Business travel to the EU in 2027: EES, ETIAS and the 90/180-day rule for non-EU directors

The Entry/Exit System: your days are counted automatically

The EES replaced the manual check of a traveller’s history at the Schengen external border. It was phased in from 12 October 2025 and has been fully operational in all Schengen countries since 10 April 2026. It records passport data, a facial image and fingerprints, and logs the date and place of every entry and exit. Travellers can pre-register their data up to 72 hours before entry through the Travel to Europe app. The system covers every non-EU national on a short stay in the 29 Schengen countries, visa holders and visa-free travellers alike.

For a frequent business traveller the practical change is the count. A border officer used to reconstruct the days from stamps; the EES knows them, and an overstay stays on record at every later crossing. A traveller who stays within the limit has proof of it.

ETIAS: €20, three years, start date still open

ETIAS is the travel authorisation for travellers who visit Europe visa-free: among them citizens of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and the Gulf states with a visa exemption. The application is online, before departure; the fee is €20 (the Commission raised it from the earlier €7), and the authorisation is valid for three years or until the passport expires, for 30 European countries.

The start date is the open point. On 28 April 2026 the Commission wrote that ETIAS was scheduled to start in the last quarter of 2026, with the exact date to follow later in the year. In October 2026 the official pages name a date to be announced several months before the launch, and the earlier quarter is gone from them. Reports that the start shifts to 2027 come from unofficial sources, so treat them as unconfirmed; checked against the official sources on 20 October 2026.

The 90/180-day rule for a director who leads a Dutch BV from abroad

A short stay is at most 90 days within any 180-day period, counted over the whole Schengen area. The period rolls: on each day of travel you look back 180 days and add up the days you were inside, with the day of arrival and the day of departure both counted. Two patterns for a director who leads a Dutch company from London or Dubai:

The days also do a second job. A Dutch BV is a tax resident of the Netherlands by law, and the tax treaty with your country can still assign it to the country where the real decisions are taken. A board that meets in the Netherlands, with minutes, with the books kept here and the bank account here, keeps the company where it was formed. Plan the board meetings in the Dutch weeks and record them. Our guides on substance requirements for a Dutch BV and local director requirements set out what the tax office and the banks look at, and eHerkenning for a foreign director covers the digital access to the Dutch authorities from abroad.

Business visit or work: when a residence permit is the better route

Attending meetings, negotiating, visiting your own company and signing documents are business visits within the short stay. The line is crossed when the stay becomes residence or the visit becomes a job: managing the Dutch office day to day for months on end, taking up employment with your BV to use the 27% expat ruling, or bringing the family. A residence permit then replaces the 90-day count. For United States citizens the Dutch American Friendship Treaty (DAFT) is the usual route; founders of an innovative product use the start-up visa; others apply for the self-employed permit; and an employee of a recognised sponsor comes as a highly skilled migrant, for which the 2026 salary thresholds were €5,942 gross per month from the age of 30 and €4,357 below it. The 2027 amounts are published on 1 January 2027. The routes and the conditions are on starting a business in the Netherlands; the company itself can be formed first, from abroad, through our BV formation.

British directors: the 20 November 2026 summit and what it leaves as it is

The United Kingdom is a visa-free country, so British owners and directors fall under the EES today and under ETIAS once it starts, and they count their 90 days like every other non-EU traveller. The next summit of the United Kingdom and the EU is in Brussels on 20 November 2026. The agenda the Prime Minister set out on 12 October 2026: a food and drink (SPS) agreement, a youth mobility scheme, the linking of emissions trading and energy, and police cooperation, followed by a dialogue on the long-term relationship. The single market and the customs union stay closed, and the travel rules stay as they are. For goods, product rules and VAT a British company keeps needing an EU entity; see starting from the United Kingdom.

Questions directors ask

Sources

• European Commission, ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System): home-affairs.ec.europa.eu
• European Commission, main differences between EES and ETIAS (28 April 2026): home-affairs.ec.europa.eu
• Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), required amounts: ind.nl; Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), residence permit for essential start-up staff: rvo.nl
• UK Government, Prime Minister’s statement to the House of Commons of 12 October 2026: gov.uk; UK and EU summit explainer: gov.uk