Eurostar’s impressive iProov.me scheme let me bypass UK passport control (and all queues)

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• Paul says:

  14 Dec14 December 07:30

  “That’s it. Your entire British passport check has been replaced by walking through a door.“

  This sounds like another unnecessary check and a typical queue creation process! With hand baggage only I undergo no check till I get to the gate. A check that would be wholly unnecessary if I cleared passport control before boarding.

  What am I missing?

  • Rob says:

    14 Dec14 December 07:46

    As noted elsewhere, airlines clear your passport for the exit check when you check in. Eurostar does not because you don’t submit passport data. This simply levels up Eurostar with the airlines.

  • JDB says:

    14 Dec14 December 07:48

    The gate check is different; it’s checking ID name vs boarding card name. Centralised passport control or passport data transmission by airlines to immigration doesn’t obviate the need for gate checks.

  • L Allen says:

    14 Dec14 December 09:26

    Agreed – there are no passport checks required to leave the UK. Passport checks are required to (a) check the person boarding is the same as the person on the ticket and (b) check the person travelling has the right to enter the country they’re heading to.

• Andrew J says:

  14 Dec14 December 07:55

  Would it not be simpler for Eurostar to just adopt the same approach as airlines and not need a U.K. exit check?

  • Rob says:

    14 Dec14 December 08:08

    It then needs to collect passport data and do a check-in process. Now it is like any other raul company. Buy a ticket and turn up.

  • NFH says:

    14 Dec14 December 08:08

    You mean advance passenger information? For example, Eurotunnel both requests advance passenger information and conducts UK exit controls.

• Brian P says:

  14 Dec14 December 08:00

  Surely you needed NFC turned on not Bluetooth? Is this an iPhone thing where they are both controlled by the same button? (Separate on my android).

  Ps. Typo: I don’t why, but those are the rules.

  • Rob says:

    14 Dec14 December 08:05

    Possibly. I used an iPhone.

• Matty says:

  14 Dec14 December 08:25

  There’s hope for Ashford and Ebbsfleet then?

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    14 Dec14 December 08:29

    Only if the French supply immigration officers!

    And even with this system they’ll still need UKBF because not everyone will be able to use apps like this.

    And Eurostar will need employ staff and the security screening equipment which given its not been used for a few years is likely to need some heavy maintenance.

• Nick Burch says:

  14 Dec14 December 09:42

  I believe the “Reconfirm your trip in the iProov app” thing is what actually pushes your details down to the gates.

  They don’t want the gates to be storing the details of loads of people who have tickets but who aren’t intending to travel / have changed their ticket to a different date / etc, as the gate can only do speedy matches if it has a short list of possible people to check again.

  • JDB says:

    14 Dec14 December 10:21

    Agree re not wanting to (or being permitted to) store unwanted data, but I think you may be imagining they are using an old Amstrad to match tickets to ID! Trains in China are now ticketless – your ID card is your train ticket and it works instantly; they must have to comb quite a few records!

    • Anouj says:

      14 Dec14 December 11:01

      the difference here is they are using facial recognition, so reducing the amount of faces to compare against may either speed up the process or increase the accuracy to satisfy security requirements

      • daveinitalia says:

        14 Dec14 December 11:19

        Heathrow used to have a system called IRIS which used an iris scan to admit you into the country. You didn’t need to show your passport or any other form of ID, it just did the iris check and then would let you through.

        This was over 10 years ago so computing power was more limited

        • Jovan says:

          14 Dec14 December 12:38

          Not just Heathrow, but several UK airports. But it only worked for those who registered, so it was a smaller set of data.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          14 Dec14 December 15:25

          But part of the registration was submitting your passport details!

    • Bagoly says:

      14 Dec14 December 11:20

      That was my first thought, but
      a) they are presumably storing images, not just data, so *100 for size
      b) “industrial” machinery seems to typically get specified with surprisingly small amounts of memory
      c) there is a valid cyber-security concern that data on remote machinery is less well defended, so having only 1 day’s worth outside the data-centre is appropriate risk mitigation (possibly not something considered important in China?)

