EES (Entry/Exit System) for most EU countries

kuepper

I don't understand why there are reports of ppl missing flights and ppl advised to get to the airport earlier than usual when returning from Schengen area to the UK. I assumed once you'd done the fingerprint stuff etc on arrival there'd be no reason for any abnormal delay through border controls when coming back from Schengen area to the UK.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81985209#Comment_81985209

It's because that assumption is incorrect!

Slinky

You have to visit the machine, scan passport and answer some questions on the way out. Wasn't a problem for us leaving Barcelona but we were good and early at the time and not many Brits going through.

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81985860#Comment_81985860

We did none of that leaving Gran Canaria or Malta. Presented ourselves at an unmanned booth at Gran Canaria and a manned booth in Malta, scanned our passport, put our hands on the fingerprint reader , faced a camera and we were through. It all sounds very hit and miss.

Slinky

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81986434#Comment_81986434

Hmm, maybe that WAS it, that we were scanned again, not questioned. I do know it wasn't just as straightforward as showing your passport and being waved through.

kuepper

I was lucky as it turned out. I went to Greece and on arrival discovered that Greece wasn't implementing the EES this year and didn't even stamp my passport.

TheShape

Might as well share my experience. 3rd time entering the EU since EES rollout. 1st time experience of EES.

Entered via Rimini airport 14th May. Passport scanned and Photograph and fingerprints taken at a manned booth. Queueing and process took approx 30 minutes. I estimate that the longest wait for those at the back of the line was around 40 minutes.

Rimini is a very quiet airport in May though and although arriving on a full aircraft it was only an Airbus A319 (max 156 passengers).

Leaving (18th May) was a similar process. While I my partner had passport scanned, photo and fingerprints, I did not have fingerprints checked. Very quick process on return but only around 60 pasengers on the flight and the only flight in around an 8 hour window.

Next flight will be to Barcelona in July. Will make allowances for the process to take longer given that Barcelona will be far busier.

Slinky

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82010449#Comment_82010449

We did Barcelona in March, it was very quick and efficient. Took about 30 minutes getting registered, there were lots of terminals and staff helping, and although some machines stopped working on rotation, there was an IT bloke there kicking them back into action and looking for the next one to fall over. On the way back we were literally escorted up to the exit machine and went straight through, nobody else in the queue.

Different experience in Bari a couple of weeks back. We queued up for maybe 15-20 minutes before getting to the front of the queue where we were asked if we'd been registered already, and sent to the scanning machines. There were maybe 8-10 machines where unregistered people were registering. When we got to the scanners, the scanners didn't like our passports so we then had to queue to be manually checked, which meant joining a long queue of others in the same situation. Eventually we reached the front of this queue and were manually processed which took maybe 3 minutes each of the border control staff's time. On the way back the queue was very disorganised, and took about 40 minutes to get through. Only 3 machines and again the machine wasn't keen on scanning the passport. Took about 3 attempts. I'd say there weren't enough machines for the number of people. We were good and early as we were on an early evening flight and getting there under our own steam. Could have been very stressful if you were short for time.