Tell me about your experience with the new EES system??
 

I’m interested in hearing about people’s experiences with the new EES system now that it’s live across the Schengen countries.

I’ll be traveling from the U.S. to France in June. My Lufthansa flight departs Boston, connects in Frankfurt Airport, and then continues on to Nantes. I have a 3.5-hour layover in Frankfurt. When I booked the trip, that seemed like plenty of time, but now I’m starting to worry.

Are there separate immigration lines for connecting passengers? My flight from Frankfurt to Nantes is the only one that day, so missing it would be a big issue. I did consider flying into Frankfurt a day earlier or rerouting through Paris, but both options would require purchasing a new ticket, which is cost prohibitive.

At this point, the only adjustment I can think of is to travel with carry-on luggage only to avoid delays or the risk of lost checked bags if we miss the connection. I’m hoping everything goes smoothly, but I’d like to have a backup plan.

Does anyone know what typically happens if travelers miss a connection due to immigration delays? If the incoming flight arrives on time, the delay wouldn’t be the airline’s fault, so I assume they aren’t obligated to rebook passengers—but I’m hoping they might still assist in this situation.


Thanks,

About 3 weeks ago we flew AUS/DFW/FCO/PMO. There was not a separate line for people with connections, we were told to register upon arrival in Rome. We got in line to register, we stood there for what seemed like forever, then they told us the machines were down and to go on through immigration. Our flight from DFW to Rome had been delayed so we had already been automatically rebooked on a later flight to Palermo, but our luggage didn't make it. It was my 13th incident of lost luggage so I can't say I was surprised. It was delivered to our hotel the next day.

Although our connection/luggage problem was not caused by immigration delays, I believe the airlines must understand this happens and it's hard to imagine they will hold you responsible under these circumstances. With a 3.5 hour layover, I think you will be OK. But do expect to register in Frankfurt.

I went through this upon arrival in Barcelona last month (but not connecting). Going through immigration took about 3 minutes; there was no line, but my flight arrived before 7am so that might e whit was so quick.

Losing 13 suitcases!! That's a record I am glad I can't compete with!!! Mine were delayed only twice in one year!!!

Yes, I hold the world record at 13!! I should be in the Guinness Book of World Records. After this trip I finally wised up and bought an air tag, so now I'm confident it will never happen again.

LOL -- the air tag will simply let you know where your delayed/misdirected bags are biding their time . . . ;)

As a frequent traveler to London, you surely know--if you bring your umbrella, it won't rain. By the same token, now that I have an air tag, this will stop. :)

Let's hope.

I thought I would share my EES experience at MXP yesterday (May 7), and I was pleasantly surprised. It took less time to do the EES thing than it took to go through immigration on my last two European trips (France in ‘22 and Spain in ‘18). Maybe it’s just MXP, or maybe they have worked the bugs out.

So far, I haven't heard of many delays or missed connections due to EES ---which is very good news! I suspect social media has blown this out of proportion.
Since I'm be returning from Milan MXP in September, I greatly appreciate your feedback! I hope I have the same good luck.

Does one need to do the EES thing upon arrival and departure? Not worried about arrival as we'll arrive in our destination city, but wondering if we need to get the the airport way early upon departure?

No, in fact I don't think you have to do it every time you enter. It's my understanding that once you're registered, you don't have to do it again until you get a new passport. We didn't do it in April when we exited.

Yes. We just came back from Croatia, connecting in Munich both ways. It took over an hour on arrival, but there was no one in line when we went through the exit yesterday afternoon, so maybe ~5 minutes. I'm sure that varies by time of day, though.

Landed in Madrid last weak. First , one stop for passport info and fingers, then second spot for photo. And out.
No contact with humans.
Took half an hour .., it was Monday around 9:00AM.

Really danon? We went through some type of passport control when we left, but I wasn't aware that was EES.

I am guessing it was…Presumably, the data will be stored somewhere 😳
It was the first time entering a country without a person checking my passport.
it took half an hour to get through because of the number of travellers.
There were “helpers “ moving us along.

I didn't mean to suggest you're wrong, the fact is that I don't know anymore. I'm sorry the process took so long for you, that's discouraging for the rest of us.

