Has anyone used or done this? I go to Spain in a fortnight and believe that this is now a requirement to enter and exit Schengen countries, since the UK left the EU and showed the EU what's what, yeah right....
Not personally, I've only read that there are problems... The attached article says that the EES will only begin on April 10th for air travelers, as the systems at the channel ports is not working. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c33l77k88vyo
The system is not working, full stop. Utter debacle. Just so people know, non EU travellers still have to go through the EES lane at their point of entry after they have first registered. Registering your biometrics gains you nothing. For the foreseeable future, the queues will be horrendous. Andy
This will be Spain and the Spanish have a good capability for chaos. I care not as I am in no hurry. Quite clever really as a subtle message that we made a massive mistake leaving the EU. That was Farage's mess creation. Enlighten me here. Why is it that ordinary British people think that a far-right millionaire will really help them? A Churchill throwback, I guess!
A little tip for those from the UK living in the EU, you can and should skip all non EU queues if you have a residential permit or similar permanent residence permit of your destination country. Having fell sheep to the normal queues many times and with this likely going to increase those queues, if your eligible, skip to the digital queues and have your permit ready to show.
Correct, I got wind of it after queueing at Schipol for hours only to be told 'oh, you can go straight through next time, show your resident permit'. On the next trip I breezed through. As for vehicle boarders, again, it's the first document I show when needed along with passport for the crossing at the Eurotunnel. Never had a question doing so, aside from many security stops, when they're not busy they 'get busy'
EES is a one off event to register your data on arrival at the airport. Go to the machine, answer lots of really daft questions dreamt up by a committee of fools, finger prints, passport then off to the E-passport check then see the nice person for your stamp. The EU still insists on the passport stamp, even though EU citizens can use UK E-passports. There is meant to be an EU third country (that’s UK) annual visa fee, but I think that has failed the technology test so far.
Have you ever received a motoring fine in the post from an Italian province? I got one once whilst in Florence on my bike. You'd think they still use tomes and scrolls for all records, it's like receiving instructions for the lego death star. Pages and pages of processes and orderings.
I’ve been in and out of Spain several times recently. There’s nothing to worry about. If the machines are up and running they scan your finger prints. However the machines for some reason don’t like my prints and fall over each and every time. Then I go to get things done manually, the old fashioned way, passport gets stamped and it’s ’hasta luego’. In fact I’ll be doing it again next week. Can’t wait.
