Hopes that Britons and other third-country residents living in France could resume using PARAFE e-gates were dashed on 2 February when French border-police sources confirmed that the necessary software patch will not be ready until the summer peak. Since the EU’s Entry/Exit System went live last autumn, only EU-citizens’ passports work reliably in the automated gates.
Non-EU residents—including an estimated 160,000 UK passport-holders with cartes de séjour—must therefore continue to queue at staffed booths each time they fly into Paris, Nice or other major hubs. France’s interior ministry says the delay is down to “interface validation issues” between national residency databases and the EU-wide EES platform. Airlines report that the manual lines regularly exceed 45 minutes when several wide-body flights land simultaneously, undermining connection times and customer-satisfaction scores.
While the border-technology fix is pending, services such as VisaHQ can help by double-checking that travellers’ residency documents, passports and any ancillary letters meet current French and EU requirements, and by arranging expedited appointments when renewals are due; see https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/ for details.
![Technical glitch keeps Brits and Americans in manual lanes at French airports despite EES launch]()
For UK-based employers with French subsidiaries, the glitch has practical consequences: returning assignees are missing onward trains, duty-of-care costs are rising, and some staff are opting for Eurostar or long-distance driving instead of short-haul flights. Mobility managers are being advised to pad itineraries, pre-book fast-track services where available and remind travellers to carry proof of French residency status to avoid secondary screening.
French authorities insist the fix is a priority, but border-IT contractors have warned that testing must be exhaustive to avoid corrupting live immigration records. The episode highlights the broader challenge of integrating legacy national databases with next-generation EU border systems—an issue that will also affect UK ports handling outbound biometric checks once full EES deployment resumes in 2026.
Until the patch arrives, travellers should budget extra time and consider travel-class upgrades that provide access to dedicated immigration desks. Organisations may also wish to update travellers’ risk assessments to reflect the increased likelihood of missed meetings and additional accommodation costs.
Non-EU residents—including an estimated 160,000 UK passport-holders with cartes de séjour—must therefore continue to queue at staffed booths each time they fly into Paris, Nice or other major hubs. France’s interior ministry says the delay is down to “interface validation issues” between national residency databases and the EU-wide EES platform. Airlines report that the manual lines regularly exceed 45 minutes when several wide-body flights land simultaneously, undermining connection times and customer-satisfaction scores.
While the border-technology fix is pending, services such as VisaHQ can help by double-checking that travellers’ residency documents, passports and any ancillary letters meet current French and EU requirements, and by arranging expedited appointments when renewals are due; see https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/ for details.
For UK-based employers with French subsidiaries, the glitch has practical consequences: returning assignees are missing onward trains, duty-of-care costs are rising, and some staff are opting for Eurostar or long-distance driving instead of short-haul flights. Mobility managers are being advised to pad itineraries, pre-book fast-track services where available and remind travellers to carry proof of French residency status to avoid secondary screening.
French authorities insist the fix is a priority, but border-IT contractors have warned that testing must be exhaustive to avoid corrupting live immigration records. The episode highlights the broader challenge of integrating legacy national databases with next-generation EU border systems—an issue that will also affect UK ports handling outbound biometric checks once full EES deployment resumes in 2026.
Until the patch arrives, travellers should budget extra time and consider travel-class upgrades that provide access to dedicated immigration desks. Organisations may also wish to update travellers’ risk assessments to reflect the increased likelihood of missed meetings and additional accommodation costs.
