Introduction of European Entry-Exit Scheme (EES)

[The exile]

You get escorted to the baggage area to identify and retrieve your luggage.

Garnering looks of sympathy / opprobrium from your fellow travellers as you go. I experienced something similar (for entirely innocent reasons) on the inner-German border many years ago.

 

[stadler]

No, April 10th is still the target date.

I find it very hard to believe that the rollout will actually be complete by then. That is less than two months away and dozens of the smaller ferry ports and land crossings and airports have not even begun their EES rollout yet. They still have no EES equipment installed. That might still be their official target date but there is very little chance that it will actually happen.

 

[Class73Electro]

So successfully escaped Arlanda

They accepted my what am I doing answer of "getting the ferry to Poland". Though did ask to see proof of accomodation there.

Photos, fingerprinted and stamped...

Pretty quick though. Was one of the last off the plane, dawdled to the border, and only took 10 minutes. Have had longer times before!

 

[Rab Smith]

Has anyone went through Alicante Airport recently? How are things there?

 

[Krokodil]

I've just had a fancy camera look at me and I have scanned my fingerprints at Svilengrad, the border post for Turkey-Bulgaria trains. I guess that's me registered then.

 

[D1511]

Ive just sailed through the e-Gates at Schiphol after having my fingerprints and face done on my last visit before Christmas.
Total duration, about 45 seconds

 

[westcoaster]

Passed through Tenerife last week.

Had seen posts about long (multiple hours) lines.

Arrived at the terminal by bus where we meandered around the escalator entrance, up the escalator and into the terminal to be met by a zig zag of tensor barriers. All of the machines were switched off and we joined a big line of people to use the e gates. They split the lines in two, one for families and those under 12 and one for those over 12.

The machines were bugging out only about 60-70% open. And somepeople were waiting a minute or two for the gates to open.
Luckily mine worked a charm and worked first time, then everyone had their passports checked and stamped.

Took about 40-45 minutes in total, and it was a quiet time hate to think how long it would have been at peak time.

No fingerprints given.

On the way home it took 10 minutes, through the e gates and a manual stamp and check.

 

[sprunt]

I went through Athens airport both ways over the last week, no sign of EES beyond the posters and a switched off row of what I assume are the terminals - just passport stamps in and out.

 

[Howardh]

I can't see how this system can ever be fully implemented. There are simply too many travelling to/from the Schengen area and most by plane, where airports have limited capacity to cope under current circumstances. Could end up with planes not being able to land as there's no room for the passengers @ immigration (Menorca springs to mind from past experience) This has cost £mmm's and is probably too expensive to scrap, yet it all isn't fit for the purpose.

Think a way has to be found to process all pax before they even leave their house. If these EES machines are in airports, why aren't they in (say) British towns and airport departure lounges so we can get processed before we go? After all, no-one needs to supervise, it's your passport and your bios? Then on arrival we simply go through the egate where all the info is gathered (and on the way out)?

 

[Starmill]

If these EES machines are in airports, why aren't they in (say) British towns and airport departure lounges so we can get processed before we go?

Because you'd still have to have your biometric data checked at the border point anyway? It'd add nothing.

 

[Freightmaster]

I can't see how this system can ever be fully implemented. There are simply too many travelling to/from the Schengen area and most by plane, where airports have limited capacity to cope under current circumstances. Could end up with planes not being able to land as there's no room for the passengers @ immigration (Menorca springs to mind from past experience) This has cost £mmm's and is probably too expensive to scrap, yet it all isn't fit for the purpose.

Reminds me of the ongoing 'Making Tax Digital' farce - millions of pounds spaffed
up the wall for absolutely no benefit whatsoever to either taxpayers or the HMRC.



MARK

 

[The exile]

Because you'd still have to have your biometric data checked at the border point anyway? It'd add nothing.

But that could surely be done by slightly adapted e-gates.

 

[Starmill]

But that could surely be done by slightly adapted e-gates.

It's a possibility yes, these already exist in terms of hardware. Ultimately though some Schengen countries are not in favour of more people using them if they're third country nationals.

 

[Class73Electro]

I can't see how this system can ever be fully implemented. There are simply too many travelling to/from the Schengen area and most by plane, where airports have limited capacity to cope under current circumstances. Could end up with planes not being able to land as there's no room for the passengers @ immigration (Menorca springs to mind from past experience) This has cost £mmm's and is probably too expensive to scrap, yet it all isn't fit for the purpose.

Think a way has to be found to process all pax before they even leave their house. If these EES machines are in airports, why aren't they in (say) British towns and airport departure lounges so we can get processed before we go? After all, no-one needs to supervise, it's your passport and your bios? Then on arrival we simply go through the egate where all the info is gathered (and on the way out)?

