The Travel to Europe App: A Guide for Travelers (2025)

The EU is launching a series of new regulations and processes when it comes to travel to its member states (including the Schengen area).

With ETIAS on the horizon and the digitization of the Schengen visa process in progress, there's another overhaul on the way, and that's EES.

EES, short for Entry/Exit System, is a new biometric-based system designed to further optimize and modernize border control, making it more efficient and secure.

Created for non-EU travelers heading to the Schengen area, EES will replace physical passport stamps with digital "entry and exit" records when a passenger crosses through customs. With over 1,800 entry points, it's quite the project.

Complementing this brand new system comes a travel app called the Travel to Europe App.

What is the Travel to Europe App?

Developed by Frontex, which is the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the Travel to Europe App is a brand new application that will help non-EU/Schengen area citizens enter into the Schengen area. How does it help? It allows travelers to pre-register their travel information before getting to the EU border.

While this app isn't readily available to the public, pilot tests have already been completed.

Travelers from outside of the Schengen area/EU will be able to submit specific traveler details into the official mobile app before reaching the border. The goal is to help speed up the border process, helping to reduce waiting times and enhance security - two foundational pillars of the new EES.

How does the Travel to Europe App work?

A few details have been announced on exactly how the Travel to Europe App will work, as well as its design. Plus, there has already been successful testing. This includes testing on a number of passengers traveling into the Schengen area through a couple of different airports, including Sweden's Stockholm Arlanda Airport.

When and where the app is available, travelers with biometric passports will be able to:

• Pre-register travel document details, including "scanning" your passport with your mobile phone.
• "Read" the chip on their biometric passports.
• Take a "facial image" to verify your identity.

App-users will be able to submit this information up to 72 hours before they travel to help speed up the border process.

How to use the Travel to Europe App

While not widely available yet, according to the Deputy Executive Director of Frontex, Uda Särekanno, the app will work like this:

• Create a pin. To keep your information secure, you'll be prompted to create a 6-digit pin to be used with the Travel to Europe App.
• Create your Journey. Every time you go to the EU/Schengen zone through a country that offers the Travel to Europe App, you will be able to "create a journey". When you create a new journey, you will be prompted to add details and information. Each "journey" is a different trip into (and out of) Europe.
• Share your travel details. When creating your journey, you'll need to share your arrival date and estimated time of day you get to the border. With this information, you'll be asked which specific country you're entering, as well as how you are entering. For example, you will be prompted to add the specific airport if you are traveling by plane.
• Add co-travelers. Though specific details aren't clear, there will be functionality that allows you to add the people you are traveling with. This is optional, of course.
• Confirm your identity. After adding some details about your journey, you will need to confirm your identity through the app. The app will show you how to "scan" your passport (i.e. take a photo). You'll need to grant the app camera permissions to take a steady photo of the personal-information page of your passport.
• Read the NFC chip. Next, the app will prompt you to "scan" the chip within your biometric passport by holding your phone up to your passport. There are text and visuals in the app to show you exactly how to do this.
• Take a selfie. To confirm your identity matches the passport you're scanning, you will be prompted to take a selfie within the app. The app will guide you on how to take this selfie.
• Fill out a questionnaire. Once your identity has been confirmed, you'll answer a few questions about your trip. Most questions are multiple choice and include:
• Submit your Journey. Once you've completed all of the steps above, you'll be ready to submit your journey. Submitting your journey means that officials in your arrival country will be sent your journey for review. Once it has been reviewed, you'll be notified. It isn't clear how long the review process is.

Where can you use the Travel to Europe App?

According to the EU, the adaptation of the Travel to Europe app will be member to member, meaning each member country (France, Spain, Italy, etc.) can decide whether or not to incorporate it into their border processes. For now, Sweden is the only publicly confirmed country adopting the technology (once EES starts, later in 2025).

During a presentation at a digital summit, Uda Särekanno (Frontex's Deputy Executive Director) encouraged all EU member states to "Consider using this application and also make relevant investments."

He also asked that travelers to Europe be patient in the coming years as this new technology is released and implemented.

