Update on arriving at Rome Fiumicino airport - Terminal 3

Thanks for this useful info.

Thanks for the info
I will be traveling with my three small grandchildren, 2 aged 10 and a five year old
Does anyone know if the process is the same for children? Is the camera directed at a height for children?
Thanks

”Eventually the second gate opens. Or doesn't, in my case. Because the next step is a very tight glassed corridor, meant for ONE line of people to exit towards an immigration agent who stamps your passport and looks at you. That process, with one agent, was so slow that people were jammed into a 3-deep snaking line in a place meant for 1-deep. Thus the post-camera exit gates stopped opening because the next space was too crowded. Being short, I had no idea what was going on at the front of the line for quite some time.”

I had that same situation when I arrived in Rome May 3. I’m tall, so at least it didn’t feel claustrophobic, but it was hard to see what was causing the bottleneck. Shortly after that line I saw another long line. I checked out what was the reason for this line, and it was the long line for a taxi!

Thank you again, Nelly, for your extreme kindness to me a few weeks when I was in the Abruzzo area! ; )

@Jean, thanks for validating my experience. Once I figured out that the process had changed, I started keeping better track of what was going on around me, and it all fell into place. That’s what I get for going on autopilot.

And I’m delighted to see you posting on the forum. Hope things are getting a tiny bit easier.

@margiepatella - I am sorry but I was not watching how children were handled. The camera is inaccessible, mounted high behind glass. I’m fairly short and my face was centered in the display, so I believe it must adjust to the passenger height but I can’t confirm.

Thanks for this.
I’ll be sure to keep my wits turned up and look for the correct line this Fall.
It sounds like the cameras track faces and adjusts for the person’s height.

Mille grazie, Nelly. I bookmarked your post for reference since I fly into FCO in August and then take the train to Venice. I hope I gave myself enough time!

Nellie, thanks for your reply

Keeping in mind that YMMV, we had a much different experience after arriving on the ITA nonstop from Los Angeles on 10/31/23 around 10:30 a.m.. After a long walk from the E gate area, we were directed to a bank of almost 20 empty passport scanning kiosks, where we quickly scanned, moved on to have our passports stamped, and were on to baggage claim and the taxi rank. We barely stopped moving.

Between the flight being early and the quick exit from FCO, we arrived at our apartment way in advance of the appointed time with our host, and had to wait almost an hour to enter our lodging. We camped with our luggage at an outside table at Giolitti, and enjoyed an expensive, but good, coffee and ice cream snack.

That's a good news story. I'll hope for the same on my next flight in July. Thanks for sharing the flip side.

Very good info to know, excellent detail, well written.

Thank you for this information! I’ll be transiting through FCO T3 soon and am grateful for the heads up.

I flew May 8th from Chicago to FCO arriving 7:55 AM May 9th to change terminals on my way to Bari. I may have just been lucky to see the signs directing me to the correct scanners. After getting through the busy scanning lines and process I thought I had made a wrong turn finding my way to immigration because there were absolutely no passengers there. An airport agent directed me to the line for arriving/connecting passengers, asking me "US citizen?" I replied yes and approached the window (no line!) to have my passport stamped. It was strange. I made it to the connecting terminal in plenty of time for my short flight to Bari.
Maybe they had worked out the kinks before my arrival date.

Thanks everyone. I'm a newbie to this Forum and found the detailed postings very helpful. I just want to be sure so please bear with me if some of my queries may already have been posted. We (2 x seniors) will be flying into FCO T3 from Australia a non-visa-required country and then flying out to Catania at T1. We have checked luggage on the 1 ticket so that should hopefully go through to Catania. We will be returning the same way with about 3 hours transit both ways.

I would appreciate grateful if I may please get some directions on where the immigration counters are located and some idea of the distance. Cheers

Thanks!
Flying into Rome in a few weeks.

I would appreciate grateful if I may please get some directions on where the immigration counters are located and some idea of the distance.

It is a long walk, even though under one roof.

