Introduction of European Entry-Exit Scheme (EES)

[route101]

Arrived in Fuerteventura yesterday. Groups of adults being directed towards the kiosks, but we went straight to the manned booths. Some people in front of us seemed to be having photos/prints taken, but our passports were scanned & stamped and we were on our way. Don't know if that was because we were registered in Finland in December, or if they were only doing x% of passengers?

I noticed that in Oslo, some people on arrival getting photos taken. I got photo on departure.

 

[Benjwri]

Got registered on arrival at Nantes on Sunday. Photos and fingerprints being taken. Machines were present but out of use. They only had 6 compared to 4 border officers and to be honest I think it would’ve been slower doing it on the machine, they didn’t seem to really be taking any longer than pre ees

 

[D6130]

St Pancras International yesterday morning, boarding the 11 04 Eurostar to Amsterdam: I had previously had my eyes photographed and fingerprints taken when travelling to Paris back in January, but my wife hasn't yet had hers done.

After the usual quick passport check by UK Border Force, both of us were directed to the French electronic gates and then had our passports stamped and on our way.

Still no eye and fingerprint data recorded for the wife.

 

[EYFanatic]

Passed through Ijmuiden again and it was fingerprint scans in both directions although, strangely, not for the three people ahead of me carrying Manx passports

 

[ainsworth74]

Exited through Krakow yesterday, unlike last time there was hardly any queue (benefit of being later in the day and not having flights that seemed be entirely composed of families with children unlike last time where we nearly missed our flight!) for the passport booths. Agent took my passport, scanned my finger prints (three from the right and then the right index finger), dunno if they checked the any pictures but certainly didn't have me look at a camera. Stamped out and on I went.

Really not sure that this whole EES business is working as intended

 

[stadler]

Dieppe still had zero sign of EES being rolled out last week. Still stamping as normal and no fingerprints being taken and no photos being taken. Absoutely no sign of any EES equipment. Some of these smaller crossings seem to be rolling out incredibly slow and delayed. There is zero chance that the rollout will be completed on time. I think we are looking at 2027 or even 2028 as a realistic completion date.

 

[eoff]

Arrived in Shiphol on Monday and for the first time was directed to a few EES machines. I mentioned I had registered in Milan last year and they said I did not need to visit the machine.
Then it went all wrong, the e-gate would not let me pass, I had to go to a different line of agents (not the ones behnd the gates) and was told that the system is new, does not work properly and they don't have a record of the registration in Italy because the systems don't talk to each other. So they had to register me again.
Who knows how many countries this will happen for, France will be the next to try.

 

[gswindale]

Coming back from Fuerteventura, it seemed most of the over 12s were just going through the gates fine - presumably as they had all registered on arrival, but then going to a booth for stamping as well from what I could see.

The 1 border official covering families 2ith under 12s and EU citizens leaving seemed to be doing a pretty good job of being speedy. Probably helped that our 1520 flight was 1 of 2 flights out of the EU that afternoon and the ne t wasn't until 1705, so not a huge volume of passengers to get through.

 

[Class73Electro]

Had a couple of trips to France over the Easter weekend.

Findings:

Good Friday - Dieppe: Several buses of foot passengers and a coach of schoolkids. Was one of the first ones out and took 15 minutes. However, well over an hour later there were still people coming through - to the point that boarding was delayed (no foot pax could go through passport control until all the inbound pax were cleared), to the oint that the ferry left about 5-10 minutes late.

There are signs of a separate room with the airport style terminals, but these were not in use with the room in darkness.

Easter Saturday - Calais: Car pax still only using standard swipe and stamp. no photo or fingerprint, and still in the Eastern docks. Sidenote: Dover was completely empty - was expecting... more traffic!

 

[Zerothebrake!]

Just passed through Oslo Gardermoen in transit from Narvik to Gatwick (so already airside).

It took less than 5 minutes with just the four fingers of the right hand scanned and destination asked.

