Where to next?
Discover inspiring destinations, recommended by our in-house travel experts. Know the best places to go, who to book with and how to pay less.
Join Which? TravelDoes the EU wrongly think you’ve overstayed your trip? How to check online
Plus, what to do if your Entry-Exit System data looks wrong
An Orwell prize-nominated investigative journalist, Kate lives in Portugal and covers news, travel rules, tourist taxes and visas.
You can check how many days the EU thinks you’ve spent in the Schengen zone using its official online tool
If you visited a country in Europe this summer, such as Spain, France, Italy or Portugal, you might want to check how many days the system thinks you’ve spent in the Schengen Zone, according to the new digital Entry-Exit System (EES) border checks.
British passport holders may spend 90 days in every 180-day period in Europe’s Schengen Zone countries. The EU’s EES checks, rolled out in April 2026 affect British passport holders when they visit countries in the Schengen zone, and involve taking fingerprints and a headshot at the border.
When they’re fully rolled out, they will completely replace passport stamping. However, during peak travel times this summer, countries were able to suspend checks to avoid excessive queues, instead falling back on traditional border checks and passport stamps. Some countries are still able to suspend checks.
It’s sensible to check your details are up to date and accurate in the system, in order to make sure your Schengen days aren’t used up before your next trip to a country in the Schengen zone.
Luckily, you can do this quickly and easily online using Europe’s official Check How Long You Can Stay tool. Read on to learn how to use it, and what to do if you think there’s been a mistake with your data.
How to check your EES status online
- Go to Europa’s Check How Long You Can Stay tool.
- Type in your passport number and your passport issuing country (eg United Kingdom GBR).
- Choose a country off the list – it can be one you plan to visit soon, or you can just use an example country.
- If you’re checking for a particular upcoming holiday, type in your expected travel dates in ‘Intended date of entry’ and ‘Intended date of exit’. Or, leave these fields blank.
- Complete the ‘Antispam’ check and submit
You will then see a green ‘OK’ if your stay would be authorised, or a red ‘Not OK’ if the system does not think you’ll have enough days left to spend in the Schengen zone to visit the country selected.
It will also tell you how many days you’d have remaining to spend out of 90 in the country selected.
Just keep in mind that the tool does not reflect any visits made to the Schengen zone before 10 April 2026.
If something looks incorrect – for example, it says your stay is ‘Not OK’ even though you know you have plenty of days left to spend in the Schengen zone – you’ll need to ask to have your data corrected.
How to correct your data if something’s wrong
If you spot that you seem to have too many or too few days left to spend in the Schengen Zone, or the counter ticks down daily even though you’re back home in the UK, you have the right to ask for your data to be checked and potentially updated in the system.
Unfortunately, it’s not always a quick or simple process. You’ll need to head to the Travel to Europe data protection page and scroll to the Schengen Zone country you last visited, eg France.
Then find the name and email address of the Data Controller for that country. Keep any evidence of your movements in and out of the Schengen Zone to hand, for example flight tickets, transport receipts, shopping receipts. You may be asked to send a scan of your passport and provide further information or evidence before your records are updated.
Are you worried your exit from an EU country wasn’t properly recorded? Did you try the tool and get an unexpected ‘not OK’ or ‘OK’ result? We want to hear from you – send us your stories to travelexperts@which.co.uk