• Chas says:

  14 Dec14 December 09:57

  I was invited by to use iProov at least a couple of years ago, possibly even pre-Covid (e-mail received from Eurostar when travelling Standard Premier), and had issues receiving my points afterwards. The gate wouldn’t automatically let me through (reading a comment above this is possibly because I arrived >90 mins ahead of departure), so a member of staff did a quick check and let me through manually. This seems to have caused the issue, as Eurostar’s systems essentially showed that I didn’t travel on the outbound, hence no points. It took a few chases to get them awarded. If you have a similar issue, it’s worth double-checking that your points have been correctly updated.

  It was only when reading the comments to Sinead’s article (unfortunately just after my last Eurostar trip), that I realised that you didn’t have to be invited to use iProov. Shame, as I’ve had loads of trips in the intervening period, and I’ve got another 4 months until my next one.

• paul-uk says:

  14 Dec14 December 10:25

  ah, how wonderful technology is, until it isn’t – my wife has spent many lost minutes having to queue at Passport Control upon returning the the UK.

  We believed there was a fault with her passport keep rejecting her at the face scanning entry point – but she renewed her passport and the issue continues – not just occasionally but EVERY time we return to the UK.

  Meanwhile, I whisk my way thru the face scanner only to stand there waiting for her.

  There must be some way to get it sorted but when we questioned it recently we were simply fobbed off with “ah there must be someone else with her name on a watch list” which I find hard to believe given her actual name/surname.

  Back on topic – who actually owns/operates Iproov.me? and when can we expect Data to be stolen followed by a generic “oh we are sorry” some 6 months after it happened.

  • Bagoly says:

    14 Dec14 December 11:26

    Did she use a different photo for renewal passport?
    If you are thinking name is rare because foreign, or cross-cultural, the watch list may be based on international sharing.
    Or on some pattern-matching not obvious to humans.
    Or on some transformation which has been used by bad actors.

    But whatever the cause, a good example of how it becomes an absolute nightmare to get rare issues fixed once everything is computerised.

  • lumma says:

    14 Dec14 December 17:20

    The issue with the UK Egates is that they don’t tell you what the problem is. It can be that you’re not holding the passport correctly in the reader, dirt on the id page, change of appearance since the photo (I’ve heard men who were clean shaven in the photo, now with beards getting refused) or not standing in the correct place and looking at the camera. If on the screen you see your face come up and it rejects you, I believe it’s basically saying you’re not a total match and they want a human to confirm everything.

  • acewoking says:

    14 Dec14 December 20:45

    My wife also has a problem in having a face that they don’t think is a face

• HertsSam says:

  14 Dec14 December 11:43

  Does iProov or Eurostar check the expiry date of your passport to ensure you are allowed to enter your destination country?
  If so, at what point from booking onwards are you told?
  If there will be a problem are you allowed to change the journey or the passport?

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    14 Dec14 December 12:17

    That’s down to you to check.

    • PeteM says:

      14 Dec14 December 12:52

      Well you’d be told at the next step at StP – the French border police check.

      • HertsSam says:

        14 Dec14 December 14:29

        Thanks. I asked because every so often I read where gate staff of a LCC (usually) deny boarding to a passenger.

        • Rob says:

          14 Dec14 December 15:27

          That’s because the airline gets a huge fine for delivering passengers without the correct documentation due to the hassle of repatriating people. Not an issue with Eurostar obviously.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          14 Dec14 December 15:28

          But the whole point of you being responsible and checking in advance is so checkin / gate staff don’t deny you boarding because your document is invalid for travel.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          14 Dec14 December 15:29

          And can get a new passport prior to travel so you don’t lose your flight / holiday

  • George W says:

    18 Dec18 December 17:37

    I just signed up/ did the onboarding. The app now clearly states my passport expiry date. But as others say, the onus will be on you.

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