Maybe it is because I am a wheelchair passenger, but going through immigration was a breeze this morning at about 07:15. No new EES. We went to the immigration window, where there was an immigration official. He took my passport, looked at me, look at the passport, and gave the passport back to me. No stamp, no fingerprinting, no questions. I am now on the 07:41 Malpensa express to Milano Centrale. I have 3 hours before my train departs. My experience at immigration was phenomenal!
Posted by
Bay Area SF & Uppsala Sweden 🇸🇪
2241 posts
FANTASTIC! I love hearing good news about immigration coming into Schengen. I know it's completely dependent upon the time of day, how many flights are arriving, and yes, the wheelchair probably helped too. I wonder if they're speeding things up after the recent chaos?? Bon Viaggio!
Posted by
Freedonia
19653 posts
Did you register for EES on a previous visit? If yes, you're good. If not, keep a copy of your boarding pass or have your ticket available to show in case there are issues leaving Schengen.
Posted by
OP
New York, NY
4175 posts
Frank II, not that I know of. My last trip to Europe was September 2024 when we flew to CDG. No fingerprinting. We flew home out of ZRH. In Oct 2023, I flew in & out of FRA. Same experience. My boarding pass is a bit ripped; at least I still have it. I will keep it.
Posted by
new york
1995 posts
The wheelchair is the key here....it might be bad to have to use one but you get through the airports very very quickly.
Posted by
Wengen
4256 posts
If your passport was not stamped how are you going to prove that you did not overstay when leaving? If you did not register for the EES then you should get your passport stamped. Otherwise there is no record of your entry.
Posted by
1 posts
Non-EU citizen. Malpensa airport T1 immigration queues are unbelievably LONG (1.5 hours and 2.5 hours) on entry and exit .
When I finally arrived at immigration, the officed just glanced at the passport and waived me through!
Passport was NOT stamped for entry or exit!
Posted by
Tel Aviv
16185 posts
I landed at FCO on Sept. 30 around 10.00 am from Israel. There were two lanes, one for about 8 countries including the US and Israel and another for "other" countries. There was no one ahead of our flight, just scanned the passport, through the gate, then face scanning and another gate and I was done. I asked a couple other people in the days after, all from the US and all had similar experiences.
I did wait nearly an hour for my checked bag. I got right on a Leonardo Express, then about a 15 minute wait for a taxi at Termini - long line. My flight was thankfully on time, nearly 2 hours before the scheduled air controllers 4 hour strike began. Whew.