EES, ETIAS and €20 Fee: How confusion over Europe’s new border systems fuels visa scam

By Vera Anyagafu
A new digital stamp at Europe’s airports is free. The €20 travel authorisation some Nigerians are talking about does not apply to Nigerian visa applicants to Europe. 
Yet from Instagram vendors in Surulere to travel plazas in Onitsha, agents are charging Nigerian travellers up to N250,000 for both.
Since 10 April 2026, every Nigerian arriving in Paris or Frankfurt on a short-stay Schengen visa no longer gets an ink stamp. 
A camera and fingerprint scanner logs you into Europe’s Entry/Exit System (EES) automatically, at no cost.
The other system, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), is the source of the rumour. 
It will eventually c...