A computer glitch in Rome nearly had a traveller deported from a country they'd already left. The culprit is the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES), the digital border scheme that replaced passport stamps across the Schengen Area — and, by many accounts, isn't working as advertised.

The writer discovered the problem only by accident, while plugging hypothetical dates into the EU's official trip-planning tool. It flagged their plans as "not OK": according to EES, they were still in Italy, months after their June departure, because immigration there had never logged their exit. That pushed them past the 90-days-in-180 limit allowed for Australian visitors. The fix — requesting a correction through the Italian National Police — could take 30 days. Their flight was in a week.

Rather than cancel, they prepped for battle. That meant digging out boarding passes and itineraries from earlier European trips, plus a US Customs and Border Protection immigration record proving they'd been in America after leaving Italy. Old boarding passes, it turns out, are worth keeping for exactly this kind of mess.

The showdown happened in Brussels — fittingly, the EES system's birthplace — after a 41-minute hop from Heathrow. What followed was a two-and-a-half-hour queue at passport control, where everyone without an EU passport funnels into the same line, whether they're new to EES or already enrolled. Morale in the queue stayed surprisingly high: strangers shared snacks, someone calculated it might've been faster to drive from London, and the broken self-service kiosks provided comedy — one displayed an error about being unable to find its error message, another was trying to print to a fax machine that didn't exist.

At the counter, the preparation paid off. The officer acknowledged the issue instantly, fixed the record on the spot, and vented his own frustrations: "This keeps happening. This is why the line is so long."

There are two clear lessons for anyone heading to Europe without an EU passport. First, check your own Schengen status before you fly — the EU's official website tool will tell you if your dates look non-compliant, and a phantom overstay on your file could mean being refused entry or worse. A British traveller has reportedly already been turned around and deported from Italy over a missing record that wasn't their fault. Second, if something does look wrong, build a paper trail: boarding passes, itineraries, and third-country immigration records can prove where you actually were. And if you can, enter through a quieter airport to dodge the worst queues. Pack water and snacks, too — two-plus hours standing in line is no joke.

The story also lands a quieter punchline: after all that border drama, the writer's checked bag ended up cycling on a belt labelled for an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi, nowhere near its rightful owner. Listen to the baggage announcement on the plane, folks.

This is essential reading for anyone planning a European trip from Australia, the UK or any visa-waiver country — a few minutes of homework before departure could save your holiday.