# E-gate card troubles



## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Anyone having issues with their e-gate cards lately?

I renewed my e-gate mid last year and since then it's only worked properly once. Every single damn time the fingerprints are rejected. I always complain to the customs people but they are as useful as you expect them to be. 

Have people had their e-gate cards replaced due to faults in the card or fingerprints in the past?


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

Our worked fine as of last week. 

A couple of suggestions before you use them;

1. If coming in from outside, wipe your hands and remove all sweat from them. Moist hands don't give a good scan. 

2. If coming off a flight don't use hand cream on the flight. Dry hands are best. Sticky creamy hands are not good. 

3. Don't use the egates with replaced sensors. You can see the glass panel sticking up. I always avoid them. 

4. As soon as you are in the gate, shove your finger in the panel and don't wait for the prompt. Keep the finger down and don't be tempted to move it - I am reasonably sure that the scan is intermittent and Sod's law says it will scan just as you remove it. 

Final option - if you have an Emirates Skywards card, activate that for free and have your prints done again.


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## Chocoholic (Oct 29, 2012)

The major problem is people pushing too hard on the finger print sensor. It only needs to be lightly touched - I found this out from a helpful immigration guy.


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## Fat Bhoy Tim (Feb 28, 2013)

twowheelsgood said:


> our worked fine as of last week.
> 
> 
> 4. As soon as you are in the gate, shove your finger in the panel and don't wait for the prompt. Keep the finger down and don't be tempted to move it - i am reasonably sure that the scan is intermittent and sod's law says it will scan just as you remove it.


this


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Flying again in two weeks. Will give the above a try (already avoiding hand creams and lotions on the plane). Will remember not to press hard (that may have been the issue). And just keep the finger on the panel. Will update.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi,
In Abu Dhabi they now have a big row of new shiny E-gates that use passport and eyescan - instead of the plastic E-gate cards.
The new system is painless and much quicker than the old system (which I believe is being rapidly phased out).
We were enrolled into the new system when we checked in for a flight over Easter.
Cheers
Steve


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## Sunder (Mar 11, 2014)

TallyHo said:


> Anyone having issues with their e-gate cards lately?
> 
> I renewed my e-gate mid last year and since then it's only worked properly once. Every single damn time the fingerprints are rejected. I always complain to the customs people but they are as useful as you expect them to be.
> 
> Have people had their e-gate cards replaced due to faults in the card or fingerprints in the past?


I am using it since past 2 yrs and renewed its couple of weeks back. Working fine, leaving on Tuesday morning, so will keep you updated.
P.S. - Leaving from Terminal 1, DXB


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## Reddiva (Feb 24, 2016)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> In Abu Dhabi they now have a big row of new shiny E-gates that use passport and eyescan - instead of the plastic E-gate cards.
> The new system is painless and much quicker than the old system (which I believe is being rapidly phased out).
> We were enrolled into the new system when we checked in for a flight over Easter.
> ...


Terminal 3 Dubai have the smart gates I don't know about Terminal 1


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## jhmaeng (Mar 16, 2015)

No Smart Gates in T1 DXB - you can only use the e-gate card there. 

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi has discontinued e-gate cards altogether (as discussed in another thread) which means that you must register for the Smart Gate in order to continue enjoying the fast processing.

Signing up takes literally one minute at the AUH T1 sign-up desk. You have to enter the secure check-in area of Terminal 1 (just tell them you're registering for Smart Gate if asked), and look for the Smart Gate enrolment desk which is located in front of the Qatar Airways check-in counters. Just hand over your passport, look at the sensor as directed, then it's finished.

So the situation at the moment is as follows:

DXB T1: e-gate card only
DXB T3: e-gate card or Smart Gate
AUH: Smart Gate only


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## Fat Bhoy Tim (Feb 28, 2013)

Smart gates are great, but, but, but, but ... I don't want to stand in the same big queues as the proles.


