Entry to France via Roscoff

Lightwave395

Lightwave395

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A bit of information to perhaps bear in mind:
It has been very easy to get in / out entry stamps in recent times from the Brittany Ferries PAF office next door to Roscoff marina.
The PAF seem to be getting a little peeved about the number of yachtie Brit's appearing at their offices demanding entry stamps. There is a notice in the Capitainerie window now with instructions to email your PAF form and then call the number given to make an appointment. Talking to a UK crew trying to get exit stamps at the weekend they were given a hard time and without one of their crew being fluent in French might have had to wait a while, which with the bad weather closing in would have been a problem for them.
 
Thanks for the update.

That doesn’t surprise me. We had a very pleasant conversation with them as we asked to be ‘booked out’ but they were very busy with an incoming Ferry and it was obviously an inconvenience for them as additional work.

Although they did everything and sent us on our way, they did inform us that we should have gone to the Capitainerie OF THE PORT - not the Marina - to do the paperwork and get an appointment.

It was early season and there was no malice at all but I could see that, as more Brits just ‘pop across to the Ferry booths’, it could become quite annoying for them…

We’ll probably enter via St Malo on the way back which will be different again - so I’ll be keeping an eye on any St Malo interactions in the meantime with great interest…
 
A good resource for info on ports in Brittany and Normandy and the relevant post Brexit forms and requirements is Marinas – digimap.gg a free resource.

AFAIK they want your form by email 48 hours in advance and they will give you a meeting time.
 
Bandit said:
AFAIK they want your form by email 48 hours in advance and they will give you a meeting time.
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It would be great to know 48 hours in advance whether I'd even be sailing, let alone where I might end up. I think they're just going to have to deal with people turning up, and if that means passing on the costs to us Brits then so be it. Apparently we voted for this nonsense!
 
lustyd said:
I think they're just going to have to deal with people turning up, and if that means passing on the costs to us Brits then so be it.
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I don't think the French (or any other state authorities) 'just have to deal with us' on our terms.

I think it more likely we are just going to have to deal with them turning us away at times, and putting up with the delay and other consequences, and perhaps sometimes even having to 'skip the country' without being checked out due to force of circumstances (and then face possible serious consequences - e.g running out of 'clocked' 90 days in the EU - further down the line).
 
I don't see why they would turn people away, the purpose of the office is to check people in and out of the country. If people are at that office with the relevant documents then there's no good reason not to process them. If that means they're busy they can choose to increase capacity or increase queues. I can't imagine what would happen if they refused to process someone, given that someone is already in the country, it would probably lead to more people taking their chances and not bothering to check in at all. It's not like you have to show your papers every 5 minutes even after checking in.
 
I found them very helpful when we entered and exited via Roscoff this summer. We sent the form as we set off to go to Roscoff and got an appointment for the next day and on the way out we got an appointment for the evening before our departure. Interestingly, it is the Douanes rather than the PAF who administer the process at Roscoff because it is a low risk port. The reason why the forms have to be sent in advance is to allow them to run the checks on you before they check you in in the same way that they would with a ferry passenger list. It doesn't seem unreasonable.
 
riverteign said:
I found them very helpful when we entered and exited via Roscoff this summer. We sent the form as we set off to go to Roscoff and got an appointment for the next day and on the way out we got an appointment for the evening before our departure. Interestingly, it is the Douanes rather than the PAF who administer the process at Roscoff because it is a low risk port. The reason why the forms have to be sent in advance is to allow them to run the checks on you before they check you in in the same way that they would with a ferry passenger list. It doesn't seem unreasonable.
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The Roscoff q is > 2 years old and things changed regarding the PAF/non PPF this year. It will change again in November.

My reply was to the more recent q about dogs.
 
It's my understanding that the French will be introducing a 'new procedure' next year. It's as per the 'secondary port' procedure, but for all ports, email the PAF to the marina, they forward it to Customs to be stamped, marina give / email it to you, both for entry and exit.
 
MontyMariner said:
It's my understanding that the French will be introducing a 'new procedure' next year. It's as per the 'secondary port' procedure, but for all ports, email the PAF to the marina, they forward it to Customs to be stamped, marina give / email it to you, both for entry and exit.
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The new EU EES biometric entry is due to start soon. How will an iris scan be done via email?
 
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