Had a mixed bag experience with EES this year so far, with a few very poor experiences in MAD, which saw me register at a machine each time, but seemed ultimately pointless as it didn't seem to mean anything. I was still stamped in and out each time, despite giving my face and fingerprint scans over about 6 times across 2 trips. I had also already gone through a registration process in BUD late last year but it didn't seem to matter.

I will focus on how it has been on a recent trip, since the system was officially put in place. UK passport.

Flew into OTP last week, no real issues. No kiosks from what I could see. The officer took my fingerprints and face scan, and I was through, without a stamp, in just under 10 minutes from joining the line. Pretty good going. I then took an internal flight to Italy. Leaving from BRI yesterday was a bit different. I had read that Italy has had horrific delays, so I got to the airport early. I went straight airside and saw there was only 1 non-Schengen flight around the time of my departure, so I felt a bit more relaxed. The non-Schengen area was closed off anyway, with 4 EES machines all showing red lights and a barrier across 2 of them. That was a bit concerning, as 4 machines are surely not enough for peak summer, which is coming in a matter of weeks...never mind 2 of them being out of use. Just before my gate was announced, I wandered back down and saw the machines had turned green (2 still barricaded off). I went up and did the whole thing, and it worked fine, told me to use an e-gate, only they were all closed off (only 3 e-gates were actually there, mind you), and the manual desks were unmanned. I waited and waited, the gate was announced, and a crowd started to form. No officers were there until 30-40 minutes after the gate was announced, so no one, EU or non-EU, could proceed to the actual gate. A staff member was sent out to manage the line, but was confusingly telling everyone without an Italian passport that they were essentially the same as non-EU, so had to use the EES kiosk and may get a stamp if the e-gate doesn't work. Most ignored her, but some Irish passport holders joined the line for the EES kiosk anyway. I assume the system advised them not to bother. Eventually, the border guards showed up, and the e-gates sprang into life, and I was through straight away, no stamp, all good. The little screen at the e-gate told me I had until July 27th to depart the Schengen area, which I found odd, as I was departing. I now fully understand why Italy has had so many cases of pax being left behind.

So am I right in assuming next time I enter the zone, I will simply walk up to an egate and skip the whole EES machine rigmarole? Isn't that the whole point? My next Schengen trip isn't until July, so I will need to wait and see.

I must say, after a few travels to various South American and Asian nations in recent months, where I have seen pretty efficient use of e-gate/pre-registration/QR code technology at borders, it is truly mind boggling how the EU have managed to screw this whole system up to the poont where countries are uniliterally pulling out or hundreds of people are missing flghts due to being stuck on the wrong side of a border. While I am all for tech being used to speed up border crossings and reduce the amount of unnecessary stamps in my passport, this has been implemented so poorly. I have been to St Pancras station a few times since EES "went live" and noticed each time the pre-registration kiosks there have been behind a shuttered gate. Just what is the point?

To remind you that it was all our fault. We've brought this on ourselves.

I didn't, nor did my part of the country, by quite some margin, but that aside, none of the rest of the non-EU world bought this on themselves. I may not agree with Brexit, but it is up to the EU to ultimately introduce a functioning border control system, and they seem to be failing in that regard. The UK, for all its faults, kept the EU citizens' use of e-gates from day 1, and they were coming and going without UK stamps or any massive disruption, and have done so now for over 6 years. The launch of the UK ETA (or whatever it's called) went smoothly, too, for EU citizens. Why we couldn't negotiate a mutually beneficial entry and exit process for entering the Schengen area is beyond me, but here we are. We, of course, do not check passports on exit, so that is half the battle, but many, many countries do, and they aren't seeing the same issues as EU airports. I have never heard multiple reports of a third of a plane being left behind in Tokyo, Bogota, Istanbul, or Cape Town because the border didn't work properly.

EES process started before brexit...
 

Sadly this system wasnt designed or thought of when 67 million people had left the EU. I believe it will not work at most ports/airports. I've been done twice, once in Athens and once in Faro. Never had the opportunity to use the machines yet. A mess of our own making...