 

[adc82140]

My experience last week as a car driver:

Newhaven to Dieppe, nothing, just swipe & stamp, out in 5 mins as I'd paid the 20 quid for priority disembarkation. No sign of any infrastructure.

Calais to Dover, the same utter chaos as normal but still swipe & stamp. Noticed some new booth structures on each lane just before rhe French exit checks, but no equipment within. It looked like there were metal bases for 6 terminals per car lane. As an aside, on board Irish Ferries is just one enormous pub!

 

[jfollows]

Rhodes, Monday, the self-service machines (I assume) which were there a year ago are still out of use, but the photography and finger printing was handled by the man in the booth who also stamped my passport. No significant hassle but I was one of the first off the plane and we were not behind an earlier arrival. So probably a bit longer for those at the back of the queue but not a big deal really.

 

[route101]

So Friday is the deadline and the stamping will stop?

 

[Class73Electro]

So Friday is the deadline and the stamping will stop?

I doubt it - most ports (all? Dover maybe) are no where near ready I think. And so far in my experience there seems to be no communication in having down the fingerprints/photos, still keeps happening to me (when they are being done)

 

[Vexed]

Arriving into Preveza last week I'd estimate the end of the non-EU queue would be about 1 hour 20 mins. The EU queue cleared after about 40 minutes. There were three machines to pre register but they weren't in use. They had three out of four desks open so I can see some issues over summer when traffic picks up if there are arrivals from outside Schengen close together.

This was an easyJet flight with maybe 15 seats free.

Returning yesterday there was no queue and I did have my fingerprints and photo taken this time (no self-service registration machines on the departure side) so I'm now registered. Everyone was boarded around 20 mins before departure so I assume a queue didn't develop later on.

 

[Benjwri]

Had photo and fingerprints taken again on exit at Nantes a few days ago. No machines but also no queue at all. Lots of temporary hoarding though so potentially upgrading it still.

 

[route101]

Not sure what is happening. Heard that stamping will continue for another 180 days yet heard that some places will stop stamping.

 

[Barnsley]

I'm going straignt to Vienna after this night shift, so I'll post back with what they do

 

[signed]

(Paris) Beauvais has machines spread around the check-in hall at T1 but they are switched off

Interestingly no machines after security (BVA T1 can be converted into a full non-Schengen terminal with border control booths installed before security but has three non-Schengen gate (D, E, F) with the booths after security)

Will report on Nantes entry on Sunday

 

[Barnsley]

Just arrived in Vienna, it’s live, just photo and passport scanned, no questions asked, no stamp

 

[route101]

Just arrived in Vienna, it’s live, just photo and passport scanned, no questions asked, no stamp

I wonder if the stamping has stopped across the board.

 

[Mag_seven]

I wonder if the stamping has stopped across the board.

Will be interesting to see as I currently have an entry stamp having entered Schengen before today and will be leaving tomorrow.....

 

[southerner2174]

Arrived in Vienna this morning, passport stamped

 

[route101]

Seems to be some places are stamping and others have stopped, strange.

 

[Barnsley]

Arrived in Vienna this morning, passport stamped

Jealous! I always used to ask for it stamping, even when we were in EU! The lady border guard didn’t even have one, it was really quick, less than 30 seconds, there are no machines, you go to the desk

 

[stadler]

Does anyone know if there is an official policy that has been made regarding requests for passport stamps once EES is fully in operation? I presume the stamps will still be kept (in case of emergencies like EES being down) so surely you will still be able to request one?

I will ask next time i enter the Schengen area on my UK passport. Fingers crossed the border guards will accept requests for entry stamps and exit stamps.

Here in the UK and in the ROI we both have an official policy that border guards must give a stamp to British and Irish passport holders if they request it. The words "By Request" (UK) or "BR" (ROI) must be written by a pen next to the stamp. I have over fifty British stamps in my current British passport.

