In a letter sent on 5 July to Foreign-Minister Antonio Tajani and Interior-Minister Matteo Piantedosi, ANCI—the national association representing Italy’s 7,900 municipalities—called for “urgent, extraordinary measures” to mitigate mounting delays at airports and land crossings linked to the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES). The biometric platform, live since 10 April for travellers from non-Schengen countries, captures fingerprints and facial images at the first entry and validates them on subsequent crossings.
![Italian municipalities warn of severe queues as biometric EES border system enters peak season]()
For travellers and corporate mobility teams navigating Italy’s evolving border rules, VisaHQ can streamline the paperwork well before departure. Through its dedicated Italy portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) the service tracks policy alerts in real time, offers online visa applications, and arranges courier pick-ups so that passports reach consulates and return stamped—helping offset some of the uncertainty that the new EES procedures are generating.
ANCI president Gaetano Manfredi reports that the average processing time at Rome-Fiumicino’s non-EU desks has risen from 38 seconds in March to almost three minutes in late June, with peaks of 15-20 minutes per passenger when charter flights from the Gulf and the US land simultaneously. Similar bottlenecks have emerged at the Brenner and Ventimiglia road borders, where French and Austrian police occasionally re-introduce spot checks. Municipalities fear knock-on effects: longer passport queues translate into late-night arrivals that swamp local public-transport timetables, taxi dispatch centres and hotel staffing. Manfredi proposes three stop-gap fixes valid until 31 August: 1) state-funded overtime for frontier police, 2) mobile enrolment kiosks to pre-register fingerprints for cruise and coach groups, and 3) a temporary waiver allowing EU residents with a valid biometric ID card to bypass full fingerprint scans. The appeal comes as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed in Brussels that the EU is “working with member states to eliminate technical bugs” after passengers in Greece, Italy and Portugal reported repeated scanner failures. Airlines for Europe has asked the Commission to suspend mandatory fingerprint capture for the July-August peak, but so far Brussels insists the security benefits outweigh the inconvenience. For corporations moving talent into Italy, the message is clear: schedule arrivals outside the 10:00-14:00 and 17:00-21:00 rush-hours; brief non-EU assignees to allow extra time for the first entry; and consider remote-work starts until the biometric backlog eases. Travel providers should monitor government bulletins—the interior ministry is expected to respond before 15 July with a contingency staffing plan.
For travellers and corporate mobility teams navigating Italy’s evolving border rules, VisaHQ can streamline the paperwork well before departure. Through its dedicated Italy portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) the service tracks policy alerts in real time, offers online visa applications, and arranges courier pick-ups so that passports reach consulates and return stamped—helping offset some of the uncertainty that the new EES procedures are generating.
ANCI president Gaetano Manfredi reports that the average processing time at Rome-Fiumicino’s non-EU desks has risen from 38 seconds in March to almost three minutes in late June, with peaks of 15-20 minutes per passenger when charter flights from the Gulf and the US land simultaneously. Similar bottlenecks have emerged at the Brenner and Ventimiglia road borders, where French and Austrian police occasionally re-introduce spot checks. Municipalities fear knock-on effects: longer passport queues translate into late-night arrivals that swamp local public-transport timetables, taxi dispatch centres and hotel staffing. Manfredi proposes three stop-gap fixes valid until 31 August: 1) state-funded overtime for frontier police, 2) mobile enrolment kiosks to pre-register fingerprints for cruise and coach groups, and 3) a temporary waiver allowing EU residents with a valid biometric ID card to bypass full fingerprint scans. The appeal comes as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed in Brussels that the EU is “working with member states to eliminate technical bugs” after passengers in Greece, Italy and Portugal reported repeated scanner failures. Airlines for Europe has asked the Commission to suspend mandatory fingerprint capture for the July-August peak, but so far Brussels insists the security benefits outweigh the inconvenience. For corporations moving talent into Italy, the message is clear: schedule arrivals outside the 10:00-14:00 and 17:00-21:00 rush-hours; brief non-EU assignees to allow extra time for the first entry; and consider remote-work starts until the biometric backlog eases. Travel providers should monitor government bulletins—the interior ministry is expected to respond before 15 July with a contingency staffing plan.