As I type this, I'm on a layover in London, heading to Slovenia. Since the machines were down in Rome, I'm not registered. (Unless I unknowingly registered on the way out) As we all know, the UK isn't in the EU so I will register later today in Slovenia. I will report back soon about my experience.

P_M, I just exited at Munich 48 hours ago and was paying very close attention to how it worked, because I, too, am curious.

Our Schengen flight from Split arrived at T2, K concourse, and our Non-Schengen flight to Chicago was departing from T2, H concourse — so, we followed signs for H. Ultimately, we arrived at an immigration hall that looks just like the one in the photo at the top of this Guardian article. The long bank of kiosks you see in the photo was labeled Entry/Exit System (EES) Pre-Registration. I asked a staff member whether we had to use the kiosk, since we'd used the same type of kiosks in a different area of Terminal 2 to register our biometrics when we entered Schengen there 10 days earlier. His answer: "Yes, you have to do it every time." So, we did the passport scan, photo, and fingerprints (one hand only) again. Then, we were prompted to a line, where an agent stamped our passports. When we entered the week before, the kiosk experience was exactly the same, and we then joined a (long) line to finish processing with an agent. That agent also took a photo and fingerprints (so, yes, twice) and asked some questions about where we were going and for how long.

I think every airport may be at a different stage of implementation, so experiences will continue to vary.

Thank you ms_go, this has been interesting. We're all learning this new process. I hope it will be faster than the old way, once the bugs are sorted out.

Do I understand correctly that the potentially time consuming bit is when one arrives the first time, as that's when you register? Then afterwards, you're in the system, but still need to use the kiosk?

I'm just trying to determine if we need to allow more time than usual at the airport when we depart from Munich. We'd have registered upon arrival.

Perhaps different countries have different approach ?
Before leaving , Air Canada send us a note reminding passengers that connecting time may be an issue for some.
Whatever the case, one has no choice but to go through it.🙀

There was absolutely no difference in the time required to use the kiosk when we entered on April 28 than there was when we exited on May 8. It was the exact same process — passport scan, photo, fingerprints. The entry process took longer primarily because there were hundreds of people in line, vs. no one in line when we left. I did notice that, at entry, the agents were asking questions such as where you’re going, how long, what your exit point will be, etc. — so that made processing each person longer. At exit, they were just stamping passports. I’ve heard that the kiosks will eventually collect that type of information, but that wasn’t the case in Munich (yet). When is your trip? Things could change between now and then.

I've just reached my hotel in Slovenia. Back in March when I tried to register in Rome, they were separating those who had registered and those who hadn't. Here in Slovenia they did not. We didn't use kiosks, live people helped us. I sat near the front of the plane so I reached immigration quickly and only waited about 15 minutes in line. Those in the very back probably waited close to an hour, because only 2 people were working.

I now believe that danon was right and our exit process was indeed EES, so disregard my post above on that issue.

Based on my own experiences, I think it's impossible to know what to expect. Until this process is running in a more uniform fashion, you'll get different information from everyone.

We arrived into CDG about 1pm on Tuesday after connecting through LHR and had next to no wait at all. The thing is, though, they only did a face scan, no fingerprints. Is that unusual?

We leave May 25th.

Enjoy your holiday ! We are at the “ mercy “ of the bureaucracy .
.I am surprised we were processed by machines only , no human looked at the passports. Other posters had a different experience.
Curious to see what will happen when I exit Spain.

It all still sounds better than the hours of standing in a massive queue to be dealt with by one very aggressive immigration official when entering the US in the past. Photographed, fingerprinted and treated like a criminal for daring to want to vacation in the US.
Longest wait then was nearly five hours in LA, no seats, no toilets. Did they open up the US passport control area to non US citizens after they were cleared? No, those official just walked away leaving two people to deal with about four plane loads.

Imagine this:

Once the bugs are sorted out, the machines (in theory) are less likely than a person to let someone slip past if they're using a stolen passport. The machine will notice fingerprints that don't match and the facial scanner will pick up the most subtle differences in faces. A human might unknowingly allow someone to use the stolen passport of a sibling who has a very similar look. The machine will catch that.

Just a thought.

the world of AI is upon us 😳

It also calculates your 90 days in Schengen, so no overstaying. That is the main purpose of it all I think.

That makes sense heti. And I'm sorry for the trouble you had with the US authorities.

