[TAR]

2 November 2026 at 7:37:52 #2799605

Posting this because every thread I found described the problem and none described a fix. Mine is now corrected, so here’s what worked. A heads up – I’ve just gotten Claude (which is what guided me through the entire process) to draft the text below – I hope it will be helpful to someone!

What happened. I entered the Schengen area in July 2026 and left 13 days later from a small regional airport in Switzerland on a private flight. EES recorded the entry but not the exit. I only found out months later, when a visa application came back with a notice from the issuing embassy saying my last departure wasn’t in the system.

Why it matters, if you’re wondering whether to bother. An open entry record means the system keeps counting. By the time mine was fixed it showed me as present for 120+ days against a 90-day allowance — on a 13-day trip I’d left months earlier. It grows by a day every day. You don’t want to meet that at a border desk.

Check your passport first. This was the thing that cracked it. Although manual stamping was supposed to have been replaced by EES, the border officer at that small airport stamped my passport anyway. So I had a physical exit stamp from the exact authority whose system had no record of the exit. That turns the request from “please believe me” into “please reconcile your own records.” Check your passport before assuming you have nothing.

Where to send it. The responsible authority is the country whose border you exited through, not where your visa came from. The EU publishes national contacts at travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/contact-details-for-data-protection-matters. For Switzerland that’s the State Secretariat for Migration.

What they asked for. Passport copy, a precise description of the amendment (current state of the data, requested new values, reason for each), and boarding passes — and they wanted it all by post, not email.

If you have no boarding pass. Private or charter flights don’t issue one. I said so explicitly rather than ignoring the request, and substituted the general declaration — the operator’s record of the flight as flown, with the passenger manifest. Any operator will provide it. Don’t let a checklist item you can’t satisfy stall the file; explain the gap and offer the better document.

Timeline. Request posted 10 September. Decision dated 23 September — under two weeks. The decision then took until 2 November to reach me, because it’s served as a formal instrument through the embassy rather than emailed. So if you’re waiting, the decision may already exist.

Verify afterwards. travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/check-how-long-you-can-stay reads your actual record with your passport number. Mine now returns OK with the correct remaining days. Note it shows only the remaining number, not your crossing history.

Happy to answer questions.

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[Anna]

Reply 1 of 1 • 2 November 2026 at 18:45:55 #2799612

Hi TAR,

Welcome to MySwissAlps.

Thank you for sharing this useful information.

Glad you got the issue resolved.

Regards,
Anna