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## Mambo21 (Mar 19, 2016)

Worked fine as of 7 hours ago at T3 (e-gate). I have the other problem though - dry hands. Even when registering, nice lady behind the counter gave me some hand moisturiser so sensor could pick up my prints before firmly reminding me that moisturising was important


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## Edino (Sep 22, 2013)

My e-gate card has not worked since the moment i renewed it last summer; access denied message. Been back to immigration near trade center 3 times now, and was assured there is no issue. Before renewal I used it for years without any trouble.


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## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

E-gate machines can be temperamental, but they almost always work eventually if you keep trying. The only place I regularly have issues is at DXB T2 Departures for reasons unknown since it works fine for everyone else, and Ras Al Khaimah departures where the machine has been broken for 2 years now.


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## Sunder (Mar 11, 2014)

I passed T1 today morning, E Gate didnt had issue my fingerptint had, I was first asked for my right hand thumb and it didnt recognize, then it asked for left hand thumb and it worked. This has happened for the first time for me.


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## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

Sunder said:


> I passed T1 today morning, E Gate didnt had issue my fingerptint had, I was first asked for my right hand thumb and it didnt recognize, then it asked for left hand thumb and it worked. This has happened for the first time for me.


It makes no difference which thumb you use. The system will match either thumbprint regardless of what it requested!


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## asharma0001 (Mar 21, 2014)

TallyHo said:


> Anyone having issues with their e-gate cards lately?
> 
> I renewed my e-gate mid last year and since then it's only worked properly once. Every single damn time the fingerprints are rejected. I always complain to the customs people but they are as useful as you expect them to be.
> 
> Have people had their e-gate cards replaced due to faults in the card or fingerprints in the past?


Mine has never worked. Same problem with fingerprints not working. I gave up after a few unsuccessful attempts.


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## Standanista (Sep 26, 2014)

I find the e-cards at DXB a bit hit and miss but I've not noticed them get particularly worse (or better) over the couple of years I've been here. Went through T2 at the weekend and it was fine both ways. Came into T1 last month and it wouldn't work, had to get the bloke in white to sort it.


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## Byja (Mar 3, 2013)

Standanista said:


> Went through T2 at the weekend and it was fine both ways. Came into T1 last month and it wouldn't work, had to get the bloke in white to sort it.


One would argue that egate at T2 is probably used 100 times less than at T1.


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Update:

E-gate at Sharjah Airport: following advice above I gently rested the fingertips on the scanner. It asked for the first finger, then for a second finger, and I got entry!

Return to Sharjah Airport: egate did not work. Access denied. Don't know if the gates were malfunctioning or not as no one else was using them.

Flying out of DXB this weekend as well. Will try the light touch method and see how it goes.

By the way, Sharjah airport is quite decent. Easy in, easy out, not crowded. Air Arabia was also a first for me and pleasantly surprised and bemused by the praise Allah message recording on the screen as we took off. I'd fly them again, seating was ever so slightly more spacious than Fly Dubai.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

TallyHo said:


> Update:
> 
> E-gate at Sharjah Airport: following advice above I gently rested the fingertips on the scanner. It asked for the first finger, then for a second finger, and I got entry!
> 
> ...


Hi,
Etihad also do a prayer for travellers before the flight - it's a nice touch.
Cheers
Steve


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Another update.

E-gate at Terminal 1 failed both exit and entry. Tried multiple times, both light touch and hard touch. The queue for the customs upon return was over a hour long due to a large intake of cabin crew. I spoke to the man in white about the broken e-gate card and he was actually sympathetic and told me to go up to the e-gate office to get a new card issued. At the e-gate office the woman in black was not sympathetic and kept telling me there was nothing wrong with the e-gate card. I told her it was the fingerprint that didn't work and hadn't really worked in six months except once or twice. She kept saying the fingerprints were fine according to her machine and I kept asking her why given that I fly out of DXB 3-4 times a month they have never worked. She finally gave me a new card with new fingerprints after I handed over another 320 AED. This time she told me the new card will only ask for the thumbs and never for the other fingers. Hmm....interesting.

