UK Foreign Office advice for European residence card/permit holders is to skip the EES machines:
These travellers should not register for EES. Instead, upon arrival at the border, they should present their exempting documentation to a border guard.
If for any reason an EES record is created for them, this should retrospectively be deleted. Normally, this can be done at the border by a border guard, or by the relevant authorities within the Schengen area. In some cases, EES records may be deleted automatically, for example, where the traveller has been granted a residence permit after entering the Schengen area.
I believe if you use the EES machines and press the “I have a residence permit” button, it tells you to go away
Seen some other comments that if you do create an EES record when it’s not needed, that can lead to future confusion/hassle if the system doesn’t mark (delete) you as a resident and starts counting your days for no reason.
This is kind of what i would expect to happen as well.
Except what happens for someone who signs up for EES because they aren’t a resident, but then become a resident? So this case has to be dealt with eventually somehow.
I had some travel during the initial period of EES, with lots of rejects at the e-gates. Not sure what the border agent ended up entering into the system for me.
Travelling again in a few weeks, so we’ll see what happens. I’m curious if the border agents have the ability to un-do the EES record if it indeed was created unnecessarily?
Ah, now that’s a useful website. It seems to indicate the system thinks I am still in Denmark, as I suspected. Just for fun, I’ve emailed the Danish immigration office to see if they can fix it.
Left Portugal for a short house-hunting trip to ROI last week. Returned late Friday night into Faro. Immigration hall was empty. Waltzed up to the first (humourless) agent. He pointed out that my card is expired and he wanted to see the QR code. I have one but my wife still does not. She’s still in AIMA purgatory. Fortunately my QR code was good enough for the both of us and on we went.
