section_path: Regulation of external borders/Entry conditions for third-country nationals/Passport stamp
section_name: Passport stamp
paragraph_text: Passport stamp
  
  Until the EES is fully functional, certain travellers receive a passport stamp when entering and exiting the Schengen Area.All 29 European countries within the Schengen Area have entry and exit stamps of a uniform design. By April 2016, at a national level, 11 Schengen countries (Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain) had developed computer databases recording entries and exits of third-country nationals (i.e. travellers who are not EU, EEA or Swiss citizens) at external border crossing points. However, on a Schengen-wide level, there has been no centralised computer database that tracks entries and exits at all of the external border crossing points of the 29 Schengen countries, nor are entry and exit records from national databases shared between countries. As a result, law enforcement officials continue to rely on checking passport stamps as the primary way to check that travellers who do not have the right of free movement have not exceeded their length of permitted stay in the Schengen Area.
  
  Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 envisaged the establishment of the Entry/Exit System (EES) which will record third-country nationals' entries and exits when they cross the external borders of the Schengen Area in a central database, replacing passport stamps. EES had been expected to enter into operation at the end of May 2023, but was delayed until 2025.
  
  There are no systematic immigration checks when travelling between Schengen countries (i.e. crossing the internal borders of the Schengen Area). Passport stamps are never issued when travelling between Schengen countries, even when immigration checks between Schengen countries are temporarily re-introduced.
  
  When travelling to/from a non-Schengen country (i.e. crossing the external borders of the Schengen Area), the rules on stamping travel documents are as follows:
  
  Border officials are required, by law, to stamp the travel documents of third country nationals who do not qualify for one of the exemptions listed in the right hand column when they cross external borders, even when border controls have been relaxed. However, nationals of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City are exempt from this requirement, as are heads of state, whose visits were announced through diplomatic channels, and holders of local border traffic permits and residence permits issued by a Schengen member state. Certain exemptions also apply to the crews of ships and aircraft.
  
  Exceptionally, if stamping a person's travel document would cause serious difficulties (such as political persecution), border officials can instead issue a sheet of paper detailing the person's name, travel document number and entry date and location. However, in practice, border officials do not always stamp the travel documents of travellers as legally required. If a person who should have received an entry stamp cannot show one either upon request by a law enforcement officer or upon leaving the Schengen Area to a border official, the officer can presume that the person has been staying illegally in the Schengen Area and can expel them, unless the person can demonstrate using credible evidence (such as transport tickets and accommodation receipts) that they have not exceeded their permitted length of stay in the Schengen Area.
  
  Although, according to EU rules, third country nationals who hold residence permits should not have their travel documents stamped, France nevertheless requires third country nationals holding a visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour (a long-stay visa serving additionally as a residence permit for up to one year) to receive a passport stamp upon their first entry to the Schengen Area as a part of the process to validate the visa as a residence permit; without an entry stamp, the process cannot be completed.
  
  Third-country nationals who otherwise fulfil all the criteria for admission into the Schengen area must not be denied entry for the sole reason that there is no remaining empty space in their travel document to affix a stamp; instead, the stamp should be affixed on a separate sheet of paper.
  
  Entry and exit stamps are applied in black ink, except for the red date stamp and a two-digit security code in the middle. The two-digit security code must be changed at least once a month, although some Schengen countries (such as Greece) change security codes every day. The stamps bear the country abbreviation within a circle of stars in the top left hand corner, the name of the entry/exit border crossing point in Latin alphabet at the bottom, and an icon in the top right hand corner to denote the mode of entry/exit. Below the name of the border crossing point is an identifying number – a record is kept of the identity of the border officer to whom a given stamp is assigned at any given time. Entry stamps are rectangular and have an arrow into a square, while exit stamps are rectangular with rounded corners and have an arrow out of a square. The stamps do not indicate any maximum permitted duration of stay.
  
  Border guards are required to ensure the secure storage of passport stamps in locked safes between shifts. Border posts are advised to set out clear responsibilities and instructions for the distribution and use of passport stamps.
  
  According to European Commission recommendations and guidelines, stamps should be affixed in travel documents by border officials in the following manner:
  
  If a third-country national is refused entry to the Schengen Area, the border official is required to affix an entry stamp in the travel document, cancel the stamp by an indelible cross in black ink and write the letter corresponding to the reason for the refusal of entry to the right-hand side of the cancelled stamp.
  
  By contrast, if a border official has affixed a stamp in a travel document by mistake (as opposed to a refusal of entry), the stamp can be annulled by drawing two parallel lines through the top left-hand corner.