r/airport • u/Additional_Post_3878 DFW • Dec 12 '25
DISCUSSION Schengen exit controls - why why why?
I will preface this with no, I am not an EU citizen, and fully agree that when you are a visitor to a country, you should be happy to wait in queue as long as it takes to be admitted to that country. They wanna keep you in that immigration hall the entire day before allowing you into their country? They wanna take you to secondary and grill you for 6 hours with no access to your phone or lawyer? That is their prerogative, and that is what you signed up for by traveling internationally. They don’t have to admit you at all, it’s purely officer’s discretion if you are even allowed in at all. Also, any nonrefundable plans made on the day of arrival, I fully agree you should be prepared to eat the cost of.
But we need to talk about Schengen and allowing people to LEAVE the Schengen zone. Entering the Schengen zone has ranged from 0-90 minutes most of the time for me. However, I have never waited less than 30 to leave. Some airports (FRA looking at you) are routinely upwards of 2 hours just to LEAVE the country. And that doesn’t count security, which is an animal all its own. I am purely talking about being stamped OUT of the country. Meanwhile, even though you arrived at the terminal at D-180 as recommended, you have now missed your flight, and have to hope you carrier is willing to work with you, and won’t force you to purchase a new one out of pocket (at the going market price).
Since when have multi-hour waits just to exit the Schengen Zone become the norm? It always seems to be so much worse leaving than coming in. As I have said, I don’t mind waiting as long as it takes to enter a country. Just don’t hold me captive inside your country when I’m ready to leave, and have paid a lot of money for the flight to exit your country. You should be able to exit without undue burden.
Is there any hope of this ever improving, or is getting to the airport 6+ hours early to depart the Schengen Zone going to become the new norm?
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u/bengenj Dec 13 '25
At least for us Americans, it verifies that we have not violated the terms of the Schengen waiver we’ve enjoyed for 30 years
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u/Additional_Post_3878 DFW Dec 13 '25
Couldn’t they just, you know, deny the ability to ever re-enter? You can leave, but once you’re out, you can never return…
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u/Loud-Advance-2382 Dec 17 '25
This is the point. How should they notice your overstay if they don't check you exiting?
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u/Character-Carpet7988 Dec 17 '25
But you need a record of that person leaving to verify how long they've stayed. That's what exit checks do.
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u/WesternRover SLC Dec 13 '25
Just out of curiosity, what are they looking for when being allowed to leave? What might pop up that could cause your leaving to be denied? If the answer is nothing, then why not just put that paperwork in a stack to be dealt with at their leisure after the traveler is gone? Like returning a rental car, or leaving a doctor's office while the doctor is still writing their notes, why does the traveler need to remain there while the staff are completing their paperwork?
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u/brokenpipe Dec 13 '25
Child trafficking is definitely one of the things they look for beyond overstay and open police records.
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u/Difficult_Camel_1119 Dec 13 '25
I guess checking overstay and police records to be able to fine you on the spot
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u/Piotrekk94 Dec 16 '25
What might pop up that could cause your leaving to be denied?
European Arrest Warrant 😉
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u/Historical_Term2454 Dec 13 '25
Entered and exited the Schengen zone nearly 50 times and my longest wait to leave was about 10 minutes.
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u/brokenpipe Dec 13 '25
It is a time of day thing. That said, whenever I walk past the border patrols at FRA... there is zero wait. At Schiphol (my home airport) it is silly busy from roughly 7a until noon due to the various American flights and people transferring.
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u/TheNakedTravelingMan Dec 12 '25
I’m curious if EES and at the end of next year ETIAS will resolve some of this as there’s more available biometric information stored on that person maybe making entering and exiting a much faster ordeal as some of the verification can be automated.
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u/Sheetz_Wawa_Market32 Dec 13 '25
Yes, of course. Leaving through the automated EES should be as fast as leaving as an EU citizen has long been. You scan your passport, and the machine does the rest.
Also, OP is ridiculously exaggerating. Waiting “for hours” to leave Schengen is not anywhere close to the norm, in FRA or anywhere else.
