What’s the point in this new EES?

I’ve been from Heathrow to Oslo & back this week & there were no major queues. I had to do in person in rather than the e-gates & provide fingerprints, apart from when I was coming back into London, & to do the quick chat about my plans for the week, but none of it took long. Maybe I was lucky.

I remember my exit at Florence. Took only 5 mins. Scan passport, scan fingerprint, scan face (or was it my eye I think) and then onto the departure gate. It was really easy. Our exits have always been faster than entrance.

I think Brexit was a mistake. But the issues are impacts to the economy, trade, immigration. Passport queues aren't that big of a deal. A passport queue is something the EU should sort out

It’s all part of the push to automation which relies on gathering of data rather than humans to make decisions and create profiles for passengers that can flag up whoever they want to flag up.
UK now has several new pieces of the automation in place with universal requirements to have identity established at the check in point via ETAs or other permissions. No data no permission.
Eventually we can expect to see fewer border staff and everyone clearing themselves through gates. Just a lot of teething troubles right now.

We had a 2 hour wait to enter then exit Krakow airport. It was chaos. We had previously registered in Prague (after a 2 hour wait also) but that made no difference. We missed our hotel transfer and just about caught our flight home. I've just travelled through Palma airport which was much better and we could use the gates.

I also had a bad experience in Copenhagen. Over an hour to wait to leave the EU with no option of an e gate. And I’d done all the fingerprint shite elsewhere. The woman on the desk was grilling everyone about their whereabouts and as I struggle to stand for long periods as I was in a lot of pain. I hate Brexit.

Okay. Then the EU's implementation and rollout is poor. Just stand in the queue then. It's no big deal.

I think its’s a bit different everywhere. For example, in Lanzarote, the fingerprint checking machine told me to go the gate with a person but tbere weren’t any so I went through the e-gate.

It’s very frustrating. I queued up for over an hour at Zurich passport control. OMG I hate Brexit…:: and yes I know the system has nothing to do with Brexit but it if wasn’t for Brexit we wouldn’t have this hassle.

90/180 is plenty sufficient If you need to stay longer find the right work permit then.

Perhaps you could nip over to the airports at Copenhagen, Oslo, Warsaw, Brussels, Hamburg, Barcelona, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam, Budapest, Milan, Geneva and Málaga and tell the border guards that.

I've had to queue to be photographed and fingerprinted at every one of them this year.

What you describe is how it's supposed to work. What many in this thread including me are telling you is that in most countries, even at the major airports, it's not working.

Good for you.

Does it not occur to you that some people's work can take them to Europe on a regular basis? Travel isn't just about holidays.

Once you do ees once the next times you can use the egates for 3 years.

I only get 25 days of annual leave a year. 90/180 is more than enough time for holidays

It’s to enforce the 90 day rule easier and stop people deemed undesirable at the border.

The irony of such stringent border controls on everyone bar the very people some border controls might wish to prevent 🤭🤭🤭

The punishment is the process of course.

Well at Naples airport yesterday the American airlines flight full of US passengers sailed through as they were allowed to use the eGates whilst the Manchester flight all had to queue for over an hour for the one single ‘non-EU’ border guard. I have no idea why we couldn’t use the eGates like the Americans. Before Brexit we would’ve used the EU gates and had no queue.

I think it depends per airport

Yes, agree with this. I’ve got my EU passport now, but before this, I entered with DH and son. No need for your husband to go in the non-EU queue.

I encountered it for the first time at Palma de Mallorca a couple of weeks ago. As a family with a child under 12 we joined a queue for the registration terminals.

For three of us (two adults and a teen) the terminal scanned our passports then immediately told us to go directly to the e-gates. It didn't do any photos or fingerprints, so we were a bit confused about that. Anyway, as we were with a younger child we all went to the staffed kiosk instead of the e-gate, where we were photographed (but not fingerprinted).

On the way back absolutely nobody was going anywhere near the registration terminals, which were off to one side and didn't seem to be in use. The queueing barriers bypassed them completely. Everyone just queued up for the kiosks (if they had a younger child) or the e-gates.

It all seemed to work reasonably smoothly, and delays were no more than 20-30 minutes. But I did wonder whether they were actually operating all elements of the system as we'd expected to have prints taken.

Do you not think passport control should be an easy process for everyone. Do Americans living in the UK deserve delays if they take a trip to Paris?

But it doesn’t work. How much is it costing the EU countries that have to run these huge IT projects?
It must also be frustrating for tourism around the ports and airports - delays cost everyone.

Because the EU was a club we were a member of and, like any club, membership confers benefits on its members.

It’s to enforce the 90 day rule easier and stop people deemed undesirable at the border.

Tbh I wouldn’t know the difference because each time I go to Schiphol, half the trip is done by the time I finish passport control.

It has been like that since Brexit. EES or no EES 🙄

It was an absolutely huge IT project, it's been delayed several times, and now it's not working properly. You are only supposed to enter your biometric data once, and people are having to do it every time because it doesn't work.

It has been a bit of a cock up because they decided to let each country do their own software, instead of centralising the whole thing. 70+ million people visit the EU every year, you have to store maybe 10 or more pieces of data for each person (that's a huge database, goodness knows what the carbon footprint of it is) they have to have terminals at every entry point into the zone - from Schjpol airport to some railway station in an East European border town, you need instantly access passenger data every time they enter or leave the zone . It's not surprising it's had teething problems.

I'm sure it will be sorted out eventually, it just takes time.

Exactly