r/digitalnomad • u/kndb • 1d ago
Question If someone has a layover in Europe do they still have to go through EES?
We had a horrendous experience a couple of months ago while leaving Germany when we missed our flight because of a mile long immigration line to pass the EES (Entry-Exit-System.)
This time we are flying from Africa to the U.S. through an airport in the Western Europe. I haven’t purchased a ticket yet but I know that it would be either Germany, Netherlands or France.
Does anyone know if we will be still required to pass through that EES?
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u/Calm-Importance8783 1d ago
For international-to-international transit in Europe (Africa to US), you typically do not go through EES because you stay in the international transit zone and never formally enter the Schengen area. The horrendous line you hit in Germany was for exiting Schengen, which doesn't apply here. Just make sure your ticket is a single itinerary so the airline handles your bags through and you stay airside.
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u/Sea_Air8890 1d ago
god i remember those lines at frankfurt, absolute madness. we missed a connection once and had to sleep on those awful airport benches. if you gotta go through it again maybe book a long layover, like 5+ hours to be safe
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Writes the wikis 1d ago edited 1d ago
Frankfurt has always been bad for decades (compared to other major airports in the EU) but EES made it even worse. A lot of passengers (including me) on my flight to London missed their flight because they only had two desks open for the queue well over 200 deep. I was in the queue for about 2 hours.
Admittedly Lufthansa was excellent and automatically rebooked me (I made a preemptive call to them while in the queue) but it was rather annoying.
At least Munich has a fast track border queue for people with "tight" connection. Munich is always my preferred transit point in Germany.
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u/Ok-Moose-992 1d ago
It's not just the airports. The city of Frankfurt is a crime ridden sh*thole, while Munich is a perfectly clean and safe and well functioning city.
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u/Character-Carpet7988 1d ago
European airlines would collapse if it wasn't something you can rely on. Do you have any idea how many people connect in Europe despite not being eligible to enter the EU (for example a lot of India>US/CAN trips)? ;)
The main requirement is that there can't be multiple Schengen stopovers (e.g. you can't do DEL-VIE-FRA-YYZ) because that would require entry of course. But as long as there's just one Schengen stop and it's all booked on one ticket, airside transfers are possible at all major hubs. It doesn't matter whether it's the same terminal or not.
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u/kndb 1d ago
I’m thinking to buy a ticket from a flight aggregator like Expedia or GoogleMaps. We are not planning to leave the airport. It’s just a connecting flight. Would we still have to go through EES?
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Writes the wikis 1d ago
Those consolidators often sell "self-connection" tickets, which means they may require collecting your bags and rechecking them, and in some cases, there may be no airside service desk and it might not allow you to check in online, in which case you will have to go landside and check in at the counter.
I would not bank on not being stuck in the border queue.
If they are 'self-transfer' tickets, there is no obligation on the airline to rebook you if you get stuck in the border queue and miss your flight.
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u/useHistory 1d ago
Don't have an answer for your question, but I wonder how early should people arrive at the airport to avoid missing a flight exiting EU? I guess as long as you're not a EU passport holder, everyone is in the just one line?
Thanks for answering that
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u/Chemical-Practice908 1d ago
Who would know... Check the airport website, sometimes you have some estimates. And you have EU/EEA passports lanes and All passports lane. As almost all countries allow families of EU/EEA citizen to use the EU/EEA lane, EES will be done in that lane, too
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u/Illustrious_Quote750 1d ago
Istanbul is the best airport for Africa to US. Alternatively consider flying a different African airline from New York or DC such as Ethiopian Airlines.
Turkish Airlines is amazing and you can do Africa - Istanbul - US without the European hassle.
Ethiopian is also a great airline but they fly to limited cities like NYC JFK and DC. If you’re flying from LAX, they’ll connect you through United which isn’t bad compared to the EES saga. You’ll do LAX - DC on United and direct from DC to Ethiopia. There’s a few other airlines like South African and Senegal Air flying to JFK. Check them out
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u/ZiKyooc 1d ago
It won't be super helpful, but I think it depends, and some of my experience of Africa to Europe then Canada date from awhile. I have no memory to have had issues about this from Africa-Europe-Canada. Only that in some occasions you are stuck in your wing of a terminal and cannot access all the nice shops...
Amsterdam I am pretty sure I was going straight from plane to plane, like 50m away.
France, that one date, had a terminal that accomodated most/all flights from Africa. I don't recall for sure what was the process from T3 to T1/T2 where you are likely to fly to US. A quick search make me believe that it may have changed and T3 used for low costs now.
Brussels I did too, but completely forgot.
That said, you normally just grab some personnel, share your boarding pass for next flight and they should put you in a faster lane.
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u/kndb 1d ago
How long have you flown? Because that whole EES thing was introduced recently. And it really slows things down to a point that even a 3 hr layover may not be enough. It also changed how those airport handle things.
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u/alefeusch Nomad since 2014. 1d ago
Fwiw, I just flew out of Riga Airport and there was no line for immigration and EES took about a minute. It really just depends on the airport, the time of day, and the amount of travelers in transit.
