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.

Had been following this post as I was nervous about a connecting flight in Amsterdam. I flew in on May 18, which had been a newsworthy day for EES into Amsterdam. The queue to leave airport was being held above the customs area due to so many people. With my connection, I went around the corner and toward Schengen side of airport. I went straight to EES machines, scanned passport and fingers, and was given route 1. No queue to go through, just swiped passport and gate opened. Took less than 5 minutes. The queue for quote 2 was longer but they were actively pulling people depending on flight boarding time, so priority is definitely connections. If you have a on time connecting flight, you should be fine. My connection time was 1 hour 50 min and I still had an hour wait for flight boarding.

artemissysteph - Thanks for coming back to share your experience, and so glad to hear you zoomed through it!

The queue to leave airport was being held above the customs area due to so many people.

Just saying...when doing the in-transit immigration at Schiphol, I do not recall needing a boarding pass, but if the regular immigration line is so backed up, I would be tempted to head through the "in-transit" line, exit into the Schengen terminal, and then out the door. Of course with checked bags, this would not work.

Does anyone know if families complete info. at the kiosk together? If done individually, we risk our 12-year-old being directed to a different exit lane with potentially wildly different wait times to reunite.

Does anyone know if families complete info. at the kiosk together?

Adults do not, it is each adult for themselves. Likely, with a minor, you will just be directed to a manual booth so the officer can process the entry. There are people directing everyone to where they need to go, so ask.

I hope things get a little more stable by the time I travel in September. I have 2h25m connection at AMS and doing EES there I assume with connecting flight to Poland. It will be my first time flying through AMS - I've taken the train there many many years ago.

Last week, I entered again, went to e-gate, longer queue this time, and was again, rejected!

I do believe that you need to use the EES kiosks each time you enter, not just go directly to the e-gates. You will at least have to scan your passport, you may or may not be asked for more after the first time, then you will be directed to either the e-gates or a manned booth. If you skipped the kiosk, I can see why the e-gates rejected you.

From what I have read, the 12 year old will be directed to a separate kiosk and asked to enter answers to questions like do you have a visa and when are you planning to leave the Schengen zone. My 16 year old knew and was directed on to another line while rest of us were still at our own kiosks trying to get our fingerprints to scan. My 18 year old only knew we were staying about two weeks, not the exact day, so you may want to do some coaching ahead of time.

We will be transiting through Amsterdam later this week, arriving from a non-schengen country (US) to another non-schengen country (Tanzania). Would we still be required to go through the EES? (We have a very short layover). Thanks!

We will be transiting through Amsterdam later this week, arriving from a non-schengen country (US) to another non-schengen country (Tanzania). Would we still be required to go through the EES? (We have a very short layover). Thanks!

No, you do not go through passport control, unless you need to leave the international terminal (to collect luggage for example if it is not checked through).

You will arrive at the international terminal and just walk off the plane into the terminal, then on to your gate. There are plenty of restaurants and coffee places for a quick break.

Sitting at my connecting gate at AMS while typing this. Summary: took me a solid 50 minutes to go through EES/immigration. Add 7 minutes walk from arrival gate at end of F gates to the EES area. Then another 10 minutes to walk to my gate at end of B gates.

I landed on Saturday at 12:45pm. Lots of EES machines open. My fingerprint took a few tries and when I got green light, was directed to route 2 to speak to officer. Line was quite big but moving ok. Then they called those with short connections (departure one hour away, not boarding time) and lots got pulled to separate lines and more people arrived.

It would have taken me 35-40min but my line ended up being with a strict officer. And several people ahead of me took a while to pull out documentation. Most were being asked for copy of their return ticket but they only had connecting board pass handy.

So while I waited, I pulled up my reservation with return flight and did a screenshot. By the time I was called, he didn’t ask me for it, only boarding pass. Probably realized his line was delayed compared to others.

I had a 2h30m connection so made it in time.

Additional tidbit. I didn't need to dump my water bottle during connection. Next stop is Poland.

Joy, thank you. This is so helpful. My connection is 2h20m next week. I'm glad to hear they were calling for people with shorter connections to move up as I remember that from connecting there from last year.

