Introduction of European Entry-Exit Scheme (EES)

[cactustwirly]

So at Dover and Calais they are not stamping passports but they are not doing the EES with fingerprints either

 

[cool110]

So at Dover and Calais they are not stamping passports but they are not doing the EES with fingerprints either

The important bit is that they're still doing EES, but without fingerprints. Passport numbers are always being recorded, so the length of stay calculations will be correct

 

[route101]

Entered for the first time on Sunday evening at Munich Airport. No issues at all. Had photo and fingerprints taken and asked how long I was staying for. Barely any queue and was through in around 7-10 mins

Are the Germans still stamping?

 

[jmh59]

Vienna - on entry we both had a similar issue to that mentioned above at passport control. My wife was in the system twice and I think I was (*) too. They took ages trying to get her name right (it's printed on the passport!!) and when she asked she was told about being in twice. So although we were through the EES gubbins quite fast (photo and fingers) and with staff in attendance to help my wife was delayed overall.

On exit yesterday it was about 4 minutes, but very small queue. Just the photo here and 8 booths staffed.

Actually - not EES - the worst experience had to be arrival at Manchester with some guy yelling at people to move to empty slots at the eGates. It was hard to see which slots were free due to the way the zig-zag barrier was laid out, especially if one is vertically challenged, so yelling at people to move was rather annoying.

(* I am assuming mine was in twice as the border guard had to phone somewhere and once the call ended she waved me past. But I didn't think to ask until my wife told me about it)

 

[zero]

Vienna - on entry we both had a similar issue to that mentioned above at passport control. My wife was in the system twice and I think I was (*) too. They took ages trying to get her name right (it's printed on the passport!!) and when she asked she was told about being in twice. So although we were through the EES gubbins quite fast (photo and fingers) and with staff in attendance to help my wife was delayed overall.

(* I am assuming mine was in twice as the border guard had to phone somewhere and once the call ended she waved me past. But I didn't think to ask until my wife told me about it)

An acquaintance has entered Schengen 9 times since EES started, and the first 8 times he was directed to the kiosks and more or less forced to register again. On the most recent entry at AMS, he was sent to the human officer who berated him for "registering 8 profiles", but offered no advice on what he should do about it.

The officer didn't have any difficulty in admitting him to Schengen though - not sure what you mean by "getting your [wife's] name right?

the worst experience had to be arrival at Manchester with some guy yelling at people to move to empty slots at the eGates. It was hard to see which slots were free due to the way the zig-zag barrier was laid out, especially if one is vertically challenged, so yelling at people to move was rather annoying.

I've never entered the UK at MAN, but at most of my arrivals into LHR and LGW, people often crowd up at the gates nearest to the head of the queue, while gates further away are free. All the gates are visible.

In fact once I (as an arriving passenger) yelled at people to move several times, because the sub-queues for the first 5 egates kept getting backed up to the main queue, and nobody seemed to notice the 10 operational e-gates further to the right hand side until I yelled.

 

[jmh59]

The officer didn't have any difficulty in admitting him to Schengen though - not sure what you mean by "getting your [wife's] name right?

Ah, poor explanation on my part - they could not pronounce her name properly over the phone. I had got through by then so didn't hear (and being rather deaf I would not have anyway!) but she had the impression the officer was saying the name and finally had to spell it out. Anyway, somehow it got lost in translation and took several minutes to resolve after which my wife asked what the issue was and was told that she was in the system twice but they had sorted it out.

 

[eoff]

An acquaintance has entered Schengen 9 times since EES started, and the first 8 times he was directed to the kiosks and more or less forced to register again. On the most recent entry at AMS, he was sent to the human officer who berated him for "registering 8 profiles", but offered no advice on what he should do about it.

If a machine did that then the designers or developers are incompetent.
If the system was down then they are supposed to manually reconcile the data.

 

[Minilad]

Are the Germans still stamping?

Yes they are. The return from Munich was slightly longer but still only around 20 mins or so. All way smoother than I was expecting

 

[ABB125]

I departed Treviso airport yesterday morning - a very interesting small airport. A tiny security area, which I got through in about 5 minutes, small duty free shops, then you get to what might be a departure lounge. To get to gates 1-5 (which I needed), you then have to go through the border facilities. I'm guessing that 1-5 are non-Schengen, and 6-10 (which were signposted in the opposite direction, and didn't have any obvious border facilities) are for Schengen flights.
There was a bank of maybe 8 registration kiosks - but these were barriered off. (Are the kiosks required when exiting Schengen? I thought they were just for entry...) There were two queues - an EU (plus whichever other countries are allowed) line, and an "anyone else" line. EU queue went straight to 2-3 e-gates, everyone else went to 5-6 manned booths. The only two flights departing in the near future were to Birmingham (which I was getting) and to Tirana - needless to say, almost no-one queueing for these two flights could use the EU line!
It took a bit under 20 minutes to get through the border - and then straight onto the plane, which had arrived early (and we also departed early). Quite an efficient process really.

Interestingly, some of the signage next to the e-gates implied that anyone with a compatible passport should be able to use them, but the signage at the start of the queues said EU only...

 

[cool110]

(Are the kiosks required when exiting Schengen? I thought they were just for entry...)

They're required the first time your passport crosses the border in either direction while not being exempt.

 

[ABB125]

They're required the first time your passport crosses the border in either direction while not being exempt.

