As European ports and airports struggle to cope with the full rollout of the EU’s new biometric passport checks, the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel have confirmed to The Local that full checks will not be rolled out until the end of the peak summer period.
The UK-France border had long been singled out as likely to cause problems with EES due to a combination of high passenger volumes and juxtaposed border control, with the boss of the Port of Dover warning of severe congestion this summer.
Despite the April 2026 deadline for the full implementation of EES, UK border crossings have still not scaled up to 100 percent checks, and now spokespeople for the Dover ferry port and the Eurotunnel terminal have confirmed that this will not happened until after the peak summer travel period.
READ ALSO: EES: Why is the UK-France border such a problem for the EU’s new biometric passport checks?
Folkestone/Coquelles
A spokesperson for Eurotunnel, which operates the car-train service LeShuttle across the Channel, confirmed that there will be no EES biometric capture at its terminals in Folkestone and Coquelles this summer.
“LeShuttle customers will continue to travel as normal throughout the peak season, with no change to the process through its terminals,” a statement says.
“The creation of EES files for non-EU travellers, introduced in April, will continue at the border by PAF,” a spokesperson said. This means that passengers will stay in their cars and proceed to passport control, where the border police will create a digital EES record without biometric data.
“Eurotunnel has invested extensively in its terminals, infrastructure and systems to ensure full readiness for the implementation of EES, including biometric capture… With the authorities, we continue testing, including live operational trials, ahead of the future activation of biometric capture,” the spokesperson said.
“We are awaiting confirmation from the French authorities on the timing of this next phase, expected after the summer peak,” the spokesperson added.
Port of Dover
A spokesperson for the Port of Dover told The Local that £40 million have been invested in the new infrastructure, including 84 self-registration kiosks. However, the back-end technology for the file creation has still to be provided.
The spokesperson said summer at the Port of Dover is always busy and “thorough plans” are put in place “well in advance,” in cooperation with the French authorities and Kent County Council.
“We expect it to be really busy, but we plan for that. It’s not chaos, it’s just a very busy expected summer getaway period,” the spokesperson added.
The Port’s Chief executive Doug Banister had earlier warned that it will “face repeated episodes of severe congestion” throughout the summer without more flexibility in EES.
He told The Independent that queuing cars will be “spilling out of the port onto the public highway for miles” unless something changes, adding “the local impact could be dire”.
The Port advises travellers not to arrive more than two hours before the expected ferry departure time and to use the main roads to Dover, the A20 and the A2, to avoid clogging local roads in Kent. More information is available on the Port of Dover website.
Coaches and freight
Only coach passengers and freight drivers are currently subject to border checks which are fully ‘EES compliant’ at the Eurotunnel terminal and the Port of Dover.
“It should be noted that PAF [Police aux Frontières – the French Border Police] has been delivering full EES compliance for coach passengers and freight drivers on Eurotunnel sites since October 2025,” a Eurotunnel spokesperson said.
In Dover, the new border processing area is open for coaches but not for cars. All coach passengers disembark, go through the border police desk and have their passports manually scanned to capture the data. Then they go back on the coach, which is manually sealed with a sticker that the police will recognise as being checked.
The UK government recently announced £20 million in funds to increase the number of booths for passport checks at the Port of Dover, in addition to the £10.5 million already invested at Dover, Eurotunnel and Eurostar terminals.
The UK government and the European Commission agreed to “work together constructively to ensure travel across the border is as seamless as possible in the summer and through the autumn.”
Eurostar
The Eurostar rail terminals at London Saint Pancras and Paris Gare du Nord have also not begun full implemention of EES, with the same technical issue believed to be the problem.
Self check-in kiosks at Saint Pancras have been installed but are not currently operational.
A Eurostar spokesperson confirmed to The Local that the full rollout will not begin until after the peak summer travel period.
Gradual implementation
The EU Entry/Exit System (EES) has been gradually introduced since October 12th 2025, while full implementation at Schengen external borders began on April 10th 2026.
However countries do have the right to temporarily suspend checks if there are serious problems with queues – something that has been seen at several Italian airports since the start of the implementation, while Spain and Greece have also experienced problems.
The EES, designed to detect overstayers, records in an EU-wide database each entry and exit to the Schengen area of non-EU short-term visitors replacing the manual stamping of passports.
At the first crossing into the Schengen area, biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images have to be registered in front of a guard. This extra step has caused queues at busy border posts and travel organisations have warned the situation might worsen during the summer season.
Self-registration kiosks have been installed at border crossings for the initial registration of passenger data. However, kiosks at UK premises are not yet equipped with the technology to capture biometric data, The Local understands.
Instead, travellers will go through border control as usual, guards will scan their passports and manually create a personal file without biometric information.
