With just days to go before most English and Welsh schools break up, UK motorists are being warned to brace for Continental-style tailbacks at the Channel ports. ITV News reported on 13 July that transport analysts expect more than 14 million leisure journeys to leave the country this weekend—the second-busiest getaway since records began in 2022.
![EU Entry/Exit System triggers fresh warnings of Dover gridlock ahead of UK school holidays]()
Amid these anticipated delays, VisaHQ can take at least one worry off travellers’ plates. Through its UK portal, the service offers instant checks on visa and entry rules, step-by-step guidance on the EU’s new Entry/Exit System and fast, fully online processing for any additional travel documents families or hauliers might need. That means less time wrestling with paperwork and more time focusing on beating the queues.
The main pinch-point is once again the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which since April has required non-EU nationals to provide biometric fingerprints and facial images at the Schengen border. The change sounds simple, but at juxtaposed controls in Dover, Folkestone and London St Pancras each vehicle passenger must disembark, queue for a manual scan and complete a short questionnaire. Operators say an average family of four now takes up to two minutes longer to clear French passport control; multiplied by thousands of cars, that creates kilometre-long queues that can quickly spill onto the A20 and M20. The Port of Dover saw several five-hour delays during May’s bank-holiday weekend, prompting MPs to brand the situation “utter chaos”. In response, UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has negotiated an emergency deal with her French counterpart Philippe Tabarot to fund extra booths, handheld tablets and—crucially—an additional 100 French border police on UK soil until September. The Department for Transport is releasing a further £20 million on top of the £10.5 million already allocated for infrastructure upgrades. Although the EU has rejected calls to suspend the EES this summer, Paris has agreed to pace the roll-out of random fingerprint re-checks and to prioritise coach parties to keep traffic moving. Travel managers are advising clients to leave at least two extra hours for check-in, carry plenty of water in view of the continuing heatwave, and pre-register passport data via the Frontex Travel to Europe app where available. Employers with time-critical shipments are being urged to consider alternative routes via Harwich-Hook of Holland or Newhaven-Dieppe, which have seen fewer bottlenecks so far. While officials insist queues will shorten once returning travellers’ biometrics are stored in the EES database, industry bodies fear a repeat of the post-Brexit disruption of 2022 unless long-term automation—such as mobile enrolment or UK-based pre-clearance—is accelerated.
Amid these anticipated delays, VisaHQ can take at least one worry off travellers’ plates. Through its UK portal, the service offers instant checks on visa and entry rules, step-by-step guidance on the EU’s new Entry/Exit System and fast, fully online processing for any additional travel documents families or hauliers might need. That means less time wrestling with paperwork and more time focusing on beating the queues.
The main pinch-point is once again the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which since April has required non-EU nationals to provide biometric fingerprints and facial images at the Schengen border. The change sounds simple, but at juxtaposed controls in Dover, Folkestone and London St Pancras each vehicle passenger must disembark, queue for a manual scan and complete a short questionnaire. Operators say an average family of four now takes up to two minutes longer to clear French passport control; multiplied by thousands of cars, that creates kilometre-long queues that can quickly spill onto the A20 and M20. The Port of Dover saw several five-hour delays during May’s bank-holiday weekend, prompting MPs to brand the situation “utter chaos”. In response, UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has negotiated an emergency deal with her French counterpart Philippe Tabarot to fund extra booths, handheld tablets and—crucially—an additional 100 French border police on UK soil until September. The Department for Transport is releasing a further £20 million on top of the £10.5 million already allocated for infrastructure upgrades. Although the EU has rejected calls to suspend the EES this summer, Paris has agreed to pace the roll-out of random fingerprint re-checks and to prioritise coach parties to keep traffic moving. Travel managers are advising clients to leave at least two extra hours for check-in, carry plenty of water in view of the continuing heatwave, and pre-register passport data via the Frontex Travel to Europe app where available. Employers with time-critical shipments are being urged to consider alternative routes via Harwich-Hook of Holland or Newhaven-Dieppe, which have seen fewer bottlenecks so far. While officials insist queues will shorten once returning travellers’ biometrics are stored in the EES database, industry bodies fear a repeat of the post-Brexit disruption of 2022 unless long-term automation—such as mobile enrolment or UK-based pre-clearance—is accelerated.
