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?