passengers travelling into the Schengen Area may be required to register their biometric details<\/a>, such as fingerprints and a photo, upon arrival. EES registration is replacing the current system of manually stamping passports when visitors arrive in the EU.<\/p>\nHowever, the new system has had teething problems. From malfunctioning terminals to some countries refusing to institute the system in the busy Summer period, it has not had the best press.<\/p>\n
Many British travellers have had to face this system for the first time over the Summer holidays, as they try to jet off to countries such as Spain, France, Greece or Italy.<\/p>\n
However, I came face-to-face with this system in the 4th busiest airport in Europe, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, during one of the Dutch capital’s busiest times of the year. This means I can now tell passengers what they can expect if they’re anxious about a trip away in the near future.<\/p>\n
When do you register?<\/p>\n
There was a section that was roped off as I’d gotten off the plane, and before I made it to baggage claim. Here, I was invited to register for EES. I joined about a dozen other travellers at just past 10am at Amsterdam Airport who were also filling in details for the first time.<\/p>\n
I say they were filling in details, but this isn’t accurate. It was simply a matter of presenting your passport to the scanner, and the machine does the rest. You’ll need to give your fingerprints by putting your hand on the same scanner that reads your passport, and then look up at a camera for a retinal scan.<\/p>\n
And just like that, it was done. I confirmed my details, grabbed my passport, and headed to the passport control hall.<\/p>\n
Instead of joining the busy queue that would still need a stamp on their passports, I was able to use the EES kiosk without a wait at all. The only thing I’d advise people to be careful of is that the scanner takes your passport mechanically, so don’t keep hold of it like I did the first time, accidentally.<\/p>\n
I’d budgeted in an extra hour and a half at minimum to get through passport security after hearing the horror stories, and suddenly I was left with a lot more time on my hands than I had anticipated.<\/p>\n
What do you do when it’s time to go home?<\/p>\n
I’d left with plenty of time, not wanting to risk missing my flight back home after my trip. If I hadn’t done the registration already, I’d have needed the extra time.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0_NEC_180826_SchipholQueue_02.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The queue for non-EES travellers at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in July 2026(Image: ChronicleLive)<\/p>\n
The queue for regular passport control was massive, about 8 people deep and presumably taking well over an hour. However, I walked right by it. The EES gates were just to the left of the passport control hall, it took less than two minutes to scan my passport and do the other scans as a solo traveller. And I was on the other side. It was so quick that I nearly forgot to snap a picture for this article, showing the sheer size of the crowds for those who couldn’t use the EES systems. On the other hand, I was able to get a nice, comfy seat and wait for my flight in peace, without worrying about being held up in security, as I had been before at this very airport. I can’t tell you the difference it made being able to quickly scan in and out at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, but other airports may not have implemented it as smoothly yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new system has been a tricky obstacle for travellers and airports to navigate this summer 04:08, 23…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1164195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,11653,183,1014],"class_list":["post-1164194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-premium","tag-travel","tag-travel-advice"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117142862431616925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1164195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"nechronicle\"](\"https:\/\/www.chroniclelive.co.uk\/assets\/nechronicle\/images\/premium-byline-nechronicle.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"EES](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0_NEC_180826_SchipholEES_02.jpg\")
<\/p>\n