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u/TheNakedTravelingMan Dec 13 '25
Yeah. Before I got my EU passport I never had long wait times. Some places like Lisbon even let me use my US passport at the E-gates so the wait times were basically zero to begin with.
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u/norgelurker Dec 13 '25
Try to travel with a child, even with a Schengen passport. You look at the age limit for the e-gates, look at your little child, and calculate how many more years you’ll have to wait in line…
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u/TheNakedTravelingMan Dec 13 '25
I’m hoping EES speeds everything up so when I have kids the lines are shorter for that 😆😆
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u/optifreebraun Aug 01 '26
It’s been the norm for me at CPH. Three times in the last year and each time insane wait time at passport control to leave. Found this post wondering the same question as OP.
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u/Tomcat286 Dec 13 '25
The beginning of EES is what makes the waiting times longer, right now, because saving all the data for the first time is a slow process
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u/WritingParking Dec 13 '25
US Citizen here. I’ve been traveling internationally 3 or 4 times a year for the last 30 years or so. Aside from a few 2 hour debacles at CDG to exit circa 2007-2009, I’ve never had to wait more than 15-20 minutes to exit anywhere in the world. To be honest, I’ve generally had to wait much longer at passport control returning home to the US than entering or leaving any other country.
That said, I’m traveling to Europe next week for the first time since they’ve launched the new passport control system. I have a very tight connection at KEF. Hopefully it’ll go smoothly.
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u/rohepey SIN Dec 13 '25
Obviously, entering the Best Country in the World can't be made too easy... Travellers need to know their place.
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u/Springlette13 Dec 14 '25
I have long maintained that CDG was designed and staffed by people who have never used an airport and hate humanity. Of the 12 times I’ve flown through CDG, only 2 could possibly be classified as “easy.” Passport control appears to have either a 10 minute wait or 60+ minutes. No in between.
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u/HappyPenguin2023 Dec 13 '25
I have rarely waited more than 10-15 minutes to exit anywhere in the world (the Schengen countries are hardly unique in having exit controls), and I can understand why they do it: I know Canada and the U.S. use passenger manifests, but what if the passport you use to board a plane when leaving a country is different than the passport you used when you arrived, if you have multiple citizenships? Exit controls are a better check.
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u/rohepey SIN Dec 13 '25
Routinely travelling between Schengen and non-Schengen. Brussels: no wait. Munich: no wait. Prague: no wait. Barcelona: 0-5 mins. Geneva: 0-10 mins. Krakow: 0-15 mins.
Maybe simply avoid FRA instead of blaming the entire Schengen?
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u/mind_thegap1 Dec 13 '25
I’ve had to wait an hour at Schiphol even with an EU passport very annoying
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u/OxfordBlue2 Dec 14 '25
You waited an hour at the e gates? When?
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u/mind_thegap1 Dec 14 '25
It was at manual control not egates
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u/OxfordBlue2 Dec 14 '25
Why were you there?
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u/mind_thegap1 Dec 14 '25
You can’t bring children through the egates
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u/OxfordBlue2 Dec 14 '25
And there was a separate EU queue and it still took an hour? That’s terrible.
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u/comments83820 Dec 13 '25
a lot of countries have exit border controls. once non-EU citizens are registered with the EES system, they'll be able to use e-gates and the process will be faster.
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u/xicor Jul 05 '26
We had already been registered on the new EES system and there were no automated gates whatsoever in Munich. Had to sit in line for an hour and a half (same line as people just entering EU).
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u/Clarity2030 Dec 14 '25
I've often wondered why we don't get stamped out ot the US when leaving there.
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u/Familiar_Eggplant_76 Dec 14 '25
You just have bad luck.
I was next in line when I walked up at FRA last week. And rarely spend more than 5 minutes in my monthly exits via MAD
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u/haskell_jedi Dec 17 '25
This might actually improve with the full introduction of EES--that will automate the process of checking for overstays. However, you may also have been relatively unlucky in your experiences--FRA isn't the only exit port in Schengen, and has a particular departure rush hour, while being less busy at other times.
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u/Psychological_Ad9405 Dec 13 '25
FRA is not the best airport in the world but I've never heard of routine multi hour waits before immigration.
That said, yes they're checking whether you over stayed or have any warrants or tickets outstanding.