I've gone through several times now, starting with a transfer at Frankfurt last year when my fingerprints and photo were collected (at a manned booth). I've been through Frankfurt again since, and both times the process was better than their old Schengen border setup which very often had massive queues. And by the way, because the UK was always outside the Schengen scheme, there always was a passport check transferring between rest of EU to/from UK flights in that situation: leaving the EU didn't make much difference in that respect. So credit to Frankfurt Airport. Transfer & crossing the EU border at Munich was also painless. My experiences elsewhere have been mixed , but none have been really bad - I've often stood longer in passport control queues in the pre EES days (or in the UK queue at Manchester arrivals on a bad day for that matter) . However, I've only seen the electronic self-registration points working on my most recent trip last week, and i've not seen E-gates available for registered foreign passport holders at any EU border - all checks have been manual in & out.

Internationally, quite a few countries have for a long time offered some form of pre-registration to let foreigners use e-gates, sometimes with a small fee. The problems the EU is having to achieve much the same are not impressive. In the end, the UK or any other foreign nation can't be blamed for any mess - it is the EU's responsibility in general, and the responsibility of local airports for local problems. Some have done a good job and others less so.

Which fingerprints are taken? I only have nine, one finger was sewn on after a motorbike accident and doesn't have a fingerprint.

What about identical twins? My twins have never had their fingerprints taken, but I assume they'd be identical.

I am a citizen of one of the two non-Schengen countries, Ireland and Cyprus, Ireland because of the CTA with the UK, and Cyprus because it's an island nation and you need a passport to get there anyway. Will I be subject to border checks?

I travel between the UK and Italy frequently, I show my Irish passport and often get waved through without them even opening the passport. Will this change?

That's fascinating. Thank you. As Irish citizens, my twins have not been fingerprinted, I'll be interested when they are.

This will be the first discernable test of which is which. I wonder how facial recognition will deal with them.

Presuming you travel with an Irish passport to/from the Schengen zone, you won't need to register on the EES machines. You can use an e-gate on arrival/departure as you have been able to do for many years. If there isn't one, then the EU lane remains open to you. You retain complete freedom of movement; the EES registration and extra step are only for non-EU citizens. Of course, if you travel to an airport that has sluggish non-Schengen border controls, then you'd still be caught up in it, as many EU citizens were on my departure from BRI last week.

https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/...-ees-not-apply

• Nationals of the European countries using the EES, as well as Cyprus and Ireland.
• Non-EU nationals who hold a residence card and are immediately related to an EU national.
• Non-EU nationals who hold a residence card or a residence permit and are immediately related to a non-EU national who can travel throughout Europe like an EU citizen.
• Non-EU nationals travelling to Europe as part of an intra-corporate transfer or for the purposes of research, studies, training, voluntary service, pupil exchange schemes or educational projects and au-pairing.
• Holders of residence permits and long-stay visas.
• Nationals of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino and holders of a passport issued by the Vatican City State or the Holy See.
• People exempt from border checks or who have been granted certain privileges with respect to border checks (such as heads of state, accredited diplomats, cross-border workers, etc.). Diplomats travelling on short stay may be exempt from EES registration under certain conditions.
• The exception from registration in the EES apply to members of the armed forces travelling on NATO or Partnership for Peace business, who hold an identification and individual or collective movement order provided for by the Agreement between the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty regarding the Status of their Forces and may apply to civilian component or dependents referred to in the NATO Status of Forces Agreement.
  The exception applies to NATO International Civilians based in any of the 29 European countries using the EES and their dependents.
• People not required to cross external borders solely at border crossing points and during fixed opening hours.
• People holding a valid local border traffic permit.
• Crew members of passenger and goods trains on international connecting journeys.
• People holding a valid Facilitated Rail Transit Document or valid Facilitated Transit Document, provided they travel by train and do not disembark anywhere within the territory of an EU Member State.

Having travelled to France (by car) at the start of the week via the Dover/Calais ferry there was no EES registration/requirement.

There were no facilities available to us for registering, we have not previously registered.
Passports were presented at the French border control booth where they were scanned and handed back as normal.

From there it was a drive straight on to the ferry.

42psi,

It strikes me as strange that if any EU entry point has got its act together on EES it is Eurotunnel, at great expense to itself, yet they haven't gone even partially live for cars (as I understand it coach passengers are subject to EEA processing).

I would have thought that starting to put, say 25% of cars through the EEA "shed" and steadily build up from there with an option for an "emergency brake" if things get congested.

It really makes no sense.