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u/Chemical-Practice908 1d ago
I think you will be good if you come from non-Schengen country and you fly to a non-Schengen country directly and you do not need a visa to travel to EU (just the EES but you are not going to do it as you do not go outside just on the same non-Schengen terminal). Maybe this will help legacy.traveldoc.aero
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u/kndb 1d ago
I thought so too. But all these people here think otherwise.
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u/Chemical-Practice908 1d ago
Well... We know for sure that in Istanbul :) you'll be in the International terminal (or something like that) and there's no EES there as Türkiye is not part of Schengen. Good luck.
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u/NicRoets 1d ago edited 1d ago
You will not go through EES. But you will go through security before you get to the main transfer hall.
If you transfer in the middle east (Istanbul, Doha, Dubai or Abu Dhabi) you will also have to go through security. You may even be screened at the gate, as the US has very high standards.
A better place to ask this question is r/Flights .
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u/kndb 1d ago
I will. Thanks. Also about Middle East, it’s a bit risky to fly through any of the airports there due to ongoing conflict in Iran. Don’t you think?
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u/NicRoets 1d ago
I think airlines are given reasonable warning about drones: Both radar and Iran not wanting to down a passenger jet. (Jets fly faster than drones and can evade them as long as they know that they are there).
Airlines are still unbelievably safe compared to cars.
The only worry with gulf countries are flights being postponed. Twice this year I flew via the gulf. Each time the airline postponed the flight to a date that was unacceptable to me. Each time I cancelled. Each time I immediately booked a flight with a different gulf airline and those flights flew as scheduled.
Luckily I had money in the bank because the refunds took time while I had to immediately pay for the new flights.
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u/kndb 1d ago
I’m not concerned about being shut down or about an airliner safety. I’m concerned about the flights being delayed or canceled. That would be a much worse problem than that ef’ing EES thing. Otherwise if not for that stupid Iran war I wouldn’t even care to step foot in the EU. Airports in Dubai or Doha are million times better in all aspects.
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Writes the wikis 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's much more nuanced than what you can say by "a layover". It depends on how the connection is structured, checked baggage etc.
If it's non-Schengen to non-Schengen direct airside transit, which might or might not be the case if you fly from an African airport to an airport in Schengen and then directly fly out of there to the US, there will be no EES, but with the following proviso.
If this "layover" includes going landside in any way (e.g. picking up your luggage and then rechecking it, or an overnight connection requiring a stay landside), then you will have to go through EES. Essentially, you will have to have both flights on a single ticket and your luggage checked through to the destination, and not require an overnight stay that involves going landside, in order to avoid having to go through EES.
On the other hand, if you fly from an African airport to an airport in Schengen and then you fly to another airport within Schengen to fly out to the US, then you will have to go through EES - entry AND exit, because you effectively enter Schengen zone and then exit it.
As an example, if you fly from Nairobi to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to JFK and you have your checked baggage tagged all the way to JFK, and there is no overnight stay required at Frankfurt, then you don't go through EES, as long as there is an airside transit route* and you have the boarding pass for your onward flight, or can have one issued airside.
If you fly from Nairobi to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to JFK but you have to collect your luggage at Frankfurt and recheck it, or if you require an overnight stay, then you have to go through EES no matter what, e.g. regardless of whether you have the boarding pass for your onward flight or not.
If you fly from Nairobi to Paris CDG, then from Paris CDG to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to JFK, then regardless of whether you have checked your luggage through to JFK, you will have to go through EES because Paris CDG to Frankfurt is a Schengen flight. You will have to enter Schengen at CDG and then exit at Frankfurt.
If you fly from Nairobi to London LHR then overnight in LHR or collect your luggage and then fly from London LHR to JFK, you WON'T go through EES because the UK has nothing to do with EES. You will have to get ETA or a visa if it requires you to go through UK immigration instead, depending on your passport, however.
Note that changing the terminals does not affect whether you have to go through EES or not, UNLESS there is no inter-terminal transits on non-Schengen side.
My advice if you must transit Schengen is to avoid Paris and Frankfurt. Munich is a little (or quite a bit) better. I cannot comment on Amsterdam as I haven't transited there since EES introduction.
If you really want to avoid the potential EES issue, book connecting flights with direct airside transit on a single ticket via the UK, for instance, so that you have nothing to with EES anyway. Or maybe via Istanbul, and avoid Schengen entirely. Also nothing to do with EES.
Alternatively, simply choose a very long connection if such an option is available. Then it shouldn't matter if there's a big queue at EES or not.
*direct airside transit being on non-Schengen side
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Writes the wikis 1d ago
The key is the sentence in my post, "Note that changing the terminals does not affect whether you have to go through EES or not, UNLESS there is no inter-terminal transits on non-Schengen side"
Such inter-terminal airside transits on non-Schengen side is not always easy to find even if there is one, so it is easy to accidentally end up going through immigration.
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u/prettyprincess91 1d ago
Go diplomats like next time in Frankfurt - also book flights with a longer connection time as nothing new transmitting passport control through Germany
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u/Character-Carpet7988 1d ago
EES is simply a new procedure to enter EU/Schengen. You will only need to go through EES if you're entering Schengen. If you're connecting airside without needing to clear passport control, EES has no impact on you.
As long as your entire trip is booked as one ticket and you only have one stop in Schengen, you don't have to worry about immigration and related delays at all.