Queues construct at Spanish passport management as the brand new EU border checks roll out.
Credit : joyfull, Shutterstock
New EU border chaos: Can Brits with a TIE actually skip the EES queues?
When the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) lastly rolled out at Spanish airports this autumn, one query exploded in expat WhatsApp teams and Facebook boards: for those who’re a British nationwide with a Spanish TIE residence card, do you continue to must queue on the biometric machines with the vacationers?
The brief reply isn’t any – if in case you have the proper TIE. But the truth on the border is already proving messy, with confused workers and panicking travellers all thrown into the combo. Here’s what you truly have to know, in plain English, earlier than your subsequent flight.
What is EES – and who is meant to make use of it?
EES is the EU’s new digital border system for non-EU guests getting into and leaving the Schengen space. Instead of counting on ink stamps, it logs your entry and exit in a central database, alongside along with your passport particulars, a photograph and fingerprints the primary time you employ it.
It applies to “third-country nationals” coming in for brief stays – together with British holidaymakers, second-home homeowners and enterprise guests who don’t have EU residency. For them, EES routinely tracks the well-known 90-days-in-any-180 restrict. Go over, and the system will flag you as an overstayer.
But not everybody is supposed to the touch these new machines. Holders of residence permits or long-stay visas issued by a Schengen nation are handled in a different way. Legally, they’re not short-stay guests, so they’re meant to be exempt from EES registration and passport stamping. That’s the place Brits with Spanish TIE playing cards are available in.
Are Brits with a Spanish TIE exempt from EES – and does the inexperienced card nonetheless work?
To perceive the exemption, you must return to Brexit. Brits who have been already legally resident in Spain earlier than the tip of the transition interval are protected by the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement. Spain gave them a brand new biometric residence card – the TIE – that explicitly displays that standing.
Those Withdrawal Agreement TIEs, and different Spanish residence TIEs and long-stay visas, are what border guards are skilled to recognise as proof that you simply dwell in Spain, not simply go to it. If you present that card along with your passport whenever you cross the exterior Schengen border, you’re not presupposed to be put by way of EES, and your passport shouldn’t be stamped for 90/180-day functions.
The large catch is the outdated inexperienced residency certificates. Thousands of long-term British residents nonetheless have the little inexperienced paper card or A4 registration sheet and by no means bothered swapping it for a TIE. Inside Spain, they’re nonetheless legitimate for many admin. At the border, that period is ending.
Both the Spanish authorities and the UK Embassy have warned that, with EES, the inexperienced certificates will now not be recognised as proof of residency for journey. In different phrases, if you wish to be handled as resident – and exempt from EES – you now want a biometric TIE card. Without it, the system is prone to deal with you as a customer, depend your days and doubtlessly flag you as an overstayer, even for those who’ve lived on the Costa for years.
So, in easy phrases: If you’re British, dwell in Spain and maintain a TIE residence card (Withdrawal Agreement or one other long-stay route), you might be EES-exempt.
If you solely have the inexperienced certificates, or no residency in any respect, the system treats you as a vacationer and EES applies.
Which queue ought to TIE holders use – and what if workers ship you to EES anyway?
On paper, that is crystal clear. Spain’s Interior Ministry and the British Embassy have confirmed that British residents with TIEs shouldn’t use the brand new EES kiosks or queues when getting into or leaving Spain. Instead, you need to be a part of the EU / residents queue, present your passport and your TIE collectively, and be waved by way of like every other authorized resident.
On the bottom, issues are much less tidy. Early reviews from Málaga, Alicante and different busy airports paint a extra chaotic image: workers funnelling “all UK passports” into the EES line, harassed travellers being shouted at to make use of the machines, and TIE holders having to argue their case with over-stretched border officers. Some have been processed by way of EES anyway; others have had their UK passports stamped regardless of residing in Spain full-time.
The excellent news is {that a} rogue stamp doesn’t cancel your proper to dwell in Spain. Your TIE, not the ink in your passport, is what grants you residence. Even the EU’s personal steering accepts that Withdrawal Agreement residents are exempt from EES and from passport-stamping, and that incorrect stamps don’t flip them into vacationers in a single day.
That stated, it’s wise to minimise errors, particularly for those who additionally journey elsewhere in Schengen. If a border officer tries to push you in direction of EES, be well mannered however agency. Have your TIE in your hand along with your passport and say one thing alongside the traces of: “I’m resident in Spain and that is my TIE. EES doesn’t apply to residents.”
If you converse Spanish, a easy “Soy residente con TIE, no debo usar EES” can go a good distance at a busy passport management. If they insist, don’t trigger a scene and keep calme – allow them to do their job, preserve your boarding passes and paperwork, and make an observation of what occurred in case you must problem an “overstay” flag later.
And what about journeys past Spain? Your Spanish TIE is an EU-recognised residence card, so the EES exemption applies at any exterior Schengen border – for instance, for those who fly from London to Paris as a substitute of London to Málaga. Inside Schengen (say, flying Málaga to Amsterdam), there’s no EES examine in any respect; you’re transferring throughout the widespread journey space.
For British vacationers, second-home homeowners and frequent guests with no TIE, the image is far harsher. You will likely be anticipated to make use of EES, have your biometrics taken the primary time and settle for that day by day you spend in Schengen punches into that 90-day allowance. Owning an condominium in Torrevieja or a villa in Marbella makes no distinction: solely authorized residency does.
The backside line? If you reside in Spain and also you’re nonetheless clinging to the inexperienced certificates, it’s now not simply an administrative quirk – it’s a threat. As EES beds in over the approaching months, the most secure solution to keep away from nightmare queues and algorithmic overstayer alerts is to swap that piece of inexperienced paper for a biometric TIE, preserve it along with your passport and confidently use the residents’ queue.
Because within the new world of digital borders, being a Brit with a TIE doesn’t simply prevent time – it’s your defend in opposition to being handled like a vacationer within the nation you name dwelling.
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