS today.

Allow extra time between landing and your next plan. If we arrange your airport transfer, your driver tracks your flight and waits for you in the arrivals hall.