 Poster: A snowHead
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@ousekjarr,
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Calling this approach "shambolic" and suggesting they couldn't organise a wee wee up in a brewery just exposes your biases and lack of understanding.
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Ah, so the EU ignoring a number of nations declaring that they were not ready for implementation is what we should have expected?
And not ensuring that these 'small number of key locations' had sufficient human resource to deploy the side-by-side old and new systems was also in the EU plan?
Tut, how silly of us
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@mozwold, yes, this is expected - it's a multi-national deployment across thousands of sites, so what would you have them do? Wait until every country confirmed it was 100% ready before starting anywhere?
Staffing of border points is the responsibility of national governments. In what way is the EU responsible for that? If a national government decides that it's preferable to have 2 hour queues occasionally rather than spending €50M to build a new arrivals hall to cope with a 1 year bulge in processing requirements, that's their choice and they had plenty of time to make that decision.
As I said above, there will be problems along the way - it's inevitable with such a complex system. But judge it in a year, not based on transient issues that won't apply once 90% of travellers have already registered, which will be the case in 2027. If you think the UK could do better, let me remind you of the Horizon scandal...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I suspect that this time next year we'll be having a similar thread ,...., for if anyone else has ever applied for a 6 months EU visitor visa for the last 5 years will know that its a pain, an outdated system hats collecting information for no reason, collection of biometric information that it can not use, photo I'd which is also not used and that last year crashed in a spectacular way.. I've no confidence in the EES ever working ...I start my visa application again next t week, the fun I'm going to have 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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The tunnel still says on it's website currently processing lorries and coaches. Any idea when this might change to cars as well? I'm specifically thinking for Feb half term I wonder if they'll ditch it for that week being insanely busy. The pressure release valve is an option for them at busy times.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Gva security queue doesn’t look too bad.
Ees machines all switched off that’s been a success then!! About 5-10 mins queue without the machines - everyone going to booths
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Arrival through Rotterdam on Tuesday morning was painless.... (for us) We were vehicle No 2 at our customs booth. Couple Infront took around 4 -5 mins. We were similar in time scale.
It occurred to me that vehicle No 50 would be waiting quite a long time.
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@James77, Both the tunnel and Dover ferries were scheduled to start for cars on 1st November, both claimed they were ready to start, but two days before announced that the French authorities had postponed it to " in the new year after the Christmas/New Year busy period". From that I expected them to start about now - if not I suspect there must be some major issues behind the scenes!
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INNSBRUCK: From a friend who flew to Innsbruck arriving early afternoon on Saturday 10th Jan: “Got through the new EES system, fingerprints & photo, within two minutes of entering the terminal. Baggage reclaim was immediate.”
GENEVA: When I flew back to Heathrow on the 6th there was a long queue at passport control at Geneva airport. The hold up was that people not yet EES registered had to be registered by the border guards which took an awful lot longer than the EES machines on entry. So give yourself lots of time and as soon as the gate is announced make your way there so you’re first in the queue.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@RobinS, Just asked the tunnel bot and it told me travelling 13th February cars will not be affected by the EES. Hopefully it has been loaded with accurate information!
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Arrived 11:40 Las Palmas from Gatwick. 20+ EES kiosks, then on to a similar number of eGates, then passport stamped. Schengen travellers just went directly to the same eGates and no passport stamp. The EES kiosks added about 10-12 minutes to the process. I only had cabin bags and was with an Irish friend and caught up with them at the car rental desk. For anyone with hold luggage, the EES kiosk+stamp wouldn’t have made any time difference, other than arriving at the carousel a bit later but still before any luggage appeared.
This was on an early flight out of Gatwick (07:10) - there was another arrival ahead of us, but only 30 or so of them unprocessed when we got to the EES kiosks. I was one of the first off, so perhaps add 10-15 minutes if you were one of the last to disembark. If there had been multiple ‘planes arriving simultaneously, then the bottleneck would have been the manual stamping, not the EES kiosks.
Edit: Return outbound Sunday at Las Palmas - 19:30 flight back to LGW, no real delays: more kiosks than people and only a couple of minutes extra time for EES, then manual stamping. No queues at all.
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Mon 19-01-26 12:51; edited 2 times in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Came through Barcelona on Sunday. Lots of kiosks and helpers and very straightforward to register with EES. Our flight should have gone to Toulouse but the weekend snow led to a changed destination, and apparently the airport was busier than usual.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Geneva today took 45 minutes to queue for passport check. No fingerprints taken.
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Innsbruck taking fingerprints and scanning faces yesterday for everyone non-EU. Ever booth (six, I think, we used the single EU queue and couldn’t see properly past the crowd) manned and in operation. Non-EU and EU clearly indicated seemed very efficient - I reckon everyone was through within 15 minutes.
Not sure what it would be like with more than one plane, but pretty good yesterday.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Jehu wrote: |
| Geneva today took 45 minutes to queue for passport check. No fingerprints taken. |
They had turned it on again by 16:30 on Thursday, fingerprints taken etc but as our flight was the only non-schengen landing at that time it was less than 10 minutes.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Came through Zurich today. Super quick and easy.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Came through VCE yesterday about 9.30, 10-15 mins to get fingerprints done and passport stamped.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Currently at passport control in Zurich. EES registration very easy and a 10 minute Q for passport to be stamped.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I took the 0901 Eurostar from St Pancras today - no EES info taken and didn’t see anyone else bring ‘done’ - party of 4 and none of us had info taken.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Montan,
that is strange, we went through St Pancras mid December, and biometrics were taken at the French passport control booths (no terminals in sight), then passport stamped, i wonder if they pick and choose when to do it?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Saturday 17th Jan mid afternoon, GVA, dropped off bag at Easyjet - no queue, only one line of queue at security, 10 minutes at passport control, passport stamped, no questions. Even the cafe from hell in departures was civilized and got a seat!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I’ve just come through Verona and note a few things
Contrary to what is widely reported on the web and in the media you have to register every time you enter Italy. They won’t let you just walk through to the e kiosks even though you’ve registered only a month previously. Oddly the terminal acknowledges that you have already registered.