Going to Qatar next week and will see if it works!


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## w_man (Apr 16, 2010)

Just traveled on Thurs. Left from T2 and came back from T1. E-gate worked fine both ways. I got my e-gate renewed about a month ago. But my e-gate has always worked - 5 years now - fingers crossed. Also, I have always been asked for thumbs - no other finger.


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## Felixtoo2 (Jan 16, 2009)

Came through T1 last night at midnight with a new card I got the week before. First E Gate opened but wouldn't close then asked for fingerprint without showing the fingerprint screen. 
The next three gates I tried told me my card had expired but finally thankfully one let me in, closed and worked as the queue was huge.


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## Edino (Sep 22, 2013)

TallyHo said:


> Another update.
> 
> E-gate at Terminal 1 failed both exit and entry. Tried multiple times, both light touch and hard touch. The queue for the customs upon return was over a hour long due to a large intake of cabin crew. I spoke to the man in white about the broken e-gate card and he was actually sympathetic and told me to go up to the e-gate office to get a new card issued. At the e-gate office the woman in black was not sympathetic and kept telling me there was nothing wrong with the e-gate card. I told her it was the fingerprint that didn't work and hadn't really worked in six months except once or twice. She kept saying the fingerprints were fine according to her machine and I kept asking her why given that I fly out of DXB 3-4 times a month they have never worked. She finally gave me a new card with new fingerprints after I handed over another 320 AED. This time she told me the new card will only ask for the thumbs and never for the other fingers. Hmm....interesting.
> 
> Going to Qatar next week and will see if it works!




The same with my card. Always entry denied message, no matter what I try. Nothing wrong could be found by the staff, and eventually they issued a new card.... only not to work again. I travel very frequently (weekly on average), and from the day they implemented egate, maybe 10 years ago, I have been using it successfully, until about 18 months ago when it suddenly showed always access denied... So lack of experience in handling the terminal is not the case. From one moment to the other I could not make successful entries/exits anymore. As I mostly fly Emirates, I now only use my electronic passport to get in, and for going out, I just go directly to the egate card counter to get a manual exit done. 

Its great to have all these electronic processes to make our live easier, but on the other hand when something goes wrong, you do not get proper support.


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Update. 

Flew out of DXB last Monday (first day of Ramadan) on Qatar airways for Doha. Terminal was amazingly empty. Nonetheless, the brand new e-gate card did not work (entry into the booth, but fingerprints denied). Upon return last Thursday same problem happened. It was also the first time ever that the (short) queue at the manual e-gate booth was longer than the normal customs queues, which were thoroughly empty. Ramadan effect?

Went back to the e-gate office upstairs. This time the man in white was genuinely friendly and joked about cutting off my thumbs and giving me new ones, and even offered me his own thumb (joke) and pressed his thumb against mine. We laughed. He scanned my fingerprints again.

Flying out towards the end of June. We'll see what happens.

I am beginning to wonder if the problem has to do with the egate scans of my thumbs/fingers? I used to never have problems with e-gate until about a year ago and when I thought about it, it overlapped with when I started applying Nivea moisturiser on my face daily (I have very dry skin and without the moisturiser red blotches form around my nose). Even though I was careful not to use moisturiser prior to e-gate, the daily nighttime moisturiser might be making the fingertips too oily for the egate to read?


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## Byja (Mar 3, 2013)

Flew out last Monday from T1, flew back on Thursday, again, T1. No problem with e-gate whatsoever.
Flying in couple of hours again, this time from T3.
The only advice that I can give is press right thumb against the fingerprint reader, no matter what the machine says. Every time it's asking for left thumb, and every time i press right, and it never fails.