Australia and New Zealand have also completely ceased stamping for all nationalities but yet both Australia (entry stamps and exit stamps) and New Zealand (entry stamps) have official policies that border guards must give a passport stamp to any citizen of any country if they request it.

I like always getting a passport stamps both on entry and on exit to any country i visit as it is an easy way to keep a record. You can easily look back at your passport and see when you were in that place and for how long. Otherwise it is hard to keep track. Although annoyingly five countries (Canada / Ireland / New Zealand / UK / USA) scrapped exit stamps decades ago but they still do entry stamps. Schengen has sensibly kept both entry stamps and exit stamps up until now.

 

[route101]

Does anyone know if there is an official policy that has been made regarding requests for passport stamps once EES is fully in operation? I presume the stamps will still be kept (in case of emergencies like EES being down) so surely you will still be able to request one?

I will ask next time i enter the Schengen area on my UK passport. Fingers crossed the border guards will accept requests for entry stamps and exit stamps.

Here in the UK and in the ROI we both have an official policy that border guards must give a stamp to British and Irish passport holders if they request it. The words "By Request" (UK) or "BR" (ROI) must be written by a pen next to the stamp. I have over fifty British stamps in my current British passport.

Australia and New Zealand have also completely ceased stamping for all nationalities but yet both Australia (entry stamps and exit stamps) and New Zealand (entry stamps) have official policies that border guards must give a passport stamp to any citizen of any country if they request it.

I like always getting a passport stamps both on entry and on exit to any country i visit as it is an easy way to keep a record. You can easily look back at your passport and see when you were in that place and for how long. Otherwise it is hard to keep track. Although annoyingly five countries (Canada / Ireland / New Zealand / UK / USA) scrapped exit stamps decades ago but they still do entry stamps. Schengen has sensibly kept both entry stamps and exit stamps up until now.

In my old passport I had stamps I requested. I seem to remember to Southern European countries like Italy and Greece would never stamp even if you asked. Some other countries like Norway and Slovenia were very happy to and even made jokes. Even countries like Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia, you had to ask for stamps.

 

[Barnsley]

Does anyone know if there is an official policy that has been made regarding requests for passport stamps once EES is fully in operation? I presume the stamps will still be kept (in case of emergencies like EES being down) so surely you will still be able to request one?

I will ask next time i enter the Schengen area on my UK passport. Fingers crossed the border guards will accept requests for entry stamps and exit stamps.

Here in the UK and in the ROI we both have an official policy that border guards must give a stamp to British and Irish passport holders if they request it. The words "By Request" (UK) or "BR" (ROI) must be written by a pen next to the stamp. I have over fifty British stamps in my current British passport.

Australia and New Zealand have also completely ceased stamping for all nationalities but yet both Australia (entry stamps and exit stamps) and New Zealand (entry stamps) have official policies that border guards must give a passport stamp to any citizen of any country if they request it.

I like always getting a passport stamps both on entry and on exit to any country i visit as it is an easy way to keep a record. You can easily look back at your passport and see when you were in that place and for how long. Otherwise it is hard to keep track. Although annoyingly five countries (Canada / Ireland / New Zealand / UK / USA) scrapped exit stamps decades ago but they still do entry stamps. Schengen has sensibly kept both entry stamps and exit stamps up until now.

I’ve always been refused when I come home, except at LBA because I used to work there and knew who would give me a stamp, I was refused yesterday at Vienna, she didn’t even have a stamp with her, in Sydney I asked, they show you to a separate desk where they will stamp on request, I went to Kosovo twice last year, if you ask they will gladly stamp your passport, the reason they don’t automatically do it is because Serbia won’t let you in if you have one

 

[lokiavivson]

Speaking of stamps, are they still being done at St Pancras International? Or have they stopped now?

 

[popeter45]

Speaking of stamps, are they still being done at St Pancras International? Or have they stopped now?

as of Wednesday when i took it too Paris they still were and zero signs that was the last day