French Customs Clearance

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Newbroom

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Hi Hope somebody can help

I came back from France yesterday the British entry was completed by SPCR.

Leaving from Dives Sur Mer France, a non PPF one of the 53 French ports able to handle customs clearance.

I filled in the French Document Formulaire -immigration and handed it to the harbour master who stamped it and emailed it to customs.

We then departed for England the next morning,
The thing is non of our passports have been stamped with our departure from the schengen area. Is this going to cause a problem in the future. If so how do I go about mine and crews passports stamped .

Customs in this country cannot help and the French do not seem to know about the there own scheme.
 
On our last trip to Dunkerque advised vital that both arrival and departure dates were stamped in passports.
 
Newbroom said:
Hi Hope somebody can help

I came back from France yesterday the British entry was completed by SPCR.

Leaving from Dives Sur Mer France, a non PPF one of the 53 French ports able to handle customs clearance.

I filled in the French Document Formulaire -immigration and handed it to the harbour master who stamped it and emailed it to customs.

We then departed for England the next morning,
The thing is non of our passports have been stamped with our departure from the schengen area. Is this going to cause a problem in the future. If so how do I go about mine and crews passports stamped .

Customs in this country cannot help and the French do not seem to know about the there own scheme.
Click to expand...
At the moment, yes, it could be an issue. EU passport officials check the stamps a matching number of entry and exit. Did you enter at a PAF site and leave at a non-PAF site? That is specifically not allowed in the non-PAF scheme.
 
I assume any checking of your little stamps is done electronically otherwise when you land the border control would spend ages checking the stamps - I haven’t counted how many stamps we have but if you are making frequent trips to canaries say to your villa etc or boat it will get fairly crowded. The last time we had this issue was getting a stamp on leaving st Malo for crew which had arrived by ferry but they might have solved this one by now.
 
ashtead said:
I assume any checking of your little stamps is done electronically otherwise when you land the border control would spend ages checking the stamps - I haven’t counted how many stamps we have but if you are making frequent trips to canaries say to your villa etc or boat it will get fairly crowded. The last time we had this issue was getting a stamp on leaving st Malo for crew which had arrived by ferry but they might have solved this one by now.
Click to expand...
You assume wrong. At present there's no EU wide computer system - that rolls out from the end of this month until April.

The situation you describe is different. St Malo is a PAF port, so they can get stamped out there. The OP describes arriving at a PAF port and leaving from a non-PAF port.
 
ashtead said:
I assume any checking of your little stamps is done electronically otherwise when you land the border control would spend ages checking the stamps - I haven’t counted how many stamps we have but if you are making frequent trips to canaries say to your villa etc or boat it will get fairly crowded. The last time we had this issue was getting a stamp on leaving st Malo for crew which had arrived by ferry but they might have solved this one by now.
Click to expand...
Stamps are checked manually.
 
Newbroom said:
Hi Hope somebody can help

I came back from France yesterday the British entry was completed by SPCR.

Leaving from Dives Sur Mer France, a non PPF one of the 53 French ports able to handle customs clearance.

I filled in the French Document Formulaire -immigration and handed it to the harbour master who stamped it and emailed it to customs.

We then departed for England the next morning,
The thing is non of our passports have been stamped with our departure from the schengen area. Is this going to cause a problem in the future. If so how do I go about mine and crews passports stamped .

Customs in this country cannot help and the French do not seem to know about the there own scheme.
Click to expand...
I know that the Canary Islands have historically been very lax about passport stamping and it's not been a big deal for people.

In your case, I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep a manual record and whatever other proof you can muster. I suspect customs officers will have enough to worry about with the impending introduction of EES.
 
The problem is that an officious check could lead to an accusation of overstaying, that's hard to overcome. The only proof they accept is the stamp, a few on this forum have actually had to go back to get it sorted.
 
What was your port of entry when you entered France ? Was it a secondary port who processed your customs form without getting your passport stamped or did you enter via a major port and have had passport stamped on entry ?
We regularly enter/exit France but now always use the secondary ports who process customs clearance via email to avoid the hassle of turning up at say St Malo , a major port , where stamping is necessary and involves a trip to the ferry terminal and the customs office
Cheers
Tetleys
 
jfm said:
Just jump on a plane to say Nice for the day or for a weekend. Then you’ll get a fresh outbound stamp. Ideally before October 12th.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the small thread drift.
I am planning on going to Spain for a week on the 11th October 2025 and returning on the 18th October 2025.
It seem that EES starts on the 12th October - the day after I arrive in a Schengen country.
I have flights booked to/from one of the smaller Spanish airports.