You should follow the signs for Connections to T1 - you will encounter immigration at some point. You may have to undergo a security check:

https://www.adr.it/web/aeroporti-di-roma-en/pax-fco-flight-connections

If it helps, what is being described is not necessarily EITAS, but EES, the Schengen Entry Exit System. By the end of the year, hopefully, this will be implemented at all airports across the Schengen countries, though the person stamping passports will be removed (yes, no more stamps). You may have also already experienced the same at other airports, Schiphol, I believe, has some gates operating for example. Things will smooth out, and overall, the process should be much faster.

EITAS, may come later, that will simply add data points to the check-in process, using the additional information you provided ahead of time to match up with your passport.

Thanks again, Nelly and everyone. I leave tomorrow for Rome and a train connection to Venice. I always get very nervous getting all the transportation parts accomplished. Fortunately it's never as difficult as I imagine.

As I have already stated on a different post, we went thru the e-gates last Tuesday at Schiphol. There were agents at the beginning of the lines, directing people as to which line to get in, there were videos going continually overhead to show you how to place your passport on the scanner and where to stand for the scanner, and best of all, it took only moments to do. Children under 17 with parents went thru an agent checking passport line. Hopefully with the success of this in Amsterdam, other major airports will eventually be the same.

I realize I'm late to the party - but I had an equally confusing experience when I was there in July.

One additional thing to note is that there is/was a special lane for families with children under the age of 14 (it was sort of in the middle) - and there was no signage indicating this. Needless to say, there was therefore no one in the line, until finally someone realized and there was a big rush.

In my case, I stood line with hundreds of confused foreigners for probably 60 minutes before finally they opened up the automated passport readers and let everyone just walk through (i.e. no one had to scan their passport at all) while getting a cursory stamp in their passport. Ah, bella Italia. :)

July update to my June update - I came into FCO Terminal 3 again in July, and again on Turkish Airlines but very late at night. Since I was looking for it this time around, I found the signage separating the EU national / visa required / no visa required nationals a bit more clear. Also it seemed larger and more frequent, so I think they improved it during the month, but maybe I’m hallucinating.

My experience this time was laughable - I carefully followed the signs to the automated scanners for no-visa-required nationals (US, UK, Canada, Australia etc.) The signs were good, with all the various flags of nationalities painted on columns and readily visible because the space was empty at 11:30 pm.

However, the automated scanners were shut down for the night and the handful of us arriving at immigration were all directed to the same few agents in the visa-required line. So I have still not done it exactly “right”. Just popped in to say the signage has been improved and you should just be aware of the separate lines and follow the appropriate signs.

Good luck Horsewoofie and anyone passing through Rome soon.

Another update to report; I passed through the egates at FCO in August but no passport stamp! We checked with the border guards multiple times and were waved away.

Since we were leaving Schengen through a different airport (BCN) we kept our boarding passes handy to demonstrate when we entered Schengen, just in case they didn’t have the egates for US citizens yet. And indeed they did not. We explained the situation to the border guard who didn’t seemed concerned at all that we had no entry stamp and just informed us we would get an exit stamp. We did not need to provide proof of entry, so I can only assume it was documented electronically and that she was able to see it. So odd, no entry stamp, only an exit stamp.

As mentioned above, it appears this may be the EES which is scheduled to go into effect throughout Schengen November 10 https://schengenvisum.info/en/Europe-strengthens-border-control-entry-exit-system-from-November-10/

Following on my earlier post, if we have to clear immigration at T3 FCO being the first entry port and then navigate our way to T1 to catch our domestic flight ITA to Catania, I'm guessing we will have to clear our luggage through customs at Catania ? Any update advice or pointers on the new EES system would be appreciated. Cheers

EES delayed to an unspecified future date - again

@superspots101 -

I believe you will have to retrieve your luggage upon arrival for customs purposes, even if nothing to declare, then re-deposit for your second flight, even with luggage checked through. I don't know whether you will have to clear security again.

I wasn't transferring when I went through, so didn't pay attention to the paths available for transiting passengers.

Note that it's a very long walk from T3 arrivals to the immigration check.