Not your fault P_M! It's just that this site being so weighted to the US forgets, or doesn't know how the rest of us a treated when visiting your country. I imagine it is even worse now, but it did improve for a while - I think they sent them all to charm school or something, and put a few more folks on the non US queues.
Dumbest question ever was in Boston - Immigration guy why are you visiting? DH I have a couple of meetings and then we are having a vacation. IG What line of work? DH Defence. IG yours or ours? DH we're on the same side. IG grunted and lets us go.

Anyway I hope EES works and doesn't cause too many queues or problems for visitors.
Next point of chaos will be ETIAS, which should start towards the end of this year.

We entered France a few weeks ago (mid-April), flying from LHR to Lyon. Upon arrival, an agent directed people to two lines, one for EU / Schengen citizens and one for everyone else. We entered the line for everyone else and were met by a live agent, who took our photos and fingerprints. The wait in line was about 15 minutes but once at the counter it was maybe 2 or 3 minutes.

Leaving from CDG, the line was long but it moved. We were standing in line for about 20-25 minutes. Once at the front the line, agents were directing people either to e-gates or to a live agent. We were directed to e-gates (not sure if there were certain criteria as they did not ask nationality). We scanned our passports and a photo was taken, and this was it. If you are familiar with e-gates in London or in Australia, it's the same.

We landed at Zurich this morning, en route to Slovenia. When we reached border control, we saw the usual signs for "EU" and "All Other Passports." We joined the tiny line-up for the latter (there were a lot of agents on duty), and had our passports scanned, photos taken, and fingerprints registered by the border agent. The registration and entry took three minutes at most.

We will leave the Schengen area through Frankfurt, so we'll be interested to see how that works in a couple of weeks.

P_M, I hope you are enjoying Slovenia. We just arrived in Ljubljana a few hours ago. First impressions are very favourable!

Edited to add: they did not stamp our passports. That's a first.

AA, wow. Another Fodorite in Ljubljana!! I had lunch with sassy yesterday. We're taking over. :)

Not concerned about time for this stuff flying Chicago direct to CDG in October. BUT
Coming home it will be Nice, France, changing at CDG with a 1 hr. 50 minutes layover for CDG to Chicago.

Do you think 1 hr. 50 minutes change at CDG be enough time?

Every story will be different, but my experience is that the process of leaving Europe is faster and easier than coming in.

TPAYT,
Once you land, if your connection is tight, flag down one of the airport people directing passengers through immigration and ask for help. I don't know if there's a separate line or maybe they can move you to the front of the line if you have a tight connection (say under 1 hour). Typically the plane door closes 20 minutes before departure so I hope you don't have to change terminals too.

I like being over prepared so I'd be looking at whether there are later flights from CDG to ORD and that way if you miss your flight, you'll already know what the options are and you can rebook yourself online while others are waiting for assistance at the help desk.

OK..I left Madrid today …again , a huge lineup for non Europeans…. Several scanners had glitches..so some passports were checked by humans. 25 minutes.
It seems to me, the problem is a small number of scanners for the hundreds of passengers coming in or exiting, especially
at busy airports at peak times.
How it will be addressed ? Who knows😳

SORRY for double posting

I left Madrid today … , a huge lineup for non Europeans…. Several scanners had glitches..so some passports were checked by humans. 25 minutes wait in line.
It seems to me, the problem is the small number of scanners for hundreds of passengers coming in or exiting, especially
at busy airports at peak times.
How it will be addressed ? Who knows😳

I registered for EES in Iceland back in November 2025 as I got fingerprinted and my picture taken. I then entered Portugal in March 2026 and same process as Iceland. I would say I waited in line maybe 30 minutes each time. Then arriving for my connection in Vienna last week, I only had my picture taken by the EU agent as he had nobody and waved me over so it was quick and I also had to go through security again but it was quick.

I think its interesting hearing of everyone's experiences. I don't expect to have a problem exiting Croatia next week. I am returning in August but to Spain in August on a non stop flight so don't expect issues there. Hopefully things will straighten out by December for my next trip as I will be connecting in Frankfurt.

Another question about our return flight…..Nice, connecting in CDG in Paris to Chicago with a 1 hour, 50 minute time frame. All with Delta by Air France.

Do we have to do any of this EES stuff at the Nice airport starting on our trip home to Chicago then connecting in Paris CDG?