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

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Horrible chaos. 2+ hour passport control queues. First a very long queue for the new machine check - eyes, finger prints etc - and then second very long queue for a manual check - why???. V hot. Incredibly stressful and unpleasant experience. No forewarning by easyJet. Never want to do that again. Apparently it will be the same when we leave. Everybody has to do it - even if you have previously supplied your finger prints etc while travelling to a different EU country.

that’s a really long queue 😆😉

Japan in May - took 2 and a half hours to get through immigration, with an e visa. So it's not just the EU. Marco Polo, DH was through in 20 minutes, took me over an hour. It's either chaos or it's not.

Ive been to Spain & Italy this summer & only took about 5 minutes to queue for the machine in both countries. Maybe we were lucky both times but I dont see why it is taking some people/airports so long to get through it. Are they not opening enough machines?

@Properjob, these people feel very strongly about 'taking back control' so will obviously respect this going the opposite way. 😉

Quite right too, afternoon TV shows us that there is a huge number of aging UK citizens thinking they can just go and live in Spain, think they can buy an apartment for next to nothing and no worries about health care/learning the language or making any contribution to their new community or country. Totally different because they are not immigrants, they are ex-pats!

I’ve been to Majorca, mainland Spain, Italy and Hungary
not a single issue

Farage not queuing then, is he, what with getting himself an EU passport.

Had to wait over 2 hours in Barcelona, complete nightmare and we missed DH's birthday dinner reservation. This was in May. It wasn't just the wait it was the chaos as well that made it stressful.

That’s a very 2016 talking point. Things have moved on since then. What do you think about cases like this?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62k0d4px6ro

What I failed to understand was we all had to queue to do the machines but for some people including me it didn't work. The machine then said go to the manual desk but everybody had to do that any way. I wished Id just ignored the machine and gone straight to the manned booths becausr it didn't seem to make a hapensworth of difference visiting the machine first.

Or this? Quite right? Good old EU?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2dk9rd506no

Its not just Prague. Its all Europe. In Hungary I spent the same time queuing as flying.

This is what Brexit means if we want to travel in the EU

“It is putting people through unnecessary bureaucracy.”

This is Greece’s position! GREECE! I am Greek and Greek administration absolutely thrives on complicated, needless, bureaucracy. If Greece is saying there is something wrong here, it really is!

I understand that Greece are still committed the scheme - though technically it can be suspended during busy periods.

In the most beautifully Greek way, every week across all airports seems to have been deemed to be a technically too busy period this summer to put the scheme in place.

There was a lot of European posturing that Greece needed it in place by September 1st. It wasn’t

@LifeIsAMeatball There was a lot of European posturing that Greece needed it in place by September 1st. It wasn’t

In Crete, when they saw a lot of us arriving, a few weeks ago, they just efficiently opened a few more booths and processed everyone through as quickly as manually possible.

I’m Australian and will be travelling to the UK and Europe in December.

To get into the UK, I have had to apply for an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation). I did it online for my whole family and it was straightforward and is valid for 3 years. When we arrive at Heathrow, we will go through passport control and it will be the same as it always has been, or maybe a bit quicker.

To get into the EU we have to apply for our EES on landing at Brandenburg Airport. I find it hard to believe that the EU doesn’t have an app in place so travellers can pre-apply for an EES or at the very least, populate their details on an app in advance with final check on arrival.

This is sheer incompetence from the EU. The UK can do it no problem. So I doubt it’s the EU sticking it to the UK for Brexit. It’s just bureaucratic nonsense from the EU.

I was once a competitive gymnast and so have dodgy hand / finger prints. (Bar work kind of wore them off!) So the machines didn’t work for me even when the woman in charge came and tried to make it work.

So I had to go and queue up with all the parents with toddlers whilst my husband and teens laughed at me.

So I pointed out to dh that they now have his data and not mine. (Dh works in internet security - he is quite paranoid!) He then looked horrified and I laughed at him.

I cannot wait for the day we rejoin the EU for so many reasons and this is one of the small ones on my list

Ludicrous. Greece is great. Airports in Asia are amazing. Western Europe is ridiculous. My daughter’s school trip of 60 kids missed their flight cos of only two passport control desks open flying back from Italy and one of those was more interested in sorting his playlist. Bored of brexit being blamed if the rest of the world can see Brits through in a timely fashion why can’t Europe.

@BePeachNewt, it does not really matter what I think, the same is happening here. For all the rhetoric, individual humans are the cannon fodder, the press decide who are 'deserving' and whip up hatred about the rest. My work means I have a lot of contact with asylum seekers and also certain communities who have settled here from the EU who also faced unbelievable prejudice and risk of death in their home countries.

Birth is an absolute lottery, and I just feel lucky that I have been born somewhere that means my family are safe and do not have to live in fear because of our beliefs, heritage, grinding poverty or family connections. Obviously people from the developing world are welcome to prop up our nhs, care services and social work services, the hypocrisy is astounding. I have worked in nursing and then child protection for over 35 years so human nature should not really suprise anymore. Not the vulnerable people I work with, but lack of empathy and hatred and blaming our most vulnerable is shocking. It is our society that has created huge poverty in one of the richest countries in the world and chosen to not invest in our young people and that the older generation hoard wealth.

I'd rather put up with it than have the UK be in the Schengen zone tbh

It's not an either-or question, though. Ireland, for example, is not in the Schengen zone and has no obligation ever to join, and its citizens still enjoy the full rights of Freedom of Movement including exemption from the EES checks. The UK, had it stayed in the EU, would have been in the exact same position as fellow members of the CTA.