The European Union began a new Entry/Exit System in 2025 but it became fully operational in April this year, unloading the heat on summer travelers. In the new system, they are now collecting fingerprints and facial images of travelers but resulted in massive chaos at the airports as people are missing their flights waiting in those queues.The video of CNN journalist Clarissa Ward went viral as she said she missed her flight while she was waiting for two hours for her biometric data collection.Ward showed the huge queue of people with non-EU passports who wanted to leave Lisbon. “I stood in the longest line I have ever seen in my life (no joke). All because of the EU’s recently updated Entry/Exit System, which requires biometric scanning for every non-EU passport holder. I saw lots of elderly people and families with small children. People who missed connections. Others who missed flights. Me included. Airport staff only let TAP (Portugal’s main airline) passengers cut the line if they were seconds away from missing their flight. Everyone else? Good luck,” Ward wrote.“Since the much delayed rollout began in October there have been similar scenes in many European cities. Airlines are begging airports to suspend the new measures during peak summer travel. EU officials called this a “digital leap.” From where I was standing, it looked more like a total cluster f*$k,” Ward said.Ward was mostly trolled as social media users said this is also what happens when Europeans travel to the US. “Sorry pal, this is just how the rest of the world travels. And yeah, the EES is a mess but the rest of the world is already used to queuing up,” one wrote. “Do you know what happens to us Europeans when we arrive at JFK? We wait. It’s part of the process. Stop whining,” another wrote.
What is the new Entry/Exit rule?
The Entry/Exit System (EES) is an automated IT system for registering non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay (up to 90 days within any 180-day period), each time they cross the external borders of any of the following European countries using the system. Non-EU national means a traveller not holding the nationality of any European Union country or the nationality of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland.Full list of countries under this system: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
