I got caught out by the EU-wide blunder threatening innocent Brits with travel bans

AFTER a summer of lengthy European airport queues while signing up to the new EES system, Brits were beginning to hope they could look forward to a calmer summer next year.

But it turns out there’s a whole host of new problems on the horizon – as computers are failing to log when a British holidaymaker returns to the UK.

On my recent trip to Sweden, I was stopped at the border and told I had overstayed my stay in the Schengen Area by 145 days – automatically, I was facing a travel ban and potential fine.

I was blissfully unaware of the EES error until I handed my passport to border control who to my horror said: “Your passport says you’re still in France“.

I was pretty floored because I hadn’t been to France recently. But it turned out my exit hadn’t been recorded from when I took the Eurostar to Paris back in March.

Considering I was entering Sweden in early November, that took me well over the allowance of 90 days within any rolling 180-day period.

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It totted up to 235 consecutive days.

If I was unlucky like some, I could have been turned away at the gate and put straight back on a plane to the UK or fined up to €10,000 (£8,300).

However, the lovely staff member at Stockholm Arlanda Airport simply asked me how long I had stayed for and luckily for me, took my word for it.

I had only stayed for two days in Paris, rather than the over 200 it had recorded.

With a few clicks the border control officer corrected my online EES record and sent me through without so much of a second look.

The entire situation could have been so much worse – as experienced by lots of Brits whose exits have been wrongly recorded by EES machines… or in some cases, not recorded at all.

In one recent case, famous author Jojo Moyes was threatened with a fine and ban on travel into Europe after being labelled an ‘overstayer’.

Jojo Moyes’s ordeal happened on her way home from a five-day trip to Marseille in October.

She was stopped at the border and told she had overstayed in the Schengen Area.

However, the writer had only spent 23 days in Europe in the last six months – what had happened is that her departure from Portugal in May had not been logged.

She told Which?: “The clock had been ticking ever since. Under Brexit rules, I was now an overstayer.

“The border control senior officer at Marseille warned me that I should not attempt to re-enter Europe until it is sorted out, or face a €10,000 (£8,300) fine and a two-year ban.”

Another British woman I know professionally was also stopped from entering Finland after a trip to Rome.

She told me: “I was stopped at the border in Finland last November by border control who said my record was showing I was still in Italy.

“While I had registered with EES going into Rome, it hadn’t recorded me leaving.”

She added: “After a lot of back and forth with border control officers and around 45-minutes of waiting, it was recognised as an error and I was let into the country.”

One of the worst cases though, was of Mrs Paula Pugh – who was essentially deported from Italy shortly after arriving on a family holiday.

Paula had just landed in Italy when she was told at border control that she had overstayed her 90 day limit and as a result she was escorted out of Italy.

Talking to The Telegraph, Paula explained that she had only taken three short visits to Spain and one to France before her Italy break – which totted up to 22 days.

However, the system hadn’t recorded her last exit from the Schengen Area, and Paula was put back on a plane by police on the same day.

Her passport was even given to the captain for the duration of their flight.

How can you avoid these problems?

If you’re worried that you’ve not been logged out of the EU’s Schengen Area properly, there is a way to do so.

Before travelling, I’d advise you to check the days left on your record with an EES online tool from The European Commission.

You just need to fill in the details from your passport, where you’re headed next, and it will reveal how many remaining days you have left.

But note: this does not include any stays recorded before April 10, 2026.

If you have spotted an error in the number of days, you will need to contact the Data Controller for the country in which you believe the error was made.

Your email explaining the mistake will need to include a passport scan and proof of your exit which can be a boarding pass for a flight, train or bus ticket from the Schengen zone.

The list of Data Controllers is available here.

Has this happened to you? Get in touch by emailing alice.penwill@thesun.co.uk

What’s the issue with EES?

EES was fully rolled out on April 10, 2026 – the system was designed to make travel for Brits quicker and easier through the Schengen Area.

The electronic system replaces the need for passport stamps by recording entry and exit through fingerprint scanning instead.

When you arrive at the destination the scan will record your entry, and when you leave, it will record the exit – or it should.

However, the issue with EES is that at the moment, Brits are still registering at the special machines which have resulted in huge queues at airports.

On occasion, EES machines have been turned off entirely to ease congestion – but this means that not everyone will then be recorded correctly.

In some cases glitches with the EES system means it could be turned off – passengers could then be manually stamped out, but this won’t appear on the system.