It won't be the airports - it will be the ferry terminals. As an example, away from the obvious Dover-Calais, the ferry terminal in Caen normally has about three-four car desks... the Guillaume de Normandie ferry can hold approx. 460 cars. Assuming a half full ferry (freight not included) means, say 200 cars. if each car has four people inside that's 800 people to be processed, and they're in a car, so not even just going up to a desk, (not sure yet how (if?!) cars are being processed). If we assume five minutes per car...


200 cars... 50 per desk with five minutes each... we're looking at 4 hours... That's nearly as long as the crossing. If your on the afternoon ferry getting at 21:00... well...

 

[Reliablebeam]

It's like they've taken everything that's bad about other international systems and combined it into one - as I said upthread I tried to play ball with this system by pre-registering on the Visit EU app - Sweden being the only country it works for - and it made no difference, you still have to talk to their border officers who then repeat the same nonsense questions - it seems these northern Europeans take particular delight in being petulant and nasty to British passport holders - this is probably where the worst aspects of this system come from. If I didn't have to visit these countries for business, I wouldn't, but it's a shame to have to abandon holidays in southern Europe, but if this is what they want, I won't be bothering anytime soon. I voted remain for the avoidance of doubt! Even the US manages to have frequent traveller programs and visas.

We allow Schengen citizens the use of UK e-gates - I think we need to start thinking about retaliation here. Many of us would like to start reversing Brexit but is seems any goodwill is just met with more problems and aggravation. You can say 'we asked for this' but many of us didn't and the UK has taken expedient solution to avoid problems - why can't they?

Edit - incidentally whilst I was in Sweden recently, I got news reports that Starmer was offering to extend the protection of UK nuclear arsenal to Sweden. Anything like this should be linked back to obviating these border problems. But knowing Starmer's negotiating skills Britain will probably end up paying Sweden for the privilege of protecting them..

 

[Mag_seven]

Experience at Brussels airport recently - sent to a manned booth on both entry and exit with fingerprints scanned and passport stamped. I don't know if the fingerprint scanning was linked to the EES system.

 

[zero]

It's like they've taken everything that's bad about other international systems and combined it into one - as I said upthread I tried to play ball with this system by pre-registering on the Visit EU app - Sweden being the only country it works for - and it made no difference, you still have to talk to their border officers who then repeat the same nonsense questions - it seems these northern Europeans take particular delight in being petulant and nasty to British passport holders - this is probably where the worst aspects of this system come from. If I didn't have to visit these countries for business, I wouldn't, but it's a shame to have to abandon holidays in southern Europe, but if this is what they want, I won't be bothering anytime soon. I voted remain for the avoidance of doubt! Even the US manages to have frequent traveller programs and visas.

We allow Schengen citizens the use of UK e-gates - I think we need to start thinking about retaliation here. Many of us would like to start reversing Brexit but is seems any goodwill is just met with more problems and aggravation. You can say 'we asked for this' but many of us didn't and the UK has taken expedient solution to avoid problems - why can't they?

I completely agree with your first sentence, but why do you need to abandon holidays in southern Europe? They don't ask any questions there. I avoid the nastiness of Scandinavian border officers by flying into southern Schengen and travelling north by land, but if you're going for work why is it a problem? (And if it's your own business then I would boycott doing business in countries that treat me with hostility.)

Allowing EU citizens (and other developed country citizens) to use UK e-gates benefits the UK government, so there won't be any retaliation.

 

[Krokodil]

Now sat in Departures in Brussels Midi. Arrived just under 1 hour before departure (NJ468). No queue at all for the ticket gates, a small queue for the one security scanner that was in use for Standard class passengers. No queues for passport control - they seemed to have more booths in operation than I'm used to. Having to fingerprint and face scan did seem to slow things down, but that is surely more down to the Belgians' failure to provide eGates at Midi like they have at airports.

 

[stadler]

I completely agree with your first sentence, but why do you need to abandon holidays in southern Europe? They don't ask any questions there. I avoid the nastiness of Scandinavian border officers by flying into southern Schengen and travelling north by land, but if you're going for work why is it a problem? (And if it's your own business then I would boycott doing business in countries that treat me with hostility.)

Allowing EU citizens (and other developed country citizens) to use UK e-gates benefits the UK government, so there won't be any retaliation.

Or another option is to fly from the UK to Iceland or Faroe Islands and then go onwards to the Mainland Nordic countries from there. Interestingly the border officers in Iceland and Faroe Islands never ask anything. They are so much friendlier. I have entered Iceland and Faroe Islands multiple times over recent years and in both places they always just stamp your passport and let you in with no questions asked. Faroe Islands is particularly interesting because it is part of Denmark and the border guards are employed by the same exact Police service as Mainland Denmark but yet they are so much friendlier. The border guards in Denmark and Norway and Sweden and Finland all love interrogating passengers with endless unneccesary questions.

