To warn you not to travel to Prague by plane on a non-EU passport

But if we were still in the EU we wouldn’t have to queue up - we’d be able to use the (usually very quick) EU lines or e-gates…

Many (most?) countries have entry systems for foreigners that cause delays. It is only in the UK that I’ve seen e-gates that can be used not just by Brits and Irish, but also by foreigners from certain (presumably considered ‘safe’) countries, such as the US, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, etc.

I was in Prague this week. Have been to two other EU countries in the last 4 months. Sweden was very quick to register first and then in Tenerife was able to skip the registration queue and go straight through the egates. Was forced in Prague to re-register with half the machines not working and a huge queue, then everyone got sent to the manual check anyway. Border control didn't say a word to me, or take my photo or fingerprints. Pointless! I at least assumed she would ask why I was there on business.

And yet …. having registered initially on a Spanish island, we had to go through the whole rigmarole again on another Spanish island and in Italy. Plus several other countries.
I think it was intended to be a joined up EU thing but I get the feeling that each airport (never mind country) is doing their own thing

Introducing a system to be applied across all the member states that would work with competence efficiently without issues was always a tall ask.

This has not been the case for me. This year I've been to Italy, France and Spain and I only had to do the fingerprints on the outward journey of the first trip. Since then I've used the digital gates for registered non-EU travellers and it's all been fine. Same for my partner, who's had a couple of different EU trips. It sounds like we can't rely on that being the case everywhere of course.

I think it can depend when you travel and where. It took about ten minutes for me.
And it depends also how able the staff are and responsive.
The actual task itself is quick. It is the queue to get through passport clearance that can build up.

Sharp staff who move things along and respond efficiently and you are fine. Plodding unresponsive staff with no zip pep and go and you won’t.

EES applies to non-EU citizens from 166 countries but you think it's all about punishing the British for Brexit - a Brexit that was "the will of the people" and about which David Davis said “There will be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside.”

“I don’t want my daughters to grow up in a world where they need a visa or permit to work in Europe" - Liz Truss

“British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to study; to buy homes and settle down.” - Boris Johnson

10 years on and finally it is beginning to dawn on people that they were shafted, while others confirm that it is far easier to con some people than it is to convince them that they've been conned.

it took me 20 minutes to get into China (not one of the huge airports) and 4 hours to get into Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh city)

The issue, i think, with the EU passport thing is that they decided to use an "integrated system" then didn't invest enough time, money or personnel to make it work. Coordinating 27 countries like that must be like herding cats.

Indeed.

tell that to the USA...

What are you talking about?

Americans have to do a similar thing when arriving here now.

Not sure why you think uk airports would be messed up! We already have e gates etc

This is just another Brexit Benefit people were warned about and sadly the Russian bots misled people not to believe it.

oh FGS. Yes they get less money. Yes they spend more money - or were you totally unaware of the EU investment and rebates the UK got?

That was happening in Paris too. It said adults could go to the machines if you were British or EU and a couple of other countries - maybe Canada and Australia?

Then everyone else - and anyone with a child had to queue in a different line. One person was staffing the entire line. So every one in that person doing fingerprints, photos etc with one man.

Then adults who had gone to the machines, sometimes it didn’t work. So they’d then have to rejoin the family and other passport holder queue!

Other people didn’t have a clue and just joined it regardless even though they could have used the machines but didn’t understand the signs so you were also stuck behind them. There was one staff member ‘directing’ aka milling about and anyone who didn’t speak French couldn’t understand them anyway. It was a mess tbh.

The government website warns you about this when you check the country you are going too. Its been all over the media as well.

Although we went to France in the summer and they only checked our passports. We weren't asked to provide fingerprints or anything. Other passengers had the checks done. 🤷‍♀️
We did wonder if our fingerprints and scans from America show up in the system and therefore we didn't have to do it again. ?

This. I've been to the EU about a dozen times this year to Spain, Denmark, Poland, Germany and Ireland and it's mostly been very quick, with only Cologne being awful, about an hour in and out.

The airports I've used all have online reports about 'queuing for hours' yet it's nearly always been plain sailing.

If you have a child under 12 they can’t use the machines.

I wish this everytime!

The USA does fingerprints too.

The problem in most cases seems to be bad luck if more than one plane lands at a time, and if the airport has one guy doing the checks of all the families with kids under 12.

We found in both Paris and Tenerife that the queues for the e gates were ok but people with kids were stuck for much longer with the manual checks. And only one or two staff members processing everyone

wtf!! That’s like an entire work day?!

We went to Portugal just after Christmas last year and the queue for passport control took us just over 7.5 hours! It was genuinely horrific. We had no food, one water dispenser for probably over a thousand people. At one point an ambulance crew had to come through to someone who had collapsed. Truly the worst travel experience we have ever had. Getting through passport control in the Uk took 42 seconds 🤣.

I had no problems going from Heathrow to Oslo & back in September.

I was expecting long lines in the Canaries, I just got back this week.
It was so fast nothing like I expected, I was in a queue behind one other person, all the barriers that do your fingerprints were open and we all zipped through in no time.
I had already collected the suitcases by the time my sister had gone through the residents line, that line took forever.

Yes because that’s the only non European country.

It’s been in all year, the first time we experienced it was February.

Like you, I understood that you’d do it once and tben sail through subsequently. Sadly absolutely not the case, both entry and exit. Plus in some cases you queue for the machines and then queue again for regular passport control. I even had my passport stamped on one trip, which supposedly is no longer needed.
One time when the queue was particularly awful and people were moaning, my DH said very loudly ‘blame the idiots who voted for Brexit’ - cue several ‘it’s got nothing to do with Brexit’ comments. Presumably from people who voted to leave.