It's important to understand that the Travel to Europe App does not give travelers:

• A carte blanche to enter the EU/Schengen zone. Travelers must still pass through border control.
• A way to submit their fingerprints via their mobile app (though it does appear that Frontex is interested in a viable technology that supports this).

If and when member states offer the Travel to Europe App, like Sweden, the use of the app will be voluntary.

What else do we know about the Travel to Europe App?

In an announcement made by Frontex in the Spring of 2024, they said they were interested in finding the following technical solutions in relation to mobile apps:

• Facial image capturing technology
• Tech solutions for reading/scanning travel documents
• Mobile self-service solutions for fingerprint acquisition
• Customer service queue management software
• Solutions to read and validate visa/residence documents
• Biometric data capture solutions (with verification)
• Advanced integration of traveler information, as well as ticket solutions
• Solutions for the collection and storage of personal data on trains, ships, and more
• Travel authorization solutions

With this list, we can deduce that Frontex developers are looking for a variety of advanced technical solutions to collect data and offer self-service options to travelers, all from the convenience of their personal mobile devices.

Whether or not the Travel to Europe App will ever offer all of these features is unknown.

To offer advanced technologies in the Travel to Europe app, Frontex partnered with Inverid (formerly InnoValor), a Dutch tech company famous for ReadID. ReadID is a tech solution used by the Dutch police force and other European officials.

ReadID is a software that has the ability to read passport chips (which all modern biometric passports have) reliably and securely. Not only can ReadID technology read passport information, it also can validate it.

All taking place on a secure server, ReadID has "face matching" power, meaning it can verify that the passport and app-user are the same person via its advanced face matching technology. Their face matching technology is in partnership with iProov, a market-leading biometric solution founded in 2011.

These technologies, among others, were used in the Travel to Europe App, making a highly efficient and intuitive experience for non-EU travelers to Europe.

Who should use the Travel to Europe App?

The app is designed for non-EU citizens traveling to the Schengen area for short stays. So, stays under 90 days. This includes tourists, business travelers, as well as those visiting family or friends.

Third country nationals traveling into the Schengen area after the implementation of EES (expected in 2025), where the Travel to Europe App is available, can benefit from it.

The EU has pinpointed specific groups of people that can benefit from the Travel to Europe App including:

• Elderly travelers
• People with disabilities
• Families with young children

By pre-registering their information, these travelers can avoid long lines and help speed up the process for themselves (and others!).

The Travel to Europe app will also give you more time to complete those steps, as you can begin the process up to 72 hours in advance of travel.

How does the Travel to Europe App help you?

This app allows you to enter necessary information before you arrive at a European border (again, where it's available).

With that being said, it isn't clear what benefits using this app will give you at the border, if any. For example, will there be a separate line for app-users? Will you pass through border control faster? How exactly is it faster?

These questions haven't been answered, but we will share more details as soon as they've emerged. Make sure you're following Insurte for the latest information about EU and Schengen travel.

Is the Travel to Europe App secure?

It's natural for biometric systems - especially apps - to raise important questions about data privacy.

The Travel to Europe App is an official EU app designed with these concerns in mind. Sensitive operations like document checks are carried out on secure backend servers rather than on users' devices.

The app complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other EU privacy laws. Additionally, Frontex is working alongside innovative projects to ensure the technology meets the highest ethical and legal standards.

What comes next?

In November of 2024, Frontex announced that the app is ready. Its launch will coincide with the launch of EES (which has been pushed to October 2025). On top of that, it will only be available in the member states that have chosen to adopt the application. Currently, that's Sweden.

Third-country travelers can expect ETIAS to become operational at the end of 2026. ETIAS will require all non-EU/Schengen travelers to apply for a pre-travel authorization before heading to the Schengen area.

On top of that, the entire Schengen visa process is being modernized into a digital system, much different than today's hyper-manual process. This online system is the EU VAP (European Union Visa Application Platform). Technologies like the Travel to Europe App (with EES) pave the way for this sort of digitization of European travel.

EU VAP is expected to be fully operational by 2030.

FAQs about the app