We were then directed to the hand passport control where the border guard spent ages looking through my passport and a computer screen. In the end he stamped my passport twice which is annoying as I’m running out of space.
The whole process took 40 minutes. Crystal sent us a warning prior to travel about the delay advising to bring food and drink along with something to read while waiting.
There was a huge school party behind us. They must have taken hours as they were not permitted to use the terminals.
Baggage reclaim was a mess with no flights mentioned on the carousels none of which were running anyway and bags just anywhere.
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@johnE, Thanks for that info -- I shall be in Verona later this month
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Does anyone have first-hand knowledge of current EES arrangements at Venice Marco Polo airport?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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So, having done the EES thingy today, it will be interesting to see what effect it has when I arrive in salzburg in 2 weeks time.
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| halfhand wrote: |
| So, having done the EES thingy today, it will be interesting to see what effect it has when I arrive in salzburg in 2 weeks time. |
Zero because it's clearly a load of nonsense...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Contrary to what is widely reported on the web and in the media you have to register every time you enter Italy. They won’t let you just walk through to the e kiosks even though you’ve registered only a month previously.
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- Mrs MA & I queued to be fingerprinted on arrival at Geneva in November.
- Went back in December and were told to disregard the finger print queues as whatever we did in November was valid for 2 years. No fingerprints were then required on exit from CH.
- No fingerprints needed on entry at GVA last week, but fingerprints were then required to exit the country... 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Live report from Geneva. Just arrived Jet2 from Edinburgh, three buses to pick us up. I was on first, 4-6 border guards doing passport and no fingerprints.
Genuinely through from getting off the bus in about 90 seconds! Now waiting for luggage (and my friends who were further back on the plane)
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No EES at Turin this morning, bit of a queue but on the transfer bus within 45 mins from landing
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You know it makes sense.
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| roguemazza wrote: |
| No EES at Turin this morning, bit of a queue but on the transfer bus within 45 mins from landing |
Thanks. Off to Turin next Saturday so will be interesting to see what happens at the airport.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Left via GVA yesterday. No sign of any EES. System seems to be going backwards since I was EES biometriced in early Dec 25.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Left via GVA yesterday. Still haven't been asked for fingerprints.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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No EES at Eurotunnel LeShuttle Ashford this morning (19 Jan).
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Fri 23-01-26 17:37; edited 1 time in total
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Leaving GVA on Monday - EES kit was at the passport booths for the B gates, but wasn't in use.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Landed at Geneva today 3:30 from London City. Almost last off the plane (seat at back of plane). Then on second bus before long walk to passport control. Queue was 20ish minutes - appeared to be just our plane. Had to use new Ess machines. Actual use of machine fairly smooth, about 1-2 mins, scan passport, take photo, scan finger prints, answer questions ... do you have 100€?, do you have return ticket? Then onto border guard for stamp (2 mins). 18? machines in operation but still a wait... longer than waiting for border guards previously to examine passports?... don't know. However from LCY fairly small plane and still a longish wait. When I landed at Turin on Dec 27th (jet2 charter) only saw 5-6 machines, but they were closed at the time and was directed straight to guards for stamp and exit. Bigger plane and less machines might mean longer queue...
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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When we arrived in Milan we seemingly registered at one machine, scan passports and finger prints, then answer questions about the trip (return ticket, cash, credit/debit cards, but not about having any insurance) .
Then it informed you that you could use the e-gates, then off to another machine with gates, scan passport and finger prints, then through to the holder of the stamp.
But what I don't understand is this bit about registration saving time next time, as the trip related questions are asked at the first machine, so next time you arrive dont you still have to go to the first machine to answer the trip questions then at the second to gain entry, where is the time saved on later visits?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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No EES at Eurotunnel this morning.
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@mountainaddict, where/how were
you told to ignore the finger print queue? I’m back for a 2nd time since getting finger printed.
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Three family arrived in Geneva today,
1st was finger printed
2nd wasn't but asked if he had 100 euro a day but wasn't asked for proof, asked if he had return flight but not asked fir proof.
3rd walked straight through without being asked for anything.
All arrived at carousel before bags, bearing in mind its meant to be fully operational in a few short weeks they need to get up to speed
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| ster wrote: |
When we arrived in Milan we seemingly registered at one machine, scan passports and finger prints, then answer questions about the trip (return ticket, cash, credit/debit cards, but not about having any insurance) .
Then it informed you that you could use the e-gates, then off to another machine with gates, scan passport and finger prints, then through to the holder of the stamp.
But what I don't understand is this bit about registration saving time next time, as the trip related questions are asked at the first machine, so next time you arrive dont you still have to go to the first machine to answer the trip questions then at the second to gain entry, where is the time saved on later visits? |
I'll bet the egate would have worked without going to the machine beforehand just like they used to work before all this nonsense started.
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FAQ
)