1. The border authorities or immigration authorities shall have access to search with the fingerprint data or the fingerprint data combined with the facial image, for the sole purpose of identifying any third-country national who may have been registered previously in the EES under a different identity or who does not fulfil or no longer fulfils the conditions for entry to, or for stay on, the territory of the Member States.
Where the search with the fingerprint data or with the fingerprint data combined with the facial image indicates that data on that third-country national are not recorded in the EES, access to data for identification shall be carried out in the VIS in accordance with Article 20 of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008. At borders at which the EES is operated, prior to any identification against the VIS, the competent authorities shall first access the VIS in accordance with Articles 18 or 19a of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008.
Where the fingerprints of that third-country national cannot be used or the search with the fingerprint data or with the fingerprint data combined with the facial image has failed, the search shall be carried out with all or some of the data referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) of Article 16(1) and point (a) of Article 17(1).
2. If the search with the data set out in paragraph 1 indicates that data on the third-country national are recorded in the EES, the competent authority shall be given access to consult the data of the individual file and the entry/exit records and refusal of entry records linked to it.