Travel to Europe changes today for British travelers. I'm here to test it out. This is because of a new computer system called EES, which tracks non-EU nationals as they come in and out of most of Europe, and it's set to replace passport stamps.
The only problem is that whilst it started today, there is a six-month rollout. So, there could be a chance I am flying somewhere today, and they're not even going to ask me. The country I’ve chosen has said that they plan to roll it out today — so, keep your fingers crossed.
Welcome to Tallin. So, Estonia are really on it with their technology, so I expect to see some self-service kiosks. I don’t see any. But maybe they’re going to take me through the EES process in person. Let’s see.
So, Tallin Airport is doing EES checks, but only manually. You go up to border control as normal, and they have the face scan built into the side — they take your photo, they take your fingerprints, and I was asked what the purpose of my trip was and how many nights I was staying.
However, there were definitely teething problems. I had to do my face scan again, and it took nearly 4 minutes. I was one of the first people off that plane. By the time I left border control, there was a queue of at least 10 people, which could mean an extra 40 minutes for the people at the back.
So, these are my main takeaways, and I’m actually really glad I got to experience a manual EES check for you. I’m so interested to see what’s going to happen tomorrow when I return to the UK.
I think this means that perhaps I need to book myself another flight so I can test out those EES kiosks. So, let me know in the comments if you know of anywhere that’s definitely doing the checks and definitely has those machines.
Adopted: CheapHolidayExpert
