Long LONG Delays at Passport Control in Paris-CDG
 

My son returned from Paris today and said that when he got to De Gaulle for passport control there were about 20 or so desks and only was was open!

He waited for 40 minutes in line to get his passport looked at -when he left the lines were even longer -he figures some may have to wait for over an hour or more - just to get thru passport control!

So if leaving from CDG allow a lot of time for passport control (may have been a unique occasion but still - he says it looked like a third-world operation (he's French born and bred BTW). He heard the one staffer who was open continually call for "Help"in French but in 40 minutes none arrived.

Always leave more time for pre-flight snafus than you may expect!

For CDG I'd say 40 minutes is usual these days. Sometimes I or my friends waited over 1h for just the passport control. But then my flights were long flights with huge airplanes.

This sounds like a post that was made on here not that long ago, almost an identical repeat, unless I'm dreaming. Maybe some guy didn't show up for work, who knows. In fact, it sounds like it was abnormal or why would the guy be yelling for help.

Your post is very confusing as to when this happened, was he arriving home or leaving through CDG to go somewhere else, so it was the security for flying? You call it pre-flight at the end but most people think of "passport control" as arrivals for international flights.

Had the same recently but in Orly.

Someone must be anticipating Fion's promises to cut the number of civil servants

For what it is worth, when we departed CDG at the end of October it took us only about 5 minutes to get through Passport Control.

Took me about an hour and a half (just at passport control) a couple of months ago. Worst I've ever experienced at CDG. I was really worried I was going to miss my flight.

Your post is very confusing as to when this happened, was he arriving home or leaving through CDG to go somewhere else,>

It was in Paris at CDG this morning -wherever you have to show passports/tickets to enter - get passport stamped (has both passports but was using an American one- but made no difference apparently without only one guichet open. Delta flight to Detroit -had nothing to do with baggage check or security.

Personally I do not see how this can happen -it also happened -a little less the last time he returned to U.s., his home.

I have only once taken less that 40 minutes and usually longer so today doesn't seem unusual in the least.

That one time my friend and I were 4th and 5th in line - two officers on duty so one would think it would just be a couple of minutes but it took nearly 30 minutes because two of the passengers ahead of us elicited very VERY long interviews -- so it was more than 20 minutes . . .

Incroyable!

We flew out of CDG about a month ago and it was a nightmare. The line for security was the worst I have ever encountered. Fortunately we wer flying Icelandair and at some point found out that there was another security control for the terminal Icelandair flies out of.
Friends arrived at CDG a month ago and said it took them close to an hour to get thru passport control and customs.

Incroyable!

I have often read that for 50 people who complain about a bad experience, only about 2 who had no problem will ever mention the fact.

Frankly the only long waits that I have ever at CDG were upon arrival when the flights from Hong Kong or Singapore arrive about 45 minutes early, meaning around 5:15 a.m. The immigration officers do not go on duty early "just in case."

After reading all of the bad stories, though, I was pretty surprised when I had a long haul flight at "rush hour" recently (11 a.m.) and spent a grand total of 5 minutes in line both at passport control and at security.

I agree with yestravel, we flew into CdG from Budapest 3 weeks ago, the lines to get thru passport control were like I've never seen before. We finally made it to the gate for our connecting flight 20 minutes after it was expected to depart and surprisingly they were holding the flight, it seems 12 of us were stuck in the delay.
Thank you Air France!

Oh, and while there were hundreds waiting to get they passport control, there were 3 windows open.

I have waited at CDG passport control for over one hour on more than one occasion. I am not sure what is going on but even third world countries do not operate like this.

When people ask about how much time is needed to process through CDG, I am sure that many do not believe when many of us tell them 2 to 3 hours.

Allow plenty of time, more time than you might think, to funnel through the passport lines at CDG.

I think the "State of Emergency" might have something to do with the delays. Be careful what you wish for.

This is one reason we like to fly Icelandair. They stop in Reykjavik and you enter or depart the EU there. One time we were first in line at passport control.

You have clearly never arrived in the US on a non US passport. An hour queue is normal and even short for entering the US.

Exiting they don't care. No passport check other than by the airline.

The huge queue for immigration and the hassle of reclaiming bags for customs before rechecking them is the reason I try to do any transfer necessary in Europe not the US.

If you really want to have fun, try JFK.

Or Mexico City ;-)

Or LA - have waited 3 hours there and most of us usually queuing have done long haul flights of 16 hours.

"Oh, and while there were hundreds waiting to get they passport control, there were 3 windows open."

Check my recent trip report. Yes, 3 windows. It was pathetic.

((H))

This seems to have steadily worsened and is worrying.. I have a 1hr 45 minute transit (same ticket, Air France) between arriving (from Mumbai) in 2E and departing (for Toulouse) from 2F in May ... fingers crossed!

Anybody with a "tight" transit goes to the head of the line.

As for me, I arrived yesterday in Orly from something as simple as Scotland. There were 5 windows open for EU/EEA/CH passports and absolutely nobody waiting there. But there were at least 200 unhappy people in line for "other" passports. This is called reciprocity. People are treated the way EU/EEA/CH passports are treated in other countries. Do you consider this to be unfair?

They never, ever, have enough people at the immigration stops to manage the number of passengers. It's maddening. We go through the EU passport line, but even that isn't much faster.

Plus, we have recently learned that there is "passport control"even when transferring from one Schengen country to another (in our case Milan to Toulouse), which creates another blockage of sometimes enormous proportions. It happens after you go through the take-your-belt-off-and-put-your-computer-in-this-tray nonsense and before you can actually board the plane. You think, yeah, we're finally heading to the boarding gate, but no...another huge pile-up for a passport check. Why?

Do you consider this to be unfair?>

spiteful -is that fair to common blokes who have no role in the fight - petty and INCROYABLE

PalenQ, did you miss the word "reciprocity?"

The next time you fly from a foreign country to the United States, I suggest that you get in the line for foreign travelers instead of "US citizens and Green Cards" and then give us a report of what you think of the lines for getting into the country.

I think it's terrible to treat our visitors like that - terrible and inexcusable. A real shame.

"There were 5 windows open for EU/EEA/CH passports and absolutely nobody waiting there. But there were at least 200 unhappy people in line for "other" passports."

This sounds more cock-up than deliberate planning.

There IS a management discipline called "labour scheduling" that helps professionally-managed business match workers to customer demand. Investigating adoption of this discipline in European government-run operations (like post offices or passport control desks) some years ago, I found not a single example of its being used. Apart from anything else, many public sector unions find the concept ideologically offensive.

Usually, strict segregation between queues for EU/EEA passengers and everyone else doesn't happen outside the UK either - though possibly France has begun to enforce this since the increase in terrorism.

Kerouac's description sounds horrendous. But - almost uniquely in the world - it's practically always the case that ALL the EU's international entry points get far more EU/EEA passengers than non-Europeans. There are 600 million of us - and we travel across borders far more than any other group of people on earth.

When there is segregation at immigration between Europeans and the rest, the reason we get through quicker is usually because more of us use the automated gates, and because entry for us requires less checking.

Unlike in the US, I've NEVER seen evidence of a higher official:passenger ratio for locals than for the rest. Kerouac's example is completely at odds with my experience every time I cross a European border.