I think you miss the point. E-gates are not there to be "nice" to Europeans. They are there because the Home Office does not have the resources that would be required for manual controls at manned booths.

Thanks for clearing that up. Always wondered about it as I have had border officers stamp my inward way back in pages already full of stamps from months ago and then on exiting the officer can't find the stamp for entering until I show them the page it is on

How did I miss the point? I said exactly that. The fact that there are not enough resources is meaningless and unrelated to my post, they will just join the manual queues which would be longer and take even longer with the current number of immigration staff. No different to when I travel to EU on UK passport at times and had to queue for 1hour plus on a few occasions because they had 2 people and 2 desks open out of, say, 12 manual desks that were closed/unmaned. How is this different?

This is about fairness, nothing else. if people have to queue for 4 hours that is irrelevant. Perhaps someone would then do something about it. Why Americans or Canadians , Aussies can use automated gates in EU terminals, but not Brits? Makes no sense! They are not in EU either but can use automated gates.

I've started every long haul trip over the last 15 years from the EU. It's almost now at the point where I check fares from DUB, OSL, BRU, BUD etc before London! :) And I've never had any real scrutiny entering or exiting the EU, even for same day in-and-out.

Except on my most recent trip - Prague the weekend before last, just a normal tourism visit - where the officer both entering and exiting spent well over five minutes looking carefully at every single stamp in my passport (there are lots, I visit the EU for the weekend around once a month) clearly trying to reconcile entry and exit dates to work out whether I was over 90 days. I stick a post-it note in my passport and ask officers to stamp where indicated to try and keep my entry and exit stamps together and in sequence but even so this was clearly a struggle for these officers who eventually gave up and stamped me without so much as a smile. So perhaps something has changed recently, or was I just really unlucky this happened both entering and leaving Prague?

Side anecdote: I was on a LIAT four sector ticket once in the Caribbean and had a six hour connection in Antigua, where I planned to enter, nip down to the port area and have a few drinks to tick the country. Only after stamping me in did the officer ask how long I was staying. When I told her a few hours, she gasped and said I wasn't allowed to do that and had to stay airside. After pointing out she had already stamped me in, she relented but told me she was doing me a favour, then refused to allow my friend behind me in the queue to do the same. Poor guy was bored to tears!

But you don’t need any more border officers.

I’ve been in a long Long LONG queue last year at hub airport AMS with only two border officers working, they seemed quite content with their service/cost base…

I was asked several questions at ZRH earlier this year when transiting to BUD to start a RTW itinerary. It's the first time in many ex-EUs where I've been asked anything at all.

A very interesting post and without wanting to deviate too much from the topic I have had my fair share of “grilling’s” going through the EU recently. Düsseldorf especially they even demanded to see financials and a good 10 minutes of questions. The good lady and myself went to Gothenburg for a weekend and they again were equally pedantic, demanding hotel bookings, return flights why I’m there, how I know my travel partner.

In the last 18 months, Munich (x2), Copenhagen (x2) and Oslo have been the hotspots for an immigration grilling for me. On 2 or 3 occasions, I had to show my flight ticket out of the country, my hotel booking, or a combination of the two. Certainly I've noticed an uptick in questioning at certain EU borders more recently.

Surely in 2025 their systems must have some record other than physically matching up entry and exit stamps in the passport to determine the 90 in 180 rule? Otherwise people like me with dual passports could easily get around it. I also thought that the systems know that you have multiple passports

To add to this very interesting thread, I was recently (lightly) grilled at AMS due to the stamps in my passport - "You seem to come to Europe a lot?" "Are you working here?" etc. Friendly but somewhat unexpected. With family in France and a penchant for weekend breaks ex LHR my passport is quite stamp heavy post brexit to be specifically questioned was a bit of a surprise. As ever, staying calm and polite is the approach here.

The system has been delayed a few times: Entry/Exit System (EES)

Well as a Canadian passport holder we certainly get no special treatment arriving back in Canada and you are correct in asking how can I get into the UK using a Canadian passport in less than a few minutes but have to line up for an hour to get back into Canada

There are plenty of EU airports where uk citizens can and do use automatic gates. Are you suggesting that they should disable it for Uk citizens after the Uk has disabled theirs for EU citizens and so on?

And are you proposing to cover the extra tax for all the manual handling created by that gesture too since egates are simply money savers, not ways to improve travellers’ lives?… ;)

10ish years ago I used to travel to the UK on business a fair bit and to save money did a "reverse ex-EU". I'd buy a ticket for YYC-LIN return and nest within that a separate ticket for LIN-LHR. I'd allow about 2 hours in LIN to have lunch in the lounge and head back to LHR.

I did this on a Canadian passport, and I was questioned a few times about why my ultimate destination was LHR as I'm stepping off the plane from LHR. They would ask to see my ticket, shrug, and stamp my passport.

But if that really is the reason, then having a nice looong queue for EU travellers entering the UK should go a little to beginning the talks on reciprocity. I don't see US immigration adding extra staff for non-US passport holders (not that it matters atm!) and I don't see EU border staff being added either.