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## Mambo21 (Mar 19, 2016)

e-gate didn't work flying out (end-May) and coming back last Friday (both T1). Added bonus was that officer on incoming said he couldn't find an outgoing stamp on my passport (I swear the outgoing guy stamped it :confused2. So word of caution to check for stamp if e-gate isn't working.
(finally got it sorted after 30min of bleary-eyed waiting after an overnight flight )


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## Sunder (Mar 11, 2014)

Left DXB at Terminal 1 on wednesday - E Gate worked fine but took some 15-30 seconds more to recognize my fingerprint.
Came back at terminal 3 on Thursday - E gate didnt work for the first time as it detected my carry on bag as an extra person  . Went again with the bag in my hand and was OK to go.


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

Sunder said:


> E gate didnt work for the first time as it detected my carry on bag as an extra person


A couple of years ago I saw a very large guy get stuck in the e-gate booth as he was so big his rear was obstructing the gate behind him and it wouldnt open unless he moved away from the gate - which he had to do as his fingerprint had failed.

A couple of the staff saw him and walked in the opposite direction .....


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## Standanista (Sep 26, 2014)

It's been a while that this thread got a post so I thought I'd liven it up again. 

Terminal 3 the Friday before Eid just gone: got error messages at both card and fingerprint stages but the gates opened up first time so through to the free grog in the lounge did I go, with a spring in my step.

Coming back this Friday night I had three goes at it, on a mix of gates, and failed the fingerprint each time. It ended up an Habibi job. All the glasses on the fingerprint machines looked like they'd had half a pound of goose fat or a tub of Brylcream smeared on them; there may have been a French chefs' convention or 1930s cricket team passing through. Maybe cleaning is the solution to improved reliability.


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## Redindxb43 (Mar 1, 2015)

Flew into Dubai to Term 1 on 27 August no problems with E Gate at all


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

Standanista said:


> It's been a while that this thread got a post so I thought I'd liven it up again.
> ...
> 
> Coming back this Friday night I had three goes at it, on a mix of gates, and failed the fingerprint each time. It ended up an Habibi job. All the glasses on the fingerprint machines looked like they'd had half a pound of goose fat or a tub of Brylcream smeared on them; there may have been a French chefs' convention or 1930s cricket team passing through. Maybe cleaning is the solution to improved reliability.


I wipe them off with a hanky or shirt tale if they look too gross. Seems to make them work better. 

I saw an announcement a month or so ago that your Emirates ID can be used as an E-gate at Terminal 3, I had a friend try it a couple of weeks ago with no luck. Anyone get it to work?

I now use my Emirates airline card as my E-gate and has worked well for the two trips so far. I've never had an issue in 4 years and travel a couple of times a month.


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## omar92 (Oct 8, 2013)

I've had E-gate for several years now, and until a few months ago, never ever used to work. Apparently, someone's name matches mine. It was very annoying-having to go to Jaffiliya HQ to get the E-gate issued (as airport and other offices couldn't issue mine), to be assured that E-gate would 'definitely' work, then never have it work. 
As I try to save space in my passport and avoid the long lines at the normal counters (especially Terminal 1), I would have to go through the E-gate machine and pretend I'm trying to use it, knowing full well I would get 'rejected' then go for manual processing. 
At the beginning of this year, was finally told that a new system was coming up, which would finally resolve the issue. I was honestly shocked when in March/April of this year E-gate finally began working for me-and I've had no issues ever since. 
Had a quick read through the thread, and it seems the transition to the new system or whatever may have caused issues for some, while resolving issues for others (like myself).


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## ski_instructor (Sep 23, 2016)

e-gates in Terminal 3 work fine with emirates ID card.
I had an emirates gate card before and was told, in future I can also use emirates ID.
Tried, and was admitted.
Big improvement


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## w_man (Apr 16, 2010)

ski_instructor said:


> e-gates in Terminal 3 work fine with emirates ID card.
> I had an emirates gate card before and was told, in future I can also use emirates ID.
> Tried, and was admitted.
> Big improvement


Did you register or had to do anything for your EID to work at the airport for e-gate? Or did it automatically start working at the machine?

