You should have heard by now that European countries are currently phasing in a new system for visitors’ passport control. It’s called the Entry/Exit System, EES for short. If you have also heard about ETIAS, that is something related but different that has not yet been implemented as of December, 2025.

We found little information about what visitors flying into Rome’s DaVinci/Fiumicino airport (FCO) should expect with EES when they arrive. Here is a step-by-step guide on what you will encounter. The stated plan is to phase in the public’s use of EES for six months. This means for the near future that visitors will face both the EES electronic kiosks and physical passport control with stamps.

Once you’ve de-planed, airport personnel are there directing people to the appropriate lane. For visitors from North America, you follow a black line marked on the floor. It takes you to the EES processing area, which is staffed.

The EES machine is a tall electronic kiosk. On its left side is where you place the photograph page of your passport face down. Slide your passport all the way in until it’s physically blocked from going any further. On the right side is where you place your four fingers for the scanner to take your fingerprints. Make sure the pads of your fingertips are completely on the glass (press firmly) and not at the edge. For both the passport and your fingerprints, the kiosk will tell you if either needs to be scanned again.

The machine will instruct you to scan your passport, followed by your fingerprints, and then ask you a few questions. Among the questions is what type of accommodation you will be staying at, a hotel or similar, or with family or friends. It will also ask if you have a letter of invitation (almost all of us don’t) and roughly how much cash you are bringing into the country.

At the end of the process, the machine will instruct you to look up for your picture to be taken (this is how you look when you get off a long, possibly overnight, plane flight – try not to cringe).

The entire process with the machine takes three to five minutes, depending on how many times you have to rescan your passport or fingerprints. You may have to wait a few minutes for a kiosk to become available.

As soon as you are done, the staff who are present there will place a sticker on the back of your passport. It was a green sticker when we got ours, we are guessing the color varies by day. For an unknown reason, not everyone gets a sticker. It’s helpful if you do.

You then proceed to the next phase of the immigration / passport control process. You get in line to go through an electronic gate.

This is where it’s important to have that sticker on your passport. There are two lines at this phase, one for those with, and one for those without the sticker. The “sticker line” is shorter. Personnel are present at this stage in the process, but they don’t tell you which line to use until after you’ve been standing in the wrong line for five minutes. If some people in your group do not get a sticker, you do not have to split up; but only those with a sticker are permitted in the shorter “sticker line.” If you have a sticker and stay with your less fortunate companions, at the end of the line you just head directly to your appropriate e-gate, which you will have seen while waiting in line (everything is in plain sight).

That destination is another type of kiosk known as an e-gate, and there are two different types. The e-gate for visitors with a passport sticker is like the e-gate for “non stickered” visitors but with an add-on. The “non stickered” e-gate has you place your passport photo page on a scanner, then its glass doors open up which you step past. (If you’ve been to Rome via FCO before, it’s the same e-gate you’ve previously used.) You are now trapped between that set of glass doors and a second set of glass doors. To be let through the second set, stand on the spot marked on the floor, look up diagonally to face a video screen, and have your picture taken. That’s really all it is.

The e-gate for people with stickers on their passports is the same but with one added feature. You place your fingers on a scanner to have your fingerprints read. The instructions are similarly clear for both e-gates, but personnel are there to assist.

After the e-gate, are we done yet? No.

One more step, but it’s quick. Immediately after either e-gate, you encounter a passport control officer who stamps your passport. Now you’re done. Go collect your checked baggage and catch your ride into Rome.

The plan that’s been announced is for the passport stamp to go away, but it’s here for the time being because of the six-month phase-in period. We will separately post an update as new information comes available. Then we will wait for ETIAS, which is currently scheduled for deployment in late 2026.

UPDATE: There is mixed information on what happens when you depart from FCO. Some people have reported using an EES kiosk. We encountered nothing specific to EES when we departed, instead experiencing the same departure process as pre-EES days.