Non-EU passengers landing in Paris next month have been told to expect airport queues of up to four hours after France confirmed that the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) will go live on 10 April. EES replaces the familiar ink-and-stamp passport check with a fully digital record of every border crossing. When the system is first activated in the Schengen Area it will require all third-country nationals—including US and UK business travellers who currently enter visa-free—to provide fingerprints and a facial image at an automated kiosk before seeing an officer.
![Paris airports brace for four-hour queues as EU biometrics launch nears]()
For travellers who want to get ahead of the change, VisaHQ offers an easy way to check eligibility, pre-arrange documentation and receive real-time alerts on EES and forthcoming ETIAS requirements. Its portal—https://www.visahq.com/france/—lets both individuals and corporate travel managers upload passports, track applications and get personalised support, reducing the risk of last-minute surprises at French airports.
Aviation bodies warn that the additional biometric capture will make each transaction 70–90 seconds longer than today; multiplied by thousands of passengers an hour, it risks pushing peak-time processing beyond the capacity of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG) and Orly. A joint letter from ACI Europe, Airlines for Europe and IATA urged the French government either to stagger the roll-out or allow a summer derogation, calling the current timeline “extremely risky”. They cite trials at Lisbon and Milan where wait times already exceeded three hours with only partial EES deployment. Groupe ADP, which operates CDG and Orly, says it has hired 600 extra agents and installed 150 kiosks but still expects weeks of disruption while staff and travellers adjust. Corporate travel managers are now advising crews and assignees to plan longer connection windows, pre-enrol where possible and carry proof of onward itineraries to avoid secondary screening. Travel-risk consultants add that companies should refresh duty-of-care protocols: missed onward flights and extended airside delays may trigger overtime, accommodation and immigration compliance costs. In the medium term, EES will feed directly into ETIAS—the €7 electronic travel authorisation that becomes mandatory later this year—creating a virtually paperless external border. For France, hosting the 2026 Winter Paralympics and a record year of trade fairs, the system promises tighter security but only once the initial bottleneck is resolved.
For travellers who want to get ahead of the change, VisaHQ offers an easy way to check eligibility, pre-arrange documentation and receive real-time alerts on EES and forthcoming ETIAS requirements. Its portal—https://www.visahq.com/france/—lets both individuals and corporate travel managers upload passports, track applications and get personalised support, reducing the risk of last-minute surprises at French airports.
Aviation bodies warn that the additional biometric capture will make each transaction 70–90 seconds longer than today; multiplied by thousands of passengers an hour, it risks pushing peak-time processing beyond the capacity of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG) and Orly. A joint letter from ACI Europe, Airlines for Europe and IATA urged the French government either to stagger the roll-out or allow a summer derogation, calling the current timeline “extremely risky”. They cite trials at Lisbon and Milan where wait times already exceeded three hours with only partial EES deployment. Groupe ADP, which operates CDG and Orly, says it has hired 600 extra agents and installed 150 kiosks but still expects weeks of disruption while staff and travellers adjust. Corporate travel managers are now advising crews and assignees to plan longer connection windows, pre-enrol where possible and carry proof of onward itineraries to avoid secondary screening. Travel-risk consultants add that companies should refresh duty-of-care protocols: missed onward flights and extended airside delays may trigger overtime, accommodation and immigration compliance costs. In the medium term, EES will feed directly into ETIAS—the €7 electronic travel authorisation that becomes mandatory later this year—creating a virtually paperless external border. For France, hosting the 2026 Winter Paralympics and a record year of trade fairs, the system promises tighter security but only once the initial bottleneck is resolved.
