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Answers (4)

International Passport Controls

International Passport Controls

  1. Rob in Miami Member

    My question: does anyone know why it is so easy to enter a country with your passport, but it is much more time consuming to exit in Europe? I am guessing that its about staffing? Entry has more staff than at the exit?
    I was recently in Milan and it was a 20 minute line to pass through…. a few months ago in Barcelona it was a 30 minute line to wait thru before reaching the gate – AFTER security control (Lounge access / Duty Free etc is stuck in the middle of this). I travel a lot but am always amazed why in Europe there is this secret second layer of passport control.

  2. No Name Member

    Assume you mean leaving the Schengen Area when you say leaving Europe?

    Just a guess, but could it have anything to do with stopping radical islamists leaving to train and fight in the ME?

    Also airports might not have been designed with the space needed for today’s levels of controls.

  3. Anonymous Guest

    I don’t think it’s a “secret” layer of passport control, it’s just physical passport control at all. The US and UK are somewhat unique in not having visible exit controls on departure — everything is done electronically.

    So if you’re leaving the Schengen Area (which is a smaller number of passengers for most European airports), you go through these checks physically, versus clogging up the earlier security queues for everyone.

    [USER=268]@No Name[/USER] is spot-on that airports aren’t designed for these new requirements, and if the mandate in the latest Executive Order on Immigration gets legs we may see something similar here as well (though likely with an even bigger mess, as our airports are even less equipped for creating these zones).

  4. Rob in Miami Member

    It’s important to note that when one is in a Lounge (in Europe) and thinking the walk to the gate is just a few minutes……. and you turn a corner and there is a line of 100 people going through a passport control point….. it creates a bit of anxiety. Note to self……..

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