 

[island]

Or another option is to fly from the UK to Iceland or Faroe Islands and then go onwards to the Mainland Nordic countries from there. Interestingly the border officers in Iceland and Faroe Islands never ask anything. They are so much friendlier. I have entered Iceland and Faroe Islands multiple times over recent years and in both places they always just stamp your passport and let you in with no questions asked. Faroe Islands is particularly interesting because it is part of Denmark and the border guards are employed by the same exact Police service as Mainland Denmark but yet they are so much friendlier. The border guards in Denmark and Norway and Sweden and Finland all love interrogating passengers with endless unneccesary questions.

Iceland is quite the detour and there aren't year-round flights from the UK to Faroe Islands.

 

[ainsworth74]

Arrived into Riga yesterday. No sign of any kiosks or other kit just the manned booths as in previous visits. Border guard took finger prints and picture but didn't ask any questions so the process was probably about as quick as when they do ask questions (so probably slower if she'd asked questions and done my finger prints and mugshot.

I don't know what the queue might have been like later as my arrival was the first non-Schengen arrival for nearly two hours and I was first to the border off our flight!

 

[FinsburyPark]

I'm in Málaga, Spain.

It seems that Brits are only being asked to use the machines if they have not previously registered beforehand.

I know this airport, along with a number of others in Spain, has a bit of a bad record when it comes to EES stuff, but thats how it was on arrival.

I have an EU passport so I observed from a distance.

I am on an extreme day trip and fly out tonight so no doubt I will keep you informed.

 

[Class73Electro]

How do we know if we're previously registered though? I've had the full treatment now in France (St Malo Port) and Sweden (Arlanda)

 

[FinsburyPark]

How do we know if we're previously registered though? I've had the full treatment now in France (St Malo Port) and Sweden (Arlanda)

if youve done it once you are registered. This is the full deal, fingerprints, selfie photo, questions, the lot.

Many of these places have back up cameras and fingerprint machines if it turns out you havent.

If youve done all of that, and you know you have then you've done it.

That said because of the bad press that many Spanish airports have gotten, maybe this is a Spain only thing. YMMV.

 

[High Dyke]

Just in St. Pancras, as i type. Last December I used the e-gate and then manual check at French border control. Today, directed to the self-scan gates, but there seem to be some equipment issues - the system was having a go slow. Staff then directed me to the manual check booth, facial and finger scan done and passport manually stamped. No questions, as previously mentioned in this thread.

 

[ABB125]

I just did the pre-registration process at a kiosk at Frankfurt airport. Took no more than a minute, no issues.

Technically I didn't need to as I'm only connecting onto another flight, but I wasn't in a rush so thought I'd give it a go.

 

[Falcon1200]

The app doesn't seem to make any of the process easier, but the woman who served me said she could see my return ticket, and asked me what hotel I was staying at. She did not do the usual Swedish delay nonsense of asking to see hotel bookings or return flight but I noticed people who didn't use the Travel to Europe app did get harassed for this.

I wonder how this would work if travellers arriving in Sweden had neither hotels booked nor definite onward travel plans! Way back in 1986 I and two friends, all BR employees, used our International Coupon tickets to visit Scandinavia. We had no hotels booked, sleeping in youth hostels or in one case on an overnight train (Stockholm-Narvik) and at the start of the trip had no idea how it would end. We actually travelled by rail from Sweden into Finland and returned from Finland to Sweden by ferry.

 

[Class73Electro]

I wonder how this would work if travellers arriving in Sweden had neither hotels booked nor definite onward travel plans! Way back in 1986 I and two friends, all BR employees, used our International Coupon tickets to visit Scandinavia. We had no hotels booked, sleeping in youth hostels or in one case on an overnight train (Stockholm-Narvik) and at the start of the trip had no idea how it would end. We actually travelled by rail from Sweden into Finland and returned from Finland to Sweden by ferry.

Well I didn't have the app, but my last trip to Stockholm, I was booked onto a ferry to Poland, I still had to show proof of my accommodation in Poland! Though strangely not my ferry ticket proving I was actually going to Poland!

 

[Barnsley]

Just arrived in Vienna, was asked to turn left, picture taken, how long you staying for, then stamp, took about 30 seconds!

 

[route101]

I wonder how this would work if travellers arriving in Sweden had neither hotels booked nor definite onward travel plans! Way back in 1986 I and two friends, all BR employees, used our International Coupon tickets to visit Scandinavia. We had no hotels booked, sleeping in youth hostels or in one case on an overnight train (Stockholm-Narvik) and at the start of the trip had no idea how it would end. We actually travelled by rail from Sweden into Finland and returned from Finland to Sweden by ferry.

I flew via Gothenburg and spent the day there before flying onwards to the UK, I just explained I was heading home later when asked for proof.