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EES (Entry/Exit System) for most EU countries
Comments
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It sounds like you were registered with EES then. You should not have to submit fingerprints and photo again but they do verify you against the details they previously recorded. This may well just be a facial check using the electric gates if they have them. You may still get asked questions about your stay.
As for queuing, I can only report on my experience in Madrid as posted above, that I still had to queue behind people who had not yet registered. But this may be different at different entry points. Ideally there should be a way for non-EU passports holders to go directly to the e-gates or manned posts, bypassing the registration machines for those already registered, but I don't know if this is widely implemented.
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You may or may not have to go through the whole process again. There certainly have been reports of people having to do the process more than once, but that may be because the system wasn't fully operational.
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You should not have to register more than once - that is the theory, however, as above, there have been reports of punters having to repeat the process.
Once in the system that is you good to go for three years, then repeat.
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Beware the Greeks bearing gifts ? 🙄
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns2MkgkPO3M
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If only that was true. OH has been in and out of Madrid twice, plus 2 other European destinations and directed to the booths each time. Photo and fingerprints taken 3 times and each involved 2 stamps in his passport.
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We haven't had to register multiple times, but in and out of Spain and Malta we've still had to queue in the same queue as everyone else, we haven't saved queuing times by already being registered (despite one of my friends who hasn't travelled yet assuring me all we have to do is insist we go to the head of the queue and tell them we can go straight through!) . Spain were still double stamping passports, Malta was not , in fact coming back from Malta 2 days ago we were rushed by officials and a blasted recorded announcement every 5 minutes that we had to go straight through to the gate - we did and got through in less than 5 minutes and then had to stand for an hour as it was full of people waiting for different gates that had nowehere to sit.
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Interesting experience coming home from Berlin having arrived via Rome … Did as instructed and stayed air side in Rome and had my passport checked on leaving - no EES machines or stamp to my passport. Arrived in Berlin and again no sign of an EES machine or passport control. On coming to leave there was the biometric check with passport control, however they couldn't work out how I was actually in the country!
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If you have an entry stamp but not a departure stamp you need to tread carefully and keep some evidence eg boarding passes. You don’t want to fall foul of the number of days allowed in the EU because the lack of an exit stamp lead people to assume you are still in the EU.
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That actually occurred for my BiL. An exit stamp got missed and he then flew from Heathrow to CDG where there was concern about him overstaying and it took some persuading to explain and obtain acceptance that he must have left in order to arrive on the flight from LHR.
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I'd read a comment from somebody that they had been waved through on arrival and departure in Malta, with no passport stamping at all. Just having to show that it was a UK passport.
I suspect that like many other small airports Malta simply cannot cope if trying to implement the EES system.
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