What’s the point in this new EES?

[whatsthepointffs]

I get that the EU want to integrate their passport control process, cool.

I did it in February when it was first rolled out. Nice, according to the EU’s own information they now have my details for three years. Except I’ve turned up to Milan airport this morning and I’ve had to go through the physical passport control again as they won’t let anyone with a British passport use the e-gates

So in reality there’s no point to it at all! You go through it all every time, it’s just another layer of EU bureaucracy designed to make things more complicated. I have no doubt that some people have made a pretty penny off it though!

This is in theory but often not in practice- we’ve tried many times!

I will say that sometimes airport staff don't actually know about any nuances of the actual rules and default to the simplest possible system. I've had this at Schipol when a staff member told DH he had to be in the non-EU queue when, yes he doesn't have an EU passport but he DOES have an EEA passport which is the same as EU for freedom of movement. If you look closely the sign says EU and EEA but this staff member was stuck on EU vs non EU. It honestly seemed like he hadn't even heard of the EEA.

I’m currently over an hour into a passport control queue at Naples airport. EES machines are covered up and not working but all British citizens ushered into a queue with one border guard. A US flight arrived the same time and they all used the eGates- but surely EES is for all non-EU citizens?? Quite frankly Nigel and Boris have an awful lot to answer for

@PoorPhaedra Quite frankly Nigel and Boris have an awful lot to answer for

Yep, and the muppets who voted for them.

It's to make us all feel bad about Brexit. Plenty of time in a queue to think long and hard about our choices.....

Actually, there's a good reason why so many people are having to repeat all the fingerprint scanning - there have been major delays in the development of the IT infrastructure, which meant that for some countries/airports, the fingerprint info etc just couldn't be saved/stored/updated to the central database. So the next time you travel it's as if you haven't done it before. Crazy, but there you go. Some countries are more set up than others, which is why it varies so much.

I was so worried this morning, thankfully I was through quickly. I’m off to Rome in November though and will be getting to the airport as early as possible!

I've literally never had an issue..longest we had was rome which was 20 mins at most..none of this 1 hour queue madness

Nigel and Boris have nothing to answer for.

The economic impacts are a sensible thing to talk about.

Passport queues are not that big of a deal and just shows EU incompetence

Do you not think that people without EU passports should have smooth and efficient passport control

Well the people who voted to give up freedom of movement certainly deserve to fully understand the worst of what they asked for.

No, sadly this is definitely not the case. I wish it were! We've asked multiple times. I believe it's just individual airports that allow this, or possibly just some airports when it's relatively quiet.

I've never had these hour long queues. The most it was in Rome was 20-30 mins. And that time we just scanned it and went in, no need to see border guards (who frankly are lovely).

I'm not sure it's any better for non-UK citizens entering the UK tbh so I don't think there's any kind of point to be made about 'EU incompetence' that couldn't be thrown straight back.

EU citizens can use our e-gates here.

If only Nige had told us .........

UK Passports are chipped/read anyway.
So they don't go searching for a stamp.

If they are doing it by finger print they don't be red a passport anyway because all your info should be with your identity.

Stupid and nothing to do with Brexit really. It's just a poor system.

Like I think to myself. Why can't everyone have a decent experience at passport control.

So many Aussies live in London. They like taking trips to Europe. Do they "deserve" to have to face extra long queues whilst us deserving UK Brits (who long for the EU) should get speedy access.

Maybe everyone EU and non-EU can have a smooth border experience?

I've travelled around the EU about 6 times since it came in and have had to do the fingerprints every time. Like a PP I travelled through Copenhagen a few weeks ago and it was chaos. Two gates open out of about 12 available, asked the staff member if we could use e gates as we had previously done fingerprints but told to wait in the queue. One staff member calling people forward according to when gates closed, we had to run and just got to the gate with a few minutes to spare.
Just to add that we moved to the gate immediately as it was announced, so there's nothing we could have done differently.
I don't know what the answer is really, if they say yes to people who have previously registered using the e gates that message won't be heard properly and everyone will try them causing delays there too!

So because you’ve not experienced it, it doesn’t happen?

A lot of countries were able to suspend it through summer due to the issues. It started again yesterday.

I don’t fly again until November but I’ve already had an email from easyJet saying that I need to plan for delays!!

My only real idea is a reader rught at the start of the queue to direct you

It’s not all joined up. So I went through Helsinki, registered there. Then go to Copenhagen and register again there. And then to Germany and registered there. And then back to Helsinki where they found I now have 3 profiles in the system, they haven’t turned on the e gates so I’ve registered again and now have 4.

it’s a shit show. They are not all joined together. I wouldn’t be surprised if they abandon the whole thing at one point.

It has everything to do with Brexit!!
If the UK hadn't left the EU, then Brits would be treated the same as EU passport holders and would still be enjoying the freedom of movement being a member guarantees for all citizens.

It's ridiculous. I travel to the EU on short visits many times a year and have to be photo'd and fingerprinted again every time. Last time I was in Copenhagen (in July) I held the entire queue up as I'd been in Oslo in June but they had managed to not register me leaving! This despite me having been in and out of France by ferry in between....

Luckily for them, like any responsible frequent traveller I have an app for my 90 days so was able to give them my exact travel dates. But all of this was supposed to be covered by the introduction of the e-gates which we are still not allowed to use when entering Europe.

The most frustrating thing about the whole debacle is that EU passport holders can use the UK e-gates when entering here because they are the exact same ones. 🙄

What about people from Australia who live in the UK. Do they deserve to experience long queues or can maybe the EU sort their stuff out.

I've never had or even seen these horror queues people talk about.

Copenhager here since a few people mentioned Copenhagen. The situation at Copenhagen Airport has been an ongoing source of frustration and tension, including for the airport itself. The Border Police control border access and they simply haven't been providing sufficient numbers of officers to staff the booths. Apparently they are training more officers but it's been a slow process. Some airlines have been threatening to relocate to other airports because of the delays and so many people have been missing their flights.

As a Permanent Resident in Denmark, even I'm not allowed to use the citizen/EU queue even though they don't take my photo or fingerprints. It's infuriating (not least because I'm a Danish taxpayer). But then Denmark is quite xenophobic in many respects and it's doing its utmost to tightly control access to the country, and that includes British passport holders post-Brexit.