Is there issue with French passport machines reading US passports?
Some passport owners report difficulties with chip being read
Issues have been reported at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport
1000 Words/Shutterstock
Reader Question: I travelled to Paris from New York last summer and my US passport did not scan at the e-gate. I and several passengers instead had to have our passports physically checked. Do you know why this is? Is it related to EES?
As you travelled last summer (2025) this was prior to the start of the new EES digital borders checks, so it will not have been related to that, and is more likely to be due to the manufacturing of the passport itself.
Issues have been reported at a number of airports, including Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, related to ‘next generation passports’ issued in the US since 2021.
These passports have a “polycarbonate, multi-layered plastic, data page” says the US Department of State website, alongside a chip in the passport that can be scanned by other devices. They are the default passport type for all documents being renewed.
People online have reported for several years that their new passports of this type do not work with certain e-gates – or that they have faced difficulty at certain e-gates – an issue most likely related to the chips inside the passports.
Others have reported online that they also face difficulty scanning the chips of these passports on smartphones or other devices, sometimes required when using apps such as for the UK’s ETA travel authorisation or the new ‘Travel to Europe’ app (used in relation to EES in Sweden and Portugal).
These issues seem to be sporadic, however.
The US Department of State website says that “if the chip fails, the passport remains a valid travel document until its expiration date. You will continue to be processed by the port-of-entry officer as if you had a passport without a chip.”
This involves manual scanning of passports by border officials, as you experienced.
If necessary, you could contact the authority that issued your passport (in the US, this is the Department of State) to see if they have a solution.
Effects of EES
Having said this, people travelling since the phased start of EES began on October 12, are liable to also have had issues that are related to this.
There were reports, during the winter, of airport e-gates being in many cases entirely out of action, due to technical work linked to making them compatible with EES.
We understand that they are now widely back in use at the large airports where they exist and may in some cases be used by some non-EU nationals, such as Britons and Americans, who are making short visits to France or other EU countries and who are registered in EES.
In the latter case, however, these travellers do also need to visit an EES kiosk - and these are currently widely inoperative.
The start of EES also caused non-EU nationals living in France, such as Britons and Americans, to no longer be able to use the e-gates as the gates were not able to recognise the fact that they are legal residents in the EU and not subject to EES.
A solution was said to be being sought for this, but to our knowledge it is still not possible, thus non-EU nationals who live in France and are travelling out of the EU will in most cases need to pass via a border guard’s booth, not use an e-gate.
