That's what I'm hoping

I don't fancy having to say to one of those peaked cap types "eu.flag told me you're wrong and I'm not to do as you say".

Funny enough we flew out of Malaga last sunday for a 10 visit to the uk . My TIE runs out on the 19 Feb and i have a renewal cita on the 20th. At Malaga at the passport booth the Police Officer checked my passport and TIE and clearly noted the TIE expiry date as he asked when i would be returning. I told him before the expiry date and that i have the renewal cita booked. He was happy with that but had i been returning after the 19th he would have told me i would need a regroso letter to return or get passport stamped

You need to distinguish the word "technically" from "technicality." When someone writes technically it means "according to an exact understanding of rules, facts, etc.

Agreed. A 3rd country national needs to be extra careful to ensure they comply with all rules regarding residency as the consequences of any breach will be different from that of EU citizens, who naturally cannot be deported outside the Schengen zone. Unless they're Irish or Cypriot...

My source and credentials are below. Where are yours?

https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/...-ees-not-apply

Thanks.

I've had yet another skim through your source and I can't find any written statement to the effect that residents must avoid encountering a machine, even if directed to do so by airport staff. Maybe I've just overlooked it, in which case I'd be grateful if you could provide a relevant quote.

Or, on the other hand, if you're involved in some way professionally with Schengen border control, or have had a hand in the specification, design, testing or implementation of the system, perhaps that would lend a little more credence to your insistence. Post number 43 in this thread seems to indicate that at least at some airports, the machines are expected to cope with residents appropriately, which seems a reasonable enough solution.

It clearly states EES does not apply to:

• Holders of residence permits and long-stay visas.

If we take a look at the empirical evidence (Simon Calder's recording of the arrival process), we find residents are herded through the machine area with everyone else and must scan their passport and answer yes to the residency question on the machine. We don't see what happens afterwards for residents because he isn't a resident.

The residency option on the EES terminal is probably to filter people out. If EU residents who are non-EU nationals were supposed to go through EES, it would be clearly stated. It's not and in fact the opposite is stated.

What is stated is that 3rd country nationals resident in Schengen are not subject to EES.

Not being subject to EES means not having data used by EES collected and stored, in your case.

That does not preclude the possibility of a machine making the decision on whether you are or are not to be subject to having said data collected and stored, based on your responses to on-screen prompts.

None of the official literature so far published makes it explicitly clear that residents should avoid passing through the EES gates. The only thing I ever found which did, was an article published some time ago in The Local, which I posted a link to on here on a number of occasions, where the journalist had asked the question of the EU Commission and a spokesperson had got back to them saying residents should avoid using e-gates and seek out a border officer in a manual booth. That may or may not have been a matter that wasn't entirely settled at the time but in any case could have been superseded by subsequent developments in system design or implementation by now.

I'll be perfectly happy to do whatever's indicated by signage or airport staff whenever I first go through an airport operating the system. I'm sure I won't be the very first resident to do so and that any doubts about the process will have been settled by then.

One thing that could happen if you let the machine read your passport is that the info for this passport will be downloaded before you get to the passport booth. I don't know this happens for certain, but perhaps it would put the border agent in a slightly happier frame of mind if they don't have to wait around for the data to be downloaded at the booth.

Also, if you still somehow have the green A4/credit card-sized EU residency certificate, you will be subject to registration in EES.

It looks clear enough to me, non-EU nationals who are resident in the EU do not have to go through the EES process. Why look for problems and non-existent rules? If you're still not convinced, write to the EU for clarification, it's easy enough.

I pity anyone who does have to go through EES because the queues are horrendous apparently and it looks like a nightmare to me.

This link from Spanish Government web site seems clear to me that those of us legally resident in Spain with a TIE card issued with protection under the withdrawal agreement are totally exempt from EES system with regaeds entry to Spain.

https://www.inclusion.gob.es/en/w/re...rkers-in-spain

Is this because it takes way longer the first time someone registers and uses the system, so the process will be much quicker once a greater percentage of travellers are return visitors?

When I last came through Madrid ALL non EU passport holders had to queue to go to the EES machine and much like the video posted above asked the residency question. Maybe different ports operate differently but at least here residents do not avoid the queue (which wasn’t that long anyway).

If you follow the links in post 42, you will see that it was reported that the Spanish authorities had said that residents will NEED to go through the EES gates.