Electromembrane extraction (EME) was inspired by solid-phase microextraction and developed from hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction in 2006 by applying an electric field over the supported liquid membrane (SLM). EME provides rapid extraction, efficient sample clean-up and selectivity based on the nature of the SLM and the electrical field. EME has been applied for the separation of ionizable compounds from complex samples, and EME is currently considered as an active research topic in the area of sample preparation and analytical chemistry. We expect that EME will play important roles in future analytical laboratories. This review summarizes and highlights the advancements in EME from 2006 to 2016 with focuses on 1) fundamental aspects, 2) device and operation modes, 3) performance, and 4) hyphenation to other analytical sample preparation techniques. Meanwhile, this review indicates that the main objectives for future EME are to establish EME as tool for routine applications, and to stimulate for further research on sophisticated systems based on the EME principle.