EES 90-Day Allowance in France 2026: How to Check It and Fix Errors

Some travellers to France find that the EU Entry/Exit System has miscounted their 90-day Schengen allowance. Learn more about the EES calculator and its limits, the most common errors and how to ask the French authorities to correct your record

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The EU's biometric Entry/Exit System (EES), in force since April 2026, was meant to make the Schengen 90-day rule easier to count. According to The Local France, problems during the rollout mean that some travellers' allowances have been recorded wrongly.

This matters for visa-free visitors to France and for non-EU residents of France who should not be in the system at all. Border guards may treat a wrong record as an overstay, so it is worth checking it before your next trip.

Has the EES flagged an overstay you know is wrong, or are you unsure how the 90-day rule applies to your residence permit?

A Migration lawyer on Visit World explains your rights under the Schengen rules, checks your documents and helps you prepare a request to correct your border record. Book a consultation with a migration lawyer before your next trip.

How does the EES count the 90-day rule?

The 90-day rule lets travellers from certain non-EU countries spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen zone without a visa. The countries include the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Japan.

Until now the rule was enforced by stamping passports on entry and exit. The EES replaces the stamps with a digital record of each crossing, which is meant to tighten border security and make enforcement more efficient.

About the earlier delays in launching the EU border control system EES — read more at the link.

Who has been affected by EES errors?

British author Jojo Moyes told the UK consumer organisation Which? that French border guards in Marseille accused her of overstaying as she left her second home in France. Her exit from the Schengen zone after an earlier trip to Portugal had not been registered correctly.

British residents of France holding a carte de séjour have also been affected. Residence permit holders should be exempt from the system, yet one reader of The Local said the EES showed only 16 days left for them to stay in the Schengen zone.

How to check your EES 90-day allowance

The European Commission has created an EES calculator that shows how long you can still stay in the Schengen zone. You enter your passport number and the details of your trip, and the calculator returns the days left on your allowance.

The calculator carries several caveats linked to the transition to the new system:

• the remaining stay it shows does not include any time in the Schengen area that began before 10 April 2026, whether that visit ended before that date or continued after it;
• until 6 October 2026 inclusive, the "OK" answer could be unreliable for holders of single or double entry visas who used any of their entries between 12 October 2025 and 9 April 2026, when those visas were not recorded in the EES;
• the calculator relies only on data from travellers registered in the EES.

The EES is not yet fully in place at every French entry point: according to The Local, Eurostar and the Port of Dover still carry out only partial checks. If you have travelled to France since April without being asked to complete EES pre-registration, the calculator will not count those days.

For now, The Local advises travellers to keep their own record of entries and exits and use it to make sure they stay within the 90-day limit.

Why might the EES show the wrong number of days?

Even for registered travellers, the system sometimes records an incorrect total. The most common reasons are listed below.

An exit was not recorded

The EES should log every entry and every exit, but during the rollout not every crossing has been captured. If the system shows you entering the Schengen zone but not leaving it, it assumes you have stayed the whole time and may conclude that you have reached or exceeded the 90-day limit.

A resident or long-stay visa holder was registered

Non-EU nationals living in an EU country such as France with a long-stay visa or a residence permit are exempt from the 90-day limit and should not be recorded in the EES. They go to staffed passport control and show their passport together with their permit or visa.

In the confusion of the launch, some permit holders were registered anyway, and the system now shows them as overstaying a limit that does not apply to them.

Travel details were attached to the wrong passport

In rare cases, one person's travel details have been linked to another person's passport. The Local notes that this has happened especially with twins.

About the EU's plans for Schengen visas valid for more than five years — read more at the link.

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How to correct a wrong EES record in France

If the EES calculator shows the wrong total, or a border guard says you have overstayed or are close to your limit when you know this is not true, you can ask the data controller to correct your travel record.

The request goes to the controller of the relevant country: either the country where the error was made or the country you travelled to last. In France this is the Directorate General for Foreign Nationals in France (Direction générale des étrangers en France) at the Ministry of the Interior, Place Beauvau, 75008 Paris. The contact address is [email protected].

The request should include:

• a scan of your passport;
• proof of your exit, such as a boarding pass or a ferry or train ticket;
• a request to have your data corrected;
• a scan of your residence permit or visa, if you hold one.

The data controller may ask for more evidence or information before correcting the EES record. Contact details for the controllers of the other EU and Schengen countries are published separately for each country.

What if you need to travel before the record is fixed?

If you have to travel while the correction is pending, carry proof of all your recent entries to and exits from the EU. This lets you show border guards your real entry and exit dates.

What should residence permit holders in France know?

According to The Local, the law is clear: a valid residence permit or long-stay visa takes precedence over passport records. A carte de séjour gives you the right to stay in France for the duration of the permit, and the 90-day rule no longer applies to you.

You therefore keep the right to travel even if the EES wrongly flags an overstay. It is still worth having the record corrected to avoid long explanations at the border.

What this means for travellers to France now

• Check your remaining days in the EES calculator, keeping in mind that stays before 10 April 2026 are not counted.
• Keep your own record of every entry and exit, with tickets and boarding passes.
• If the total is wrong, write to the data controller with your passport scan, proof of exit and, for residents, your permit.
• If you live in France with a carte de séjour or long-stay visa, use staffed passport control and carry your permit.

A wrong EES record can turn a routine border check into a dispute about your right to stay. A Migration lawyer helps you assemble the evidence and protect your status. Book a consultation with a migration lawyer on Visit World.

We remind you! In our previous article, we wrote about how Thailand is reducing its visa-free stay from 60 to 30 days and what changed from 15 September.

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