Am I likely to encounter any issues.
Will I have to register etc.
 
Hurricane said:
Sorry for the small thread drift.
I am planning on going to Spain for a week on the 11th October 2025 and returning on the 18th October 2025.
It seem that EES starts on the 12th October - the day after I arrive in a Schengen country.
I have flights booked to/from one of the smaller Spanish airports.

Am I likely to encounter any issues.
Will I have to register etc.
Click to expand...
The 6 months roll out starts on 12th. So probably not this time, but in the near future expect to lodge fingerprint data in the system and enroll on the automatic tracking of time in Schengen.
 
st599 said:
The 6 months roll out starts on 12th. So probably not this time, but in the near future expect to lodge fingerprint data in the system and enroll on the automatic tracking of time in Schengen.
Click to expand...
This link EU Entry/Exit System indicates that you enrol the first time that you use it - and then again 3 years later.
When EES is introduced, you may need to create a digital record on your first visit to the Schengen area at the port or airport on arrival. You will need to submit your fingerprints and have your photo taken at dedicated booths.

Not to be confused with ETIAS which is the visa that we will also have to have - I believe that there will be a small fee for that one.
As I understand, currently, we (UK residents) get our Schengen visa automatically but when ETIAS comes along, we will have to apply for it.
 
Maybe I’m being overly simple but based on time taken in canaries I just don’t see that any manual check is performed on each entry stamp and to do so would be a massive waste of time -maybe they can read faster than me but my passport is becoming cluttered with these eu stamps and nowhere near 10 years old yet.
 
ashtead said:
Maybe I’m being overly simple but based on time taken in canaries I just don’t see that any manual check is performed on each entry stamp and to do so would be a massive waste of time -maybe they can read faster than me but my passport is becoming cluttered with these eu stamps and nowhere near 10 years old yet.
Click to expand...
Virtually every time I enter and leave Spain, the border people always scan my passport as well as stamping it.
I always thought that the scanning process checks the dates as well as the stamps.
EES will definitely do that and maybe we won't use up all those pages in our passports.
 
Hurricane said:
This link EU Entry/Exit System indicates that you enrol the first time that you use it - and then again 3 years later.
When EES is introduced, you may need to create a digital record on your first visit to the Schengen area at the port or airport on arrival. You will need to submit your fingerprints and have your photo taken at dedicated booths.

Not to be confused with ETIAS which is the visa that we will also have to have - I believe that there will be a small fee for that one.
As I understand, currently, we (UK residents) get our Schengen visa automatically but when ETIAS comes along, we will have to apply for it.
Click to expand...
Yes, you enroll on the system the first time you use it, then you use the biometric scanners for entry.
 
ashtead said:
Maybe I’m being overly simple but based on time taken in canaries I just don’t see that any manual check is performed on each entry stamp and to do so would be a massive waste of time -maybe they can read faster than me but my passport is becoming cluttered with these eu stamps and nowhere near 10 years old yet.
Click to expand...
At the moment each country has it's own system, so they can see entries and exits to their country - but to calculate time spent in Schengen, they look at stamps.

That changes later this month.
 
This might reduce the number of relevant stamps I can see by being country specific so for example when landing in canaries they ignore any French stamps but the passports of many will soon become crowded with stamps to actually allow time for counting but agree new IT systems seem to be arriving at say Pancras station for a further delayed process on role out I guess but I just wonder how widespread this system of biometrics will be at French ports surely given history to date on stamps.
 
tetleys said:
What was your port of entry when you entered France ? Was it a secondary port who processed your customs form without getting your passport stamped or did you enter via a major port and have had passport stamped on entry ?
We regularly enter/exit France but now always use the secondary ports who process customs clearance via email to avoid the hassle of turning up at say St Malo , a major port , where stamping is necessary and involves a trip to the ferry terminal and the customs office
Cheers
Tetleys
Click to expand...
It was a major port, we came over by ferry to Calais and my passport was stamped on entry. I kept my boat in Nieuwpoort for the last 2 years. The boat was last in the UK on May of this year where we had a run over to Ramsgate before returning to Dunkirk and then Nieuwpoort.
I tried to contact French customs on about six different telephone number. There was no answer on any of them. Dives Sur Mer is now one of the non PAF ports.
Reading through Reeds 2025 alamanack was the details of the PAF scheme. Which I followed with the help of the harbour master. The form was completed signed and stamped by the harbour master and E mailed to customs. No where in Reeds or on the French customs form did it say you couldnt enter at PAF port and leave at Non PAF port.
I will try to telephone the French customs help line tomorrow.
 
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