Italy has almost finalised its rollout of Entry/Exit System or EES, the EU’s new automated biometric passport check designed to replace manual passport stamping.
After a series of delays, the EU finally began implementing the system last October via a six-month phased rollout that’s due to be completed by April 10th.
READ ALSO: Travel to Italy: Your questions answered about EES and ETIAS
To understand how the checks are being applied and what travellers can expect, we asked The Local's readers who’d travelled to or from Italy since they came into force to share their experiences.
You gave vastly differing accounts depending on which airport you passed through, your travel dates, and even who was working on the day.
Add to this the fact that some were travelling as tourists or second-home owners, some as foreign residents of Italy, and some as pre-Brexit arrivals on a carta di soggiorno, and there was a wide range of experiences.
“Exiting through Fiumicino I had to queue 20 mins as they were funneling all non-EU through the biological data collection stations even though I had my Brexit card so didn't need to,” says Rome resident Helen.
“A month later, going through Fiumicino again, I showed them my Brexit card and they opened up the electronic gate so I skipped the queue.
"All depends on who you get and how flexible they are.”
Dana Roberts, a San Diego native now living in Lucca, Tuscany, says she was worried about lengthy queues when passing through Rome, but found the process surprisingly smooth.
“The only delay was because I was unsure of how to scan my resident card instead of my passport,” she says.
“The official there was very curt, but helped me get it done quickly.”
Other Italy residents, however, say they’ve repeatedly been made to use the system by officials who are unaware they’re supposed to be exempt.
READ ALSO: What should residents in Italy do once EES passport checks start?
“As a British resident of Italy with a pre-Brexit residency permit travelling through some airports (Venice has been the worst so far), I’ve been sent into the ‘all passports’ line which has meant I’ve taken longer to get through than a tourist on a UK passport,” says David Hallowell in Bologna.
“Why couldn’t they have worked out how to deal seamlessly with residents before rolling this scheme out?”
Sicily resident Peter Griggs, who also holds a pre-Brexit permit, says that when travelling through Palermo last year he was “unnecessarily made to join the queue for the biometrics stuff, basically wasting my time and delaying others.”
“I actually don't think the airport staff (Gesap) had a clue that residency holders are exempt from the process,” he says.
When Robin Polito, who lives in California but owns a home in Sicily, passed through Palermo airport last October, “none of the EES machines were working so we did the old stand in line and had the passport stamped.”
Returning this February, the machines were functioning, he says, but he was sent to get his passport stamped anyway.
“It was a crazy mess,” he says. “I'm unclear why we had to go through both the machine and manual passport control.”
READ ALSO: New flights and entry fees: The big changes for travel in Italy for 2026
Broken or malfunctioning machines were a recurring theme.
Mark Popescu, who lives in the UK and owns a home in Liguria, says the system wasn't functioning at Genoa airport when he arrived in December.
“After several attempts, I was told to go to the staffed control point,” he says.
“It took about 20 mins extra. My partner who was further back in the plane ended up queuing for 90 mins as another non-Schengen plane had landed so huge queues built up.”
UK national M Needham had similar issues at Olbia airport: “Four different attempts for me alone and I wasn’t the only one having issues. One plane with maybe 40% British 55% Italian and 5% others took ages to process.”
Richard Johnson, who owns a home in northern Italy’s Aosta, says the machines at Turin’s airport have repeatedly failed to accurately record his travel data.
“When trying to re-enter Italy the system doesn't know that I have left,” he says.
“Three visits, none of them worked correctly – always requiring a security officer to manually correct the system.”
Not everyone’s experience of the system has been negative.
Bolzano resident Leslie Whitehouse, who holds a long-term Brexit residency permit, says he had “no problems” travelling to and from the UK in December.
“I went through electronic gates both on departure from Verona and arrival back in Italy and in both cases, after the electronic gate my passport and CDS were checked by an immigration officer. There was no passport stamping,” he says.
US national CM Evans also says he had “no problem at all” on a recent trip to Rome.
“The window we went to was not using them,” he says. “They said it depends on the window you go to. Had that window been using it they said it takes less than a minute to register.”
Says US resident JoAnne LaSala: “My passport did not scan, but the officers were gracious and sent me to the old-fashioned line.”
“There was virtually no wait. Everyone was positive and polite.
“I had read multiple warnings. Nothing troublesome happened. Grazie Italia.”
Have you had a recent experience with Italy’s EES border checks you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments (11)