I was bracing for a mess when I arrived in Lisbon and had to enter the Schengen Area using the new Entry/Exit System (EES). Instead, the entire process took about five minutes.

My EES Experience At Lisbon Airport Was Much Easier Than I Expected

After arriving in Lisbon on TAP Air Portugal, I had about five hours before my connecting flight to Frankfurt and wanted to head into the city for lunch and coffee.

The only thing giving me pause was immigration.

Europe’s new Entry/Exit System has generated plenty of horror stories since its rollout, and Lisbon in particular had a rough start. Late last year, Portugal temporarily suspended EES at Lisbon Airport after serious congestion developed in the arrivals area, while also adding more border-control equipment and staff. The Portuguese government acknowledged the bottlenecks and took “emergency” measures to address them.

So I was expecting the worst. Instead, I was through in about five minutes.

Five Minutes Through EES At Lisbon Airport

The Entry/Exit System is now fully operational throughout the Schengen Area and replaces traditional passport stamping for many non-EU visitors with a digital record that includes passport information, facial images, and fingerprints. The European Commission says the system has been fully operational since April 10, 2026.

At Lisbon, the process was straightforward. I walked by the newish TAP international lounge and wanted to stop, but also did not want to find myself suddenly stuck in a much longer line…

There was very little waiting, the queue moved very quickly, the biometric portion did not take long, and before I knew it I was through border control and on my way into the city.

That’s it.

No giant queue, missed connection, or hours spent standing in a hot and stuffy immigration hall wondering why I had bothered leaving the airport…

Five minutes.

Maybe I Got Lucky…Or Maybe Lisbon Has Figured It Out?

I don’t want to extrapolate too much from one experience.

Perhaps I simply arrived at the right time (11:00 am).

Had my flight landed an hour earlier alongside several other transatlantic arrivals, perhaps the story would have been very different. But it is also possible Lisbon has simply become much better at handling EES and I did want to provide this datapoint.

Lisbon Airport also now promotes automated self-service as the faster way to complete EES registration where available. The airport explains that travelers can either use automated self-service systems or go through the more traditional border-check process. Whatever Lisbon has done, it worked during my visit.

My Recent EES Experiences Have Been Surprisingly Easy

This also matches what I have encountered elsewhere in Europe recently.

I have gone through the new system in Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, and Copenhagen and, so far, none of those experiences has been particularly difficult.

Maybe I’ve just been fortunate, but after all the warnings about EES becoming the latest European travel nightmare, I have yet to encounter one and I expected the absolutely worst at Brussels and Lisbon.

CONCLUSION

I arrived in Lisbon expecting the new Entry/Exit System to consume a substantial portion of my five-hour layover.

Instead, immigration took about five minutes. I may have benefited from arriving during a quiet period, but given Lisbon’s well-documented problems with EES earlier in the rollout, the experience was encouraging.

Perhaps LIS has finally figured it out. Either way, I had plenty of time for lunch and coffee in Lisbon…stay tuned.