The Guardian revealed on 4 April that passengers crossing the Channel will not face the new biometric procedures promised by the EU’s Entry/Exit System. Despite Getlink’s £60 million spend on kiosks at Folkestone and Coquelles and Eurostar’s £10 million installation at London St Pancras, the equipment remains shrink-wrapped as French and UK authorities seek "additional testing". Under EES each non-EU traveller must provide four fingerprint scans and a live facial capture the first time they enter the bloc after the cut-over date. Operators now fear that queues would stretch for kilometres if the system were switched on during the Easter getaway.
![Biometric border roll-out stalls for UK–France passengers despite heavy investment]()
For organisations and individual travellers trying to navigate these shifting border requirements, VisaHQ offers real-time compliance alerts and hands-on assistance with Schengen visa applications, including guidance on how the forthcoming EES rules may affect length-of-stay calculations. Explore the service at https://www.visahq.com/france/ to ensure every passport stamp aligns with current regulations.
A Getlink spokesperson told the newspaper that even a 45-second processing time per person would paralyse peak-hour traffic. For employers the postponement is a mixed blessing: staff will avoid log-jammed booths, but HR teams must keep tracking passport stamps rather than rely on the promised electronic logbook. In the interim, overstays remain possible if companies fail to reconcile manual stamps with planned assignments—a compliance risk that could jeopardise future Schengen visas. Industry groups Airlines for Europe and ACI Europe warn that continued uncertainty could undermine summer scheduling. They urge Brussels to allow phased implementation or risk "systemic disruption" at land borders that were never designed for airport-style biometrics.
For organisations and individual travellers trying to navigate these shifting border requirements, VisaHQ offers real-time compliance alerts and hands-on assistance with Schengen visa applications, including guidance on how the forthcoming EES rules may affect length-of-stay calculations. Explore the service at https://www.visahq.com/france/ to ensure every passport stamp aligns with current regulations.
A Getlink spokesperson told the newspaper that even a 45-second processing time per person would paralyse peak-hour traffic. For employers the postponement is a mixed blessing: staff will avoid log-jammed booths, but HR teams must keep tracking passport stamps rather than rely on the promised electronic logbook. In the interim, overstays remain possible if companies fail to reconcile manual stamps with planned assignments—a compliance risk that could jeopardise future Schengen visas. Industry groups Airlines for Europe and ACI Europe warn that continued uncertainty could undermine summer scheduling. They urge Brussels to allow phased implementation or risk "systemic disruption" at land borders that were never designed for airport-style biometrics.
