I think MAD wait is right now highly dependent on arrival time. I’ve heard 2-3 hours for the early morning rush.
We’ll be arriving 2:30pm so hopefully it won’t be too bad.
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How new is this ? I flew multiple times last year and no major issues stood out. passport scanning worked just fine. I had 4 flights to Paris last year and didn’t have issues ?
Really new - April 10 2026 was the official fully operational start date, though some places began using it sporadically starting Oct 2025. Many member states did not seem at all prepared for the hammer to fall. They now register your fingerprints and picture, so it goes well beyond passport scanning.
Thanks Sarah.
Anyone been to Rom/FCO ? We’re heading to Italy in May.
Flew into Vienna a few days ago and had a 60 second wait. No problems!
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Ireland’s not included (flew into DUB yesterday, no change to immigration / checks etc., the area subject to the new rules is the continental “Schengen” block).
Heading to Paris Wednesday. Any recent updates from CDG?
Arrived just now at CDG via LHR. Terminal 2.
Self-entry kiosks: Passport scan, photo, then stamp.
Sounds like they shut the new system down temporarily. The staff has been begging for permission to do that when needed.
Possibly. Walked past a few rows of OOS terminals before getting to the double door system.
Madrid tip;
This from flyertalk but I’ve also found it best- elevators are better than escalators when arriving from the US when there are lines.
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Agree. Took like 8 long escalators. Should have taken the elevator
Pretty quick process through immigration at CDG this lunchtime, arriving at 11.45 meant we missed the peak queues and we were through and into a cab no more than 40 minutes from wheels down.
Implementation seemed a bit haphazard, we went through the non EU line together (one EU, one US) and we handed in our passports which were scanned and returned to us without any photo or fingerprint requirements for anyone - while next to us individual US travelers were being fingerprinted and photographed, which was causing confusion and delay.
If you can time your arrival for late morning / noon, on this experience there is limited impact at Charles de Gaulle.
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Went thru CDG a few days ago and for the most part it was smooth. The only hold up was the red jacketed guard only allowing families with kids through while stopping all the rest of us for what seemed like three separate plane loads - was over 30 minutes of no movement.
Bordeaux is a famously poor airport, and the Billi low cost shed bolted on is worse.
I knew to be quickly off the aircraft when I arrived this week and was about tenth in line. There’s no separation of line between Eu and non Eu but the customs agent announced that one of the two cubicles was for Eu and one for non - in french only , and with only one line for both so the Eu were to push through.
A bit of a mess but I was out before I noticed.
I did confirm that those with residency can use the Eu line, but that seems less than 100% clear.
I had no problems at all going through Amsterdam yesterday. Other people were having issues, but they had a queue set up to deal with them with a live agent. I don’t think it was taking anybody more than 15 mins to get through
Off topic, but I’ll ask here as it’s active, with lots of experienced travelers:
Is cured meat allowed back? Thinking of sausages, sealed plastic sliced cured meats, etc. Most info I see says no, but can’t find actual text on an official site. Sealed tins yes.
no, pork we tried to bring back from Italy was confiscated.
I dont think so. Foie Gras maybe - the TSA guy wanted to take mine (in a sealed glass container) and got all mad when he could not open it. I did not offer to help him. Luckily I had lots of time so I waited for the shift change and got it thru no problem.
Fois gras that is packaged (tin or jar) yes.
Otherwise no.
No jamon allowed.