Greece Exempts British Travellers From EU Biometric Checks, Easing Summer Entry

British holiday-makers and enterprise travellers heading to Greece this summer time have been handed a uncommon piece of excellent information within the in any other case fraught roll-out of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES). Athens confirmed late on 18 April that, with speedy impact, UK passport holders won’t be required to offer fingerprints or facial scans when getting into the nation. The exemption applies in any respect Greek airports and seaports and can stay in place till additional discover.

Travellers on the lookout for a dependable, one-stop supply of knowledge on Greece’s evolving EES guidelines—in addition to visa and entry necessities for different locations—can flip to VisaHQ’s UK portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/). The platform supplies real-time steering, tailor-made doc checklists and non-obligatory concierge help, serving to holiday-makers and company travellers alike keep away from last-minute border surprises.

The choice is extremely important for the UK market. Greater than 4 million Britons visited Greece in 2024 and the determine was anticipated to nudge greater this yr, however tour operators had warned that obligatory biometric seize might create two-hour queues at island airports already working near capability. By retaining the acquainted ‘quick-stamp’ process for UK nationals, Greece hopes to maintain its competitiveness towards rival Mediterranean locations and keep away from scenes of chaos witnessed at some Schengen gateways since EES went stay on 10 April. Trade our bodies have applauded the transfer. The UK director of the Greek Nationwide Tourism Organisation, Eleni Skarveli, stated the coverage would “considerably scale back ready instances and ease congestion at airports,” whereas ABTA described it as “an early win for pragmatic border administration.” Journey firms are already adjusting buyer advisories: Jet2holidays, easyJet Holidays and TUI have every issued updates telling shoppers that no further steps are required when flying to Greece, aside from guaranteeing their passports have a minimum of three months’ validity past the keep. Behind the scenes, Greek border police will nonetheless document every entry and exit manually to adjust to EES data-retention obligations, however with out obliging passengers to enrol biometrics. Officers in tourism-dependent Spain, Portugal and Croatia are stated to be finding out the Greek mannequin amid fears that lengthy queues might deter high-spending non-EU guests. EU legislation does enable member states to use “proportionate facilitation measures” supplied safety requirements should not compromised.

Sensible Implications: UK companies operating incentive journeys or rotational workers assignments to Greece can count on routine arrival processing instances of 10–quarter-hour, much like the pre-EES period. Travellers ought to, nevertheless, word that the exemption is Greece-specific; different Schengen nations will nonetheless require the complete biometric course of. Employers are suggested to temporary travelling workers accordingly and to watch embassy channels in case the coverage is revised throughout peak season.