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The head of Eurotunnel has insisted there will be no long queues of cars at its terminals when a new EU travel system begins in October.
Brits traveling to and from Europe will need to register fingerprints and a photo at the border, prompting warnings of delays.
Eurotunnel chief executive Yann Leriche said journeys would take five to seven minutes longer, but extra lanes and technology mean the process will run smoothly.
The BBC has the first look at the new machines that people will need to use in Folkestone or Calais.
At the port of Dover, the Eurostar St Pancras terminal and the Eurotunnel in Folkestone, French border police check passports as people leave the UK.
The EU’s long-delayed Entry and Exit System, or EES, will replace manual passport stamping.
Citizens of countries outside the bloc, including the UK, will need to register their biometric information.
As a result, there have been repeated warnings of queues and calls for the EES launch to be postponed again.
There were hopes that an application being developed by the EU could allow part of the registration to be done from home, but it is not expected to be ready for use in October.
At Eurotunnel’s facilities in Folkestone and Calais, we saw how the company that operates transport of vehicles and goods through the Channel Tunnel has prepared for the new system.
The equivalent of £70 million is being spent on building processing zones, where people will queue in their cars to use vending machines.
Yann Leriche, chief executive of Eurotunnel operator Getlink, told the BBC that travelers “simply [get] get out of the car, spend a few minutes at the kiosks, get back in the car and continue the journey.”
He said it would take “an extra five to seven minutes to get through” but added “because we have expanded the number of lanes, there will be no delay on the highway, nothing. This will happen very smoothly.”
The company will recruit 140 new employees to serve passengers.
I tried one of the prototype machines that Eurotunnel will use in its terminals.
First, my passport was scanned.
Then the camera took a photo of my face.
I was then asked to place my right hand on another scanning pad, which recorded my fingerprints.
There followed a series of questions about my touchscreen journey, to which I had to answer “yes” or “no”.
At the Port of Dover the plan is a little different.
Port employees will have iPads for car passengers to record their information.
Buses will be processed off-site at Western Docks, with electronic gates or kiosks.
Monday marks 30 years since Queen Elizabeth II and President Mitterand attended the official opening event of the Channel Tunnel.
Paying passengers had to wait several months longer to travel on Eurostar trains.
The tunnel opened £2 billion over budget. The company that operated it almost went bankrupt at one point, but it later became profitable and services through the tunnel endured.
With the end of the pandemic and preparations underway for the introduction of the EES, Getlink boss Mr Leriche wants to see an increasing number of trains passing through the tunnel.
Eurostar, a separate company from Eurotunnel, operates passenger services from London St Pancras via the Channel Tunnel to Paris and beyond. Since the tunnel opened, it has been the only operator to do so.
Now, there is talk of the emergence of rival operators.
Leriche said: “We are confident that in the next 10 years there will be a doubling of the direct link between London and Europe.”
