EES: Amsterdam experience

Good to hear it’s working. We’ll be flying into Naples next week and need to go through this process. Luckily we do not have a connection.

Thanks for your report.
A word of warning though for those reading this. This experience transiting in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport says nothing about how long or short EES will take arriving, transiting or departing from other European airports.
It doesn’t even say anything about going through EES when arriving in Amsterdam, which could be a totally different story altogether. The border police at Amsterdam Airport is chronically understaffed. The airport doesn’t want bad publicity about passengers missing flights or connections, so they made a deal with the border police; the majority of border agents will be assigned to the passport control of departing and connecting passengers. The remainder will check the passports of passengers entering the Netherlands. The airport cares less about arriving passengers missing onward trains, cruises etc than they do about departing and connecting passengers missing their flights. There are reports in Dutch media about the huge lines for EES for passengers arriving at Schiphol. Some passengers claim it took them 2.5 hours to go through passport control when they arrived in Amsterdam.

Thanks Paul for sharing the details on your experience with the system at Schiphol, arriving from U.S. and transferring to another Schengen flight. It's really helpful hearing trusted travelers' real-world experiences.

Yeah, that is why I was careful to state the time, day, and that it was a transit immigration, because it will certainly vary with all those factors.

It is also a mystery why some are routed to the e-gates, others to the manual line. Maybe random, maybe since I am missing parts of two fingers on my right hand, maybe I just look suspicious.

I also have not really seen anything official on what the end vision looks like for entry. I suspect what it will be is similar to what I experienced, you will be directed to a kiosk, scan your passport, look at the camera, then you may be asked questions, maybe not, then either directed to the e-gates, or asked to go over to a manual line for further questions and checks.

Paul, We will go through Schiphol in the fall, and was curious how a missing fingertip affects the ESS scanner, as we relate to that scenario. If I get Lane 1 and hubby gets Lane 2, maybe it will confirm your theory.

A few days ago, we landed at AMS, our final destination. It was evening, and the airport was still buzzing with people. Our experience with the machines was quick and easy, and we got thru the line at passport control under 30 minutes. In fact, they opened additional windows when the line seemed long (50 folks.)
So no problems to report .

Thanks for sharing Paul. I am bookmarking this post as I imagine others may share their experience as well at Schiphol.

Thanks Paul for the intel. I'm flying on KLM from YYZ to BCN via AMS in mid-May and my flight arrives around 0600 and my connection is at 0800. I'll be watching the situation closely. At least, there's still time for them to tune the system and processes.

Just arrived Amsterdam and the line to get out of airport stretches farther than one can see. People in middle of line report that they have been in line 2 hours. It hardly moves. Seems like all resources have been moved to connecting flights.

Also arrived April 18 with final destination of Amsterdam. I was in the long, long line for immigration. Took 90 minutes from getting in line to walking away from immigration. Airport employees walked the line asking for connecting passengers, who were sent elsewhere for immigration. Employees also handed out bottles of water to those waiting in line.

Not sure if I would encourage the "hack" but if the line for "exit" immigration is long, there technically is nothing (well almost) preventing you from using the connecting flight immigration (actually several connecting flight immigration points) to complete immigration and EES. You just would exit into the Schengen terminal area, from which you can exit the airport.

The big exception would be if you have checked bags, then you must use exit immigration to get to international baggage claim.