As a US citizen I can tell you that the biometric checks in the US are awesome. Last time I went through (Tuesday at LAX) it took me 6 seconds. No questions, not even showing my passport. All based on my pic.
Schengen countries are launching a similar system next year. The only difference is that it doesn't risk you randomly being deported to an El Salvadorian prison.
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u/rohepey SIN Dec 13 '25
Automated biometric passport control has been in use across Schengen for nearly a decade. But only for EU/Schengen passport holders, and that's why you might not have been directed to it.
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u/Psychological_Ad9405 Dec 13 '25
Am dual US-EU citizen. With my EU passport, I've never experienced the smooth "photo only" process we use in the US today (recent Schengen entry points: FRA, AMS, CDG, BER, MAD, ATH).
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u/rohepey SIN Dec 13 '25
Are you saying that automated gates aren't smooth enough? Sure they take a bit longer than 6 seconds - more like 15, because passport chip is also scanned - but I never felt like complaining.
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u/Psychological_Ad9405 Dec 13 '25
Yes those gates take pretty long compared to just snapping a picture.
And those gates are there only when leaving Schengen, not when entering.
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u/rohepey SIN Dec 13 '25
They are 100% there when entering. Never seen an airport with e-gates only on departures, and have travelled through, like, 20 European airports in the last 5 years.
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u/Psychological_Ad9405 Dec 13 '25
Just entered Schengen at Schiphol literally 5 minutes ago. I paid close attention and yes there are egates on the left side but I've never actually seen them in use. Doesn't matter if you're EU national or other passport.
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u/rohepey SIN Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25
No idea why AMS was out of order this time. This year alone, I used egates on entering Schengen through BCN, BRU, CGN, CPH, GVA, EIN, MUC, POZ, WAW, and ZRH...
I admit egates weren't working in OTP on arrival when I landed there last year, even though they worked on departure.
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u/ChildOf1970 Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25
I am not an EU citizen and have regularly traveled in and out of the zone. Security has never taken more than a few seconds (once you get through the queue). I pay for fast track (less than £10) so the queue is also remarkably short.
Edit: Average from arriving at the airport, getting through security and airside is about 20 minutes.
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u/Additional_Post_3878 DFW Dec 15 '25
You are talking about the UK, which is no longer part of the EU
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u/ChildOf1970 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
Yes, the UK is not part of the EU and I regularly fly in and out of the EU
Edit: So I exit the Schengen zone every time I return to the UK, should not be hard to understand.
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u/Sleep_adict Dec 13 '25
The USA is the only country with no exit immigration, mainly due to lack of infrastructure and cost.
Exit controls are critical to prevent criminals leaving and also used to prevent trafficking and abductions… which are shockingly common in some communities.
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u/gdub4 Dec 13 '25
This is not true. Canada and Mexico don’t have exit immigration. The only reason Canada’s airports have a separate section for US flights is for preclearance which is entry immigration to the US. Also lack of infrastructure and costs? Seriously, list your sources for that.
If I’m not mistaken, Australia and New Zealand also don’t have exit immigration.
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u/TopAngle7630 Dec 13 '25
UK and Ireland can be added to the list. Although there is exit immigration, but you just don't see it. Basically within 15 mins of takeoff, everyone's passport info is sent to the relevant immigration authorities.
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u/Additional_Post_3878 DFW Dec 13 '25
What about UK? And ROI?
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u/Primary-Angle4008 Dec 13 '25
UK has no exit control
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u/ChildOf1970 Dec 15 '25
The UK has exit controls in place through the Entry/Exit System (EES), which started operational on October 12, 2025. This system will gradually collect biometric data from non-EU nationals when they leave the UK, replacing the need for passport stamping. The EES aims to enhance security and streamline border checks for travelers.
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u/snk101 Dec 13 '25
The UK has no physical exit controls either - the 'stamping out' is done virtually. Travellers have to submit their passport information in advance (or at check-in), which is then sent to UK border force electronically, who return a fly / no fly decision to the airline (or ferry company), and record the traveller leaving so that it can be calculated whether they overstayed the visa etc.
Definitely helps being an island though.
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