I see, thanks

 

[chrisjo]

They're required the first time your passport crosses the border in either direction while not being exempt.

And every other time you cross the border as well, in practice, it appears.

 

[Whisky Papa]

And every other time you cross the border as well, in practice, it appears.

Hmm. I'm off to Prague in a few weeks. I registered for EES on my previous trip there in January and got stamped in and out to boot, but was told on exiting that 'next time you can use the gates.' I've been nowhere else in the EU since.

I intend to try the gates first, but with some trepidation in the light of the experiences recounted on this thread. At least the flight is an afternoon arrival so I'm not in quite such a rush as when getting there in an evening .

 

[Mojo]

I intend to try the gates first, but with some trepidation in the light of the experiences recounted on this thread. At least the flight is an afternoon arrival so I'm not in quite such a rush as when getting there in an evening .

The only place I’ve travelled through that allows non-EU passport holders to use the gates, with the exception of places that allowed us through before, is Amsterdam.

 

[lokiavivson]

St Pancras International this morning:
-kiosks still not working
-directed to e-gates
-no stamps

 

[route101]

Entered Spain and UK passport holders directed to machines (Smaller type).After using the machine it was done and didn't need to pass manned booth. When the queue got to the door, persons were directed to manned booths too. When I exited Spain, it was the same smaller EES machines unlike the ones at Malaga but passed manned booth. I asked for a stamp but refused.

 

[island]

Leaving Frankfurt today, there were no queues and dozens of machines out of use.

 

[route101]

Leaving Frankfurt today, there were no queues and dozens of machines out of use.

Is Germany still stamping?

 

[Furrball]

Hmm. I'm off to Prague in a few weeks. I registered for EES on my previous trip there in January and got stamped in and out to boot, but was told on exiting that 'next time you can use the gates.' I've been nowhere else in the EU since.

I intend to try the gates first, but with some trepidation in the light of the experiences recounted on this thread. At least the flight is an afternoon arrival so I'm not in quite such a rush as when getting there in an evening .

Info seems to suggest UK passport holders can use eGates on departure

Prague Airport's eGATE System Now Available to Non-EU Travellers

Prague airport has opened automated eGATE border control to UK, Japanese, Taiwanese and South Korean passport holders.

praguemorning.cz

Passengers from the United Kingdom, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea can now use the automated eGATE border control system at Václav Havel Airport in Prague.

The gates opened to these new groups on Friday, May 15th, marking a significant broadening of a system that had previously been restricted to citizens of EU and European Economic Area countries, as well as Switzerland.


To use the gates, travellers must be 15 years of age or older and carry a biometric passport. The service is available only on departures outside the Schengen area.

 

[ninja-lewis]

Is Germany still stamping?

They are at Munich and Frankfurt

 

[Whisky Papa]

Info seems to suggest UK passport holders can use eGates on departure

Prague Airport's eGATE System Now Available to Non-EU Travellers

Prague airport has opened automated eGATE border control to UK, Japanese, Taiwanese and South Korean passport holders.

praguemorning.cz

Passengers from the United Kingdom, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea can now use the automated eGATE border control system at Václav Havel Airport in Prague.

The gates opened to these new groups on Friday, May 15th, marking a significant broadening of a system that had previously been restricted to citizens of EU and European Economic Area countries, as well as Switzerland.


To use the gates, travellers must be 15 years of age or older and carry a biometric passport. The service is available only on departures outside the Schengen area.

Many thanks for that. The final sentence I've highlighted makes me wonder if it literally is 'on departure only' or whether that is a slightly clunky translation for 'journeys' and it will work on arrival as well?

 

[eoff]

Schiphol arrival today and transfer to Schengen, 0 queue at 1200 but the barriers are not the same, seems you have to go through the EES machine zone.
No issue ignoring the machines, rushing past the 'helper' and going through the e-gates.

 

[TheHSRailFan]

I've done EES several times now into Europe, so I've got the gist of things.

Spain seems to be weird about it, they have Kiosks to do your EES checks before you go to an e-gate. At Madrid-Barajas, I went to said kiosk, which told me I could go through an e-gate easily. Bilbao was different where you had staff asking you if you have already been to the EU and already done EES, in which case you were directed to an e-Gate which an EU citizen would use. Asturias airport had 2 border guards checking. Few people had their picture taken; I didn't.

Finland and Denmark seem to either take a pic of you as you enter or as you exit. I've been through Copenhagen Kastrup 2 times this year. The first time in Feb was my first time doing EES, so I had both my face and fingerprints taken. If you've ever been to Kastrup, you know about the horrible setup (and long queues) of border control at the C and D gates. I don't know when it opened, but the E and F gates have a shiny new, massive border control hall, which took me 2-3 minutes to get through using this hall the 2nd time I went to Denmark. I'm not sure when this new hall opened, but considering I went through the older border control point because I flew with SAS (and even before EES with BA; both flights were a round trip from London Heathrow), it kinda blows my mind that I got the shiny new border control point because I flew with Ryanair (round trip from Stansted).

Eurostar is the outlier for me. I had my passport checked and didn't have my picture taken. However, it's quite obvious that St Pancras and Brussels South are both in dire need of an upgrade to accommodate this. It took me 10 minutes or more to get through border control at St Pancras, and 10 minutes (in a very small space, might I add) to get through the gate and border control.

Overall, it hasn't been as smooth in some places as in others. I have a feeling the next few months some countries will try to iron things out.