But Cyprus still has its own "90 days in any 180 day period" rule, so I'm interested to know why it doesn't really care about its own rule ... and genuinely hope that it's true.

I’m not sure I follow your argument. The egates are actually manned - an officer sees all the information they would see at a booth except they see it for (depending on country) somewhere between 5 and 10 of the gates. If they spot something dodgy the message will be exactly the one you say they can’t: the gate won’t open and it will say please go and see an officer and there is a queue specifically for that.

Conversely, if you go to a manned desk, many will simply swipe your passport and give it back without any other exchange than hello and thank you.

Your assumption is plainly mistaken here and ignores what’s happened for the last several years. The EU want Brits and other visitors from « safe origins » to be handled by automated machines - indeed they are desperate for it, that’s been adopted as a principle for several years and it’s merely the delivery that’s been delayed.

The issue, as discussed in many other threads on that is that the EU level is legitimate in making those decisions in principle but have no right/power to impose a choice of technology to member states as it’s their prerogative to pick those. The vast majority of Schengen countries - including those brits visit most - have long chosen equipment allowing this and it is in working order and has been for years. The problem is that a handful of member states haven’t or not at all ports of entry and that creates an issue because you can enter at any point and exit from any other and the place where you exit needs to know where (or rather when) you entered. So the issue stems essentially if you enter via an automated system with no stamp but exit through a place which relies on manual systems which can’t see when you entered Schengen without such a stamp. It’s not an issue of will, it’s an issue of poor and delayed implementation at great expense for eu taxpayers.

And there should be no place which handle an Aussie passport automatically but a uk one manually so I’m puzzled by that one. Really everywhere in Schengen where you can enter at a gate with an Australian passport you would be able to do the exact same with a Uk one as is the case at most airports I use which have a set of machines for eligible foreign passports (note that in Schengen separate machines are used for eu and eligible foreign passports). I’ll try to take a photo when I’m next going through one if I remember.

I don't see anything about Australian passports, so maybe they're remembering that detail wrong - but I do find it odd that Germany lets US, China, Korea, and Taiwan passport holders sign up for their Easypass-RTP program allowing use of the automatic gates, while UK passports are not eligible.

https://www.easypass.de/EasyPass/EN/...PASS_node.html

Bringing it back to topic… my experience in HEL in 2023 ish was a similar combination to the OPs- short transit, minimal stay in Finland and some of the most unpleasant (combative is the word I used) border guards I’ve ever met. AUS/UK passports. I was born in Norway which culturally can cause an issue but for convoluted reasons my passport doesn’t reflect that

I’ve resolved to avoid Finland as far as possible going forward because it was just unpleasant and unnecessary

Not if you're a non-UK national. They'll ask why you are here, how long you staying, etc. You need to be honest, or you get found out. Not so with a machine.

The current system cannot track 90 days from a passport scan, it has to be done manually via reading the wet stamps and sequencing them. There are some exceptions, such as Portugal's e-gates which are open to UK citizens but only applies to trips wholly involving just 3 airports. When this 90/180 day system was designed, the UK was part of the EU and there were not so many visitors making repeated visits to Schengen. A typical visitor from the USA or Canada would make one or two trips a year and it would be more efficient to look at the stamps. Now some Brits present over 100 stamps in their passport, with varying degrees of clarity, of which perhaps 10 need to be identified and calculated, hence this system rapidly become impractical. Hence EES, which will do this tracking and would almost certainly have prevented this incident so long as it was not that particular traveller's first visit after EES registration. Once EES is in place Brits can resume using the EU's e-gates in both directions and in all locations.

This is just my perception, but as far as I can tell Cyprus is less interested in deporting / blocking overstayers from a fairly long list of countries, given the money that citizens of these countries pump into an economy dominated by tourism. They are also fairly open to giving residence permits for Brits. Doubtless some people do get deported and some passports aren't so interesting but I really doubt this is a priority for the Cypriot authorities.

indeed and that is the farce of the current system which relies on counting stamps - my previous passport became rapidly full of schengen stamps such that i had to get a new one late last year despite having 5 years remaining. now i present a virtually empty passport and no one has a clue how many days in the last 180 i have spent in schengen. as bisonrav noted earlier, it is an archaic way of working. EES has been delayed so many times i can't see how anyone has any confidence of implementation in 2025/26.

i can also recommend getting an app to monitor your days within shchegen. as well as being useful for the user - if there are questions it is a useful thing to produce to show the immigration officer that you are within your limit.

Only 5 years early? Pah! One of my friends who I often travel with had to renew his after only 3 years IIRC... He was constantly cursing the inefficient stamp placement by certain countries' border officers.

And yes, he has a spreadsheet to keep track of the 90/180 day rule. No idea how that worked in the first 180 days of Bulgaria and Romania being in Schengen, mind you.

It was a weird one at MUC. I remember it well because my OH went thru with an Aussie p/port and I stood in the queue for a manual stamp. Decided at that moment to bring my Aussie p/port next time I enter the EU and see what happens. My next planned trip is in July to GVA - anyone know whether UK or AU passports can use e-gates there?

I'm a UK passport holder with a EU residence card (Poland).

Even with the EU residence card (which waives the 90/180 day rule for me), I had mixed experiences when transiting Schengen/Non-Schengen at AMS:

Leaving Schengen, I am allowed to use the e-gates with my UK passport and EU card, a quick check of both documents from the border guard, and off I go (no stamps on passport due to the EU card).
Entering Schengen, I have to queue up like everyone else and go to a manned desk.Presenting the UK passport and EU card, I am still asked a few trivial questions (are you heading back to your country of residence or going elsewhere? how long have you lived in Poland? etc), nothing detailed but in the past they would just see the passport and card, scan both and let me go with no questions asked (no stamps). It is a minor change but noticeable.

Thanks CWS. Fascinating… and now I can see why the German Boarder Guard was frustrated by his Spanish counterparts propensity to stamp here there and everywhere in the passport. Roll on EES if it ever comes… In the meantime looks like having an app to hand and avoiding entry into ARN is the order of the day.

Or, as sometimes happens, not at all...

No they don't - or at least not everyone. I'm a French national and the couple of times the e-gates sent me to an agent in the last 8 years, I was not asked anything. Also my mother (French) and her husband (Australian) have never been asked anything either when they've been over for a visit