New Finnish passport not working at UK e-passport gates
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
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New Finnish passport not working at UK e-passport gates
This is not strictly the right forum for this but thought that this would be a reasonable way to reach Finnish passport holders. Hopefully it will be allowed...
I have a recently renewed Finnish passport that just can't be read by any of the e-passport gates at UK airports such as LHR. First I thought I'm just unlucky, but today when queuing to the manual passport check desk I noticed another Finnish passport holder in front of me: they were complaining about the exact same issue. It got me thinking that there could be some broader incompatibility problem here.
Does anyone here have this issue? Any ideas who to contact, UK border force or the Finnish authorities who issue the passport?
I have a recently renewed Finnish passport that just can't be read by any of the e-passport gates at UK airports such as LHR. First I thought I'm just unlucky, but today when queuing to the manual passport check desk I noticed another Finnish passport holder in front of me: they were complaining about the exact same issue. It got me thinking that there could be some broader incompatibility problem here.
Does anyone here have this issue? Any ideas who to contact, UK border force or the Finnish authorities who issue the passport?
#3
Join Date: Apr 2014
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Chatted with one of the border agents a few weeks ago, she told me they need a SW update for the gates, they've had problems with some Finnish passports, including mine. Last two times (2 weeks ago, last Wednesday) I got through ok, so thought they've already sorted this out.
#4
Join Date: Sep 2005
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My passport was issued in January this year, and in March, I did not get through the automated gates at LHR.
Arriving from HEL, there were quite a few of us Finns who had problems with the gates. Still, the agents wanted me to try two different gates before relenting. I dislike automated gates since even when working, they are so much slower than a human. But at LHR, you don't really have a choice – either you queue with all the Indians and Pakistanis, which takes forever, or then you queue to the e-gates, play with them for a while to make the agents happy and then get to see a human being.
Arriving from HEL, there were quite a few of us Finns who had problems with the gates. Still, the agents wanted me to try two different gates before relenting. I dislike automated gates since even when working, they are so much slower than a human. But at LHR, you don't really have a choice – either you queue with all the Indians and Pakistanis, which takes forever, or then you queue to the e-gates, play with them for a while to make the agents happy and then get to see a human being.
#6
Join Date: Jul 2012
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The E-Gates probably need to be updated to support the newest keys that the Finnish are using on their new passport. They have an issue with some newish US passports (For those registered to use the UK e-gates) as well.
#8
Join Date: Sep 2012
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My passport was issued in January this year, and in March, I did not get through the automated gates at LHR.
Arriving from HEL, there were quite a few of us Finns who had problems with the gates. Still, the agents wanted me to try two different gates before relenting. I dislike automated gates since even when working, they are so much slower than a human. But at LHR, you don't really have a choice either you queue with all the Indians and Pakistanis, which takes forever, or then you queue to the e-gates, play with them for a while to make the agents happy and then get to see a human being.
Arriving from HEL, there were quite a few of us Finns who had problems with the gates. Still, the agents wanted me to try two different gates before relenting. I dislike automated gates since even when working, they are so much slower than a human. But at LHR, you don't really have a choice either you queue with all the Indians and Pakistanis, which takes forever, or then you queue to the e-gates, play with them for a while to make the agents happy and then get to see a human being.
At LHR you can ignore anybody dressed in purple and go to any counter you please.
#9
Join Date: Sep 2005
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As far as I can see, T3 has two options: go to the line for EU nationals, which will have you end up in front of a machine; or go to the line for non-EU-non-this-non-that, ie the general line and end up in the slow line (where eg Indian passport holders are). There doesn't seem to be a dedicated EU+human option.
#10
Join Date: Apr 2014
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There is, not sure if there's always an entry on the main queue level, but there's usually one to the counter in the middle of the e-gate queue. But for EU there's often only one desk open so it's much faster to try the e-gate and then go behind if that doesn't work.
#11
Join Date: Jun 2015
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As far as I can see, T3 has two options: go to the line for EU nationals, which will have you end up in front of a machine; or go to the line for non-EU-non-this-non-that, ie the general line and end up in the slow line (where eg Indian passport holders are). There doesn't seem to be a dedicated EU+human option.
Do these e-gates work actually with id cards? At least the last time they sent me to the manual queue with it.
#12
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#13
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#14
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