Greece has now joined the EU’s new Entry/Exit System, known as EES, and non-EU travellers are already feeling the impact at the border. If you’ve recently landed in Athens or another major airport and ended up in a much slower line than expected, you’re not imagining things.
The system is live, yes. Fully automated? Not even close.
What Greece is running right now is a hybrid setup where the old world of passport stamps overlaps with a new digital system that is still finding its feet. That overlap is exactly what’s creating friction.
Why people are still taking your fingerprints and photo
The biggest misconception is that EES was meant to replace humans with machines from day one. In reality, EU rules require that your first registration in the system happens under the supervision of a border officer.
That’s why, instead of simply scanning your passport and walking through a gate, you’re stopped at the desk while an officer checks your documents, takes your fingerprints, captures a facial photo and confirms everything on screen. Only once that data is verified can it be stored in the system.
So even when machines are present, they’re not operating independently yet. They assist the officer rather than replacing them.
Why queues feel longer than before
Before EES, entry into Greece for many non-EU travellers was relatively quick. A glance at the passport, a stamp, and you were on your way. Now there’s an additional biometric layer added on top of the old checks.
That extra step, multiplied by thousands of passengers arriving at the same time, is what’s causing longer waits. This is especially noticeable during peak travel periods and at large airports where most travellers are being registered for the first time.
From an expat’s point of view, this is the worst phase of the rollout. Everything takes longer, but none of the promised speed benefits have kicked in yet.
Why Greece feels slower than expected
There’s also a very Greek reality at play. Airports were prioritised, but rollout is uneven. Some locations are better equipped than others, staff are still adapting, and the system is being used live while it’s still settling.
Add Greece’s seasonal travel spikes into the mix and you get exactly what many travellers are experiencing now: busy passport halls, confused passengers and officers doing more work than before, not less.
This isn’t Greece ignoring EU rules. It’s Greece implementing them in real time, under pressure.
Will this eventually become automated?
Yes — but not immediately.
Once you’re already registered in the system, future entries should be faster. The idea is that returning travellers will only need biometric verification instead of full data capture. That’s when automation starts to pay off.
Right now, however, millions of travellers are still going through that first, slow registration step. Until that backlog clears, human involvement at the border is unavoidable.
What non-EU travellers should realistically expect
If you’re arriving in Greece in the near future, expect human officers, expect fingerprints and photos, and expect queues that are longer than what you remember from previous trips. Passport stamps may still appear in some cases, but they’re no longer the main record that matters.
This is a system learning to walk before it runs.
Our take
Greece has started the new border era, but this is the awkward middle stage where borders are more digital on paper than in practice. For now, automation means more checks, not fewer, and patience is part of the entry process.
The good news is that this phase is temporary. The bad news is that travellers are the ones absorbing the inconvenience.
