Forgot to add,they also take your finger prints and photo on the return. Reason why?, answers on a postcard.
Forgot to add,they also take your finger prints and photo on the return. Reason why?, answers on a postcard.
Assuming the finger prints and facial images match those taken on arrival, they’ll know you’ve left.
Do the French get many illegal immigrants across their borders via E gates ? Most surely come by land from other countries in Schengen.Photos/fingerprints in and out will preclude the need to stamp passports. They'll have a digital record of when you arrived and when you left, rather than needing to flick through passports pages to find the info.
In reality, if passports were scanned through every entry and exit point, there would be this digital record anyway. Unfortunately, Johnny Foreigner has show a predilection for just waving people through from time to time. Whether that is through resource shortages, laziness or something more sinister is open for debate. For example, I would put money on the French border police continuing to "forget" to scan passports of people they suspect are illegal entrants into France/Schengen area in order that their presence in France cannot be proven and therefore the UK cannot return them.
I suspect someone somewhere thought it would be a good idea to add an additional level of comfort that it was indeed you, and not someone else using your passport. And 100 people can process themselves via the eGates system with only a couple of officers supervising. If there are delays...*insert Gallic shrug here."
Do the French get many illegal immigrants across their borders via E gates ? Most surely come by land from other countries in Schengen.
UK border control doesn’t check the passports of anyone leaving Heathrow. They haven’t for years.
Maybe not done by a border guard in a booth but Air/ferry operators have been checking and reporting passport details to HMG for about 10 years now (aka Advance Passenger Information).UK border control doesn’t check the passports of anyone leaving Heathrow. They haven’t for years.
It’s true that APIS details are collected, but the pretty cursory glance at your passport by check in staff at the gate is just to ensure that your passport details match your tocket. The APIS data may not be current and your passport is not always scanned.Maybe not done by a border guard in a booth but Air/ferry operators have been checking and reporting passport details to HMG for about 10 years now (aka Advance Passenger Information).
As well as fingerprints and photograph being taken,passport is also still stamped,inward and outward.
Aren’t non EU citizens already limited to 90/180 days?
We had to get out of the car at Rotterdam in January. It added around 40 seconds to the exit. A quick scan and back in the car and away.I've done mine on a recent trip to Girona in the airport a bit of a queue and a busy body lady trying to select my answers for me before I'd read the screen but otherwise painless.
Last week a visit to Santander ferry and the infrastructure is all set up but not live. The face scanners are at passport control, how that will work for passengers who will have to get out the car is going to be interesting.
I've had my passport stamped twice since registering.