My e-gate is expiring soon and was looking to renew but if it's not necessary, then :thumb:


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

w_man said:


> Did you register or had to do anything for your EID to work at the airport for e-gate? Or did it automatically start working at the machine?
> 
> My e-gate is expiring soon and was looking to renew but if it's not necessary, then :thumb:


I tried to get my ID to work Thursday but couldn't figure it out quickly so just used my Emirates Gold card.

_"The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) announced on Sunday that it has completed the activation of e-Gate service through the use of the Emirates ID, a service which requires no prior registration"_

Passengers with Emirates ID can now use e-gate at Dubai Airport Terminal 3 | GulfNews.com


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## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

On Monday this week there were some new kiosks in DXB T1 arrivals that they were redirecting people with Emirates IDs to. This is in addition to the regular legacy eGate kiosks on the extreme right of T1 arrivals.


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

sm105 said:


> On Monday this week there were some new kiosks in DXB T1 arrivals that they were redirecting people with Emirates IDs to. This is in addition to the regular legacy eGate kiosks on the extreme right of T1 arrivals.


..And it has been working on T3 arrivals for a while - no pre registration needed


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## Simey (Dec 4, 2012)

I've tried using my Emirates ID at the e-gates. It doesn't work at all. The gate would not even open. 

Does anyone know if there is somewhere I can go to troubleshoot it?

If not, I may just activate my gold card or renew my old e-gate card, but it's annoying if this isn't supposed to be necessary.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Simey said:


> I've tried using my Emirates ID at the e-gates. It doesn't work at all. The gate would not even open.
> 
> Does anyone know if there is somewhere I can go to troubleshoot it?
> 
> If not, I may just activate my gold card or renew my old e-gate card, but it's annoying if this isn't supposed to be necessary.


Hi,
I came in and out of DWC last week and my e-gate card had been disabled (presume they don't work anymore) - then I used my Emirates ID (had to slide it in and out of card reader - instead of holding it above like the e-gate card) and it worked fine.
System asked me for same fingers as it did for the e-gate card - to verify the fingerprints.
Abu Dhabi system is so much better - with the passport and iris scan.
Cheers
Steve


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## Simey (Dec 4, 2012)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> I came in and out of DWC last week and my e-gate card had been disabled (presume they don't work anymore) - then I used my Emirates ID (had to slide it in and out of card reader - instead of holding it above like the e-gate card) and it worked fine.
> System asked me for same fingers as it did for the e-gate card - to verify the fingerprints.
> Abu Dhabi system is so much better - with the passport and iris scan.
> ...


Yes I know it is _supposed_ to work like that, but for me it didn't. Nobody there seemed to know how this can be corrected. When I said it didn't work, they just grabbed my passport and stamped it. 

It's too bad. The egate card worked well for me for years. 

Does anyone have any ideas?


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

Simey said:


> The egate card worked well for me for years.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas?


E-Fate cards (the blue/white ones) only last two years and the Emirates Skywards cards last a single year.

Which type is your problem one ?


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## Simey (Dec 4, 2012)

twowheelsgood said:


> E-Fate cards (the blue/white ones) only last two years and the Emirates Skywards cards last a single year.
> 
> Which type is your problem one ?


Thanks. My Emirates ID is the one that doesn't work. 

My e-gate expired and I have not yet registered a gold card.


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

Simey said:


> Thanks. My Emirates ID is the one that doesn't work.
> 
> My e-gate expired and I have not yet registered a gold card.


Plenty of EiD's dont work - mine doesnt and never has. But as I have a Emirates Gold Card, its not an issue.


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## Simey (Dec 4, 2012)

twowheelsgood said:


> Plenty of EiD's dont work - mine doesnt and never has. But as I have a Emirates Gold Card, its not an issue.


I guess I will have to get the gold card activated. Thanks.


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