{"id":73540,"date":"2025-10-11T09:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T09:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/73540\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T09:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T09:06:07","slug":"uk-visitors-to-eu-could-face-4-hour-border-queues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/73540\/","title":{"rendered":"UK visitors to EU could face 4-hour border queues"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK travellers visiting countries such as Spain, Portugal and Italy are being urged to prepare for four-hour queues when a new EU border system comes into force tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The Entry Exit System (EES) involves people from non-EU countries such as the UK having their fingerprints registered and photograph taken to enter the Schengen area, which consists of 29 European countries, mainly in the EU.<\/p>\n

For most UK travellers the EES process will be done at foreign airports.<\/p>\n

The EES does not apply to nationals of European countries that use the system, as well as Ireland and Cyprus.<\/p>\n

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, a network of independent travel agents, said: “For major airports in southern Europe, we recommend that travellers now allocate four hours for navigating the new system in these initial stages.”<\/p>\n

She warned that “delays should be anticipated” at border controls when multiple flights arrive at similar times, and “we foresee potentially overwhelming volumes of travellers during the initial roll-out”.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe EES kiosks at St Pancras International Train Station in London<\/p>\n

She added: “This should settle over the next few weeks as staff and travellers familiarise themselves with the new procedures.”<\/p>\n

Rory Boland, editor of consumer magazine Which? Travel, said: “Longer waits are expected at border control on arrival so you should allow more time when you land by booking later transfers or other onward travel.”<\/p>\n

The UK Home Office said the extra checks “should only take one to two minutes” to complete but warned they may lead to “longer waits at busy times”.<\/p>\n

UK travellers boarding international services from London\u2019s St Pancras railway station, the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel\u2019s Folkestone terminal will complete EES checks in the UK.<\/p>\n

New kiosks have been installed at those locations but only some passengers will be required to use them from tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nVisitors from third-party countries such as the UK will be required to have their fingerprints registered and photograph taken<\/p>\n

The EU is rolling out EES in a phased manner, with participating states initially only required to use the system for a proportion of their arrivals.<\/p>\n

The deadline for full implementation is 10 April next year.<\/p>\n

An individual\u2019s EES registration will be valid for three years although their details will still be verified on each trip in that period.<\/p>\n

The system will eventually replace the need for border officers to stamp passports.<\/p>\n

Mark Tanzer, chief executive of travel trade organisation Abta, said: “In the longer term, EES should make processes quicker and simpler for travel to Europe.<\/p>\n

“Looking at the short term, given the scale of the operation, there may be some delays, particularly at peak travel times.<\/p>\n

“But countries will be stepping up their processes gradually and have the option to stand down the system to avoid significant and lengthy waiting times.<\/p>\n

“We ask that countries remain vigilant and use this contingency measure where needed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK travellers visiting countries such as Spain, Portugal and Italy are being urged to prepare for four-hour queues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-73540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}