A conversation on the Portugal forum about the misery that is a Lisbon arrival into Schengen made me think about the long-proposed plan to have egates for non-EU travelers. RIP to passport stamps, but I'll be glad not to wait in those lines anymore.
Some googling suggests that those are already rolling out in some European airports, which was news to me. Has anyone here encountered them? Been able to use them? Do the older US passports work, or only the very new edition?
I encountered them for the first time coming back to CDG a week and a half ago. My passport is 9 and a half years old and worked fine.
In fact I was so surprised to encounter those gates that I wrote a post about it as I rode the RER into town from the airport:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/e-gates-at-cdg-2e
Kim- I'd missed that post of yours. Apparently, they'll end up at all ports of entry within a couple of years. And the passport stamp will go away.
I encountered one at CDG and it worked great. There was a passport stamp afterwards.
Unfortunately they were not working well for US passports when I arrived to CDG in April. I was shown to the line and watched as the 5 people ahead of me couldn’t get them to work. The very patient attendant walked each of us over to a manned kiosk.
I did go thru an egate on departure from Amsterdam although a Border Control agent also stamped me out when I got the green light.
Our passports have worked fine at the e-gates at Heathrow
My passport is from 2020 and I am not sure what was the problem at Heathrow’s e-gates in April—tried a couple of times, wondered if having my hair in a clip made me look too different so took it out…still no good so I had to wait to be checked by a person.
My passport is from 2020 and I am not sure what was the problem at Heathrow’s e-gates in April
Heathrow's e-gates are amongst the most flakiest in the world. They either work or they don't, there appears to be no rhyme or reason for it.