You should be fine, Mary.

Wow, we were taxing for a long time out of AMS. Feels like we drove all the way to another airport! Thank goodness my flight from US didn't land this far or it would have eaten up my connection time.

"Most were being asked for copy of their return ticket but they only had connecting board pass handy."

Yikes....that is good to know at least to do a screen shot ahead of time.

And laughing about the taxi time! Oh, I know which runway you took off from. It was probably Polderbaan which when you look at this map appears to be almost to Haarlem, lol!!

https://www.schiphol.nl/en/schiphol-as-a-neighbour/flight-paths-and-runway-use/

The hack suggested above of using the connecting flight inspection rather than the airport exit inspection doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. First (and speaking generally about airports rather than specifically about AMS) those lines often are in two very different places so it may not be easy to compare them, and the connections line may not necessarily be any shorter. Second, it is very likely the inspector will ask where you’re going, whether or not there is a specific boarding pass check for the connections link, which there may well be. If you don’t have another flight anywhere, do you think you will allowed to enter the concourse for ticketed passengers? I don’t know of any airport anywhere that allows that. So there’s a good chance I think that you’ll be turned around and sent back to airport exit, and will have wasted all your time in the connections line. I came through Frankfurt EES this morning with a Schengen connection. It was early, about 5:30 am. Took about 40 minutes. Oddly, although it looked like the technology was set up there, they weren’t doing any photos or fingerprints. It was done the old fashioned way, with the inspector just scrutinizing the passport, checking his computer, and stamping the passport.

And laughing about the taxi time! Oh, I know which runway you took off from. It was probably Polderbaan which when you look at this map appears to be almost to Haarlem, lol!!
https://www.schiphol.nl/en/schiphol-as-a-neighbour/flight-paths-and-runway-use/

Yes!! Thanks for sharing that map. I think I went from one end to the other. But it was a pretty ride. Didnt look like airport at all, almost as if pilot had taken wrong turn and gone into the fields 😂

Please see my long-winded post on my EES experience on Mon 9/7.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/ees-schiphol

Just arrived at AMS at about 12:30pm Sept. 13th. No wait at all to go through the EES machines. We walked right up to them, scanned passport, took photo, scanned hand print, and then it directed us to 'route 1' which was egates. The whole process took 2 minutes.

I had trouble at Amsterdam on 9/10 as a connecting flight from Vienna. The regular machine didn't read my passport so I was moved to the All Passports line which of course had a longer line. Our flight was delayed getting there as well. It was about an hour from landing to getting to our gate. We needed a bus from the plane to the airport. It worked out ok in the end. But I definitely am glad I didn't have a shorter connection time than I did.

We flew Delta into Amsterdam on 8/24/2026. Scanning the passport went smooth, had issues with scanning my hand. It took 4 times. My husband was sent to lane 1, I was sent to lane 2. I was in lane 2 for 45 minutes, and was still 3 to 4 back and forths in the line before I would get up to speak with an officer. They had other staff occasionally calling out flight departure times (not boarding times). As my departure time neared and the staff called out that departure time, I was able to exit the lane and move into one of their express lanes .... but not before. They do look at your boarding pass to determine your departure time. As a side note, when we went to leave the EU from Berlin on 9/9/2026, they were not able to locate my entry in the EES system. Fortunately I had actually printed boarding passes for our travel, and kept them, as they asked for that in Berlin to prove when I entered the EU.

Was I supposed to go through EES machines again for departing Schengen?
I had a night layover in Amsterdam on 9/12 before my flight back to the US. I had carry-on only and mobile boarding pass. I just scanned my boarding pass at the machines to access x-ray/security but didn't go through any other machine or spoke to any officer.
But I got a text message from KLM to stop by gate before flight so they could check my passport. The agent just scanned it on the computer and that was it.

"Was I supposed to go through EES machines again for departing Schengen?"

No, not unless you are channeled there and it would be definite, not up to you to figure out. The scanning of your passport by gate staff is all connected, I think.

Well, I definitely didn't keep my printed boarding passes when I arrived. I'm hoping my departure experience is like yours, Joy.