Ports of Entry

[Baggywrinkle]

Strange interpretation. To prevent 90 days running out you need to let the rEU system know you left. Telling UK. you arrived back does nothing in that regard.

You are indeed right, it's the leaving that is most important to have logged.

I have a good friend who got detained by US Immigration on entry. They claimed he overstayed a previous visa even though he had left the US in good time, by road, over the Canadian border. The US had failed to record the exit on their computer system and it was only his Canadian stamp in his passport that got him released - belt and braces.

Always check-out and check-in. ?

 

[LadyInBed]

But keep the ganga down to a few kilos & you can claim it is for personal use, so you should be ok anyway.
If they say anything about class "A" just say that you look for that label because you wanted to ensure that you got good quality for your kids

That's given me an idea for those radar reflectors that look like fenders, fill it with a few kilos and hoist it up the mast. I wonder what the sniffer dogs would make of that!

 

[eddystone]

So if one goes from , say, St Peter Port, one cannot go straight to Lezardrieux, Treguier, or Treburden, but must go to Granville, St Malo or Roscoff first.
have I got that correct?
I ask, because I often enjoy those destinations before heading westwards & logging out of the EU before going to the CIs ( assuming coming from Cherbourg first) prevents those days in St PP contributing to the 90 day rule.

That would be a deal breaker for me unless L'Aberwrach is a port of entry allowing Plymouth - L'Aberwrach - work back eastwards. If had to go to Roscoff first just wouldn't bother.

 

[Beneteau381]

I think people have been ME ME ing for quite a while now. It has nothing to do with the latest political events.
More one of the introduction of rights of the individual to do as they please-- regardless of consideration for others- Became more prevalent 40 - 50 years ago--
About the time we joined the EU

Ithought it became more pronounced again when Tony Bliar bamboozled the nation with his lies and politisization of the Establishment.

 

[Daydream believer]

That would be a deal breaker for me unless L'Aberwrach is a port of entry allowing Plymouth - L'Aberwrach - work back eastwards. If had to go to Roscoff first just wouldn't bother.

L'aberwrach Roscoff works Ok for tides and Roscoff St PP at 70 miles makes a nice trip for me, so I would not mind if heading east. But not sure about doing CI's then the nicer local french ports when heading west .
Would one need to book in and out of France if one could produce the port charges at st PP proving one had been there for a few days?
ie going from Chebourg to Roscoff via CI's

 

[eddystone]

L'aberwrach Roscoff works Ok for tides and Roscoff St PP at 70 miles makes a nice trip for me, so I would not mind if heading east. But not sure about doing CI's then the nicer local french ports when heading west .
Would one need to book in and out of France if one could produce the port charges at st PP proving one had been there for a few days?
ie going from Chebourg to Roscoff via CI's

Thinking about it a bit more, the sort of places that are ports of entry might actually be wiser/less stressful arrival points after cross channel trip - I've not been to Roscoff other than on a ferry but perhaps a better starting point for proceeding eastwards.

 

[Sea Devil]

L'aberwrach Roscoff works Ok for tides and Roscoff St PP at 70 miles makes a nice trip for me, so I would not mind if heading east. But not sure about doing CI's then the nicer local french ports when heading west .
Would one need to book in and out of France if one could produce the port charges at st PP proving one had been there for a few days?
ie going from Chebourg to Roscoff via CI's

My suspicion is that when you check out of a French port they will scan your passport and that automatically logs date and time. So you would need to be able to explain why you took so long,,, Also you will need to check into the CI if coming from a foreign French port and if you have not checked out....
Years ago in the Caribbean if you failed to clear out of an island when you got to the next island they would send you back to get your practique!
I spent some time in the Caribbean clearing in and out of different islands and although a bit time consuming one became used to it. I imagine that once you have cleared into a French or EU port then provided you stay in EU waters it will not be necessary to contact officials again.
In Spain the marinas are required to make you fill out a form on arrival stating last port etc and these are handed to the customs and immigration each evening... I discovered once i had been logged from Henadaye on North French Coast all the way to Balearic islands. Quite impressive technology!

 

[st599]

L'aberwrach Roscoff works Ok for tides and Roscoff St PP at 70 miles makes a nice trip for me, so I would not mind if heading east. But not sure about doing CI's then the nicer local french ports when heading west .
Would one need to book in and out of France if one could produce the port charges at st PP proving one had been there for a few days?
ie going from Chebourg to Roscoff via CI's

According to the RYA presentation, you'd need to Book out of France, then back in again. Just having receipts from CIs would not be enough. (Obviously there may be some chance of doing just that, but the RYA were stating the letter of the law).

 

[awol]

Presumably as there is no border in the Irish Sea nor on the Irish mainland UK boats can cruise there with impunity and shouldn't require C1331 paperwork. From Ireland to mainland Europe and back to UK could be interesting!

 

[Daydream believer]

My suspicion is that when you check out of a French port they will scan your passport and that automatically logs date and time.

Considering the time consuming work involved, do you not think that they may decide to do this via the marina staff . ie at Ostend the HM collects Shengan forms for the immigration. (I know it will be different now)They wander along within the next 48 hours & if you are there, they ask to view your passports. Usually taking a photo of it whilst on the pontoon.
Can you imagine the work this is going to impose on foreign customs around summer time. One might ask whether the French, Belgians want to invest in something which , in the grand scheme of things, is small beer.

 

[eddystone]

Presumably as there is no border in the Irish Sea nor on the Irish mainland UK boats can cruise there with impunity and shouldn't require C1331 paperwork. From Ireland to mainland Europe and back to UK could be interesting!

So if you go from England across the Irish Sea to say Cork, are you saying there are no customs/immigration involved? If so I imagine that will change.

 

[awol]

So if you go from England across the Irish Sea to say Cork, are you saying there are no customs/immigration involved? If so I imagine that will change.

That way will probably be easy. It's the return trip that'll exercise the men in black.

 

[doug748]

So if you go from England across the Irish Sea to say Cork, are you saying there are no customs/immigration involved? If so I imagine that will change.

It may change.

Initially the French, for example, were showing willing to let boats check in with harbourmasters or marinas and have the thing sorted by phone - ie no ports of entry required.
When the UK made it clear that they did not intend to take this easy route, the French said they would reciprocate - ie ports of entry + bureaucracy as yet unspecified.
To be fair the UK has a point - drugs, aliens and firearms, in general, are probably more likely to be coming their way.

If the Irish follow the lead of the French then there will no doubt be inconvenience. If they are more laid back, then not. TBH at this point nobody knows and guessing is a bit futile.

 

[capnsensible]

Hanging around for hours clearing your vessel in /out at Customs/ Immigration/ Port Authority is why God invented Kindle.

 

[Stemar]

I could be wrong - I often am, but I can't see the non-entry ports putting up with the loss of business caused by Brits being forced to go elsewhere. I reckon there'll be a pragmatic method of booking in at Cherbourg from the Capitainarie in Barfleur or Honfleur, for example.

 

[Ningaloo]

I hope you are right, but that all requires new legislation which does not exist for other non EU countries. And what you suggests sounds like it would require an IT solution. And we know how bad governments are at IT solutions!
As things stand, from 1/1/21 well have to do the same as Aussies and USA citizens and plan ahead much more than we are used to. At least Aussies don't need to apply for their Schengen visa in advance. New legislation will be required for UK citizens to gain the same privilege, otherwise we'll be required to apply for visas online or in person in advance.
Everyone assumes that pragmatic processes will be be put in place, but realistically we have maybe 8 months to replace 40 years of shared European legislation. And on the other side of the channel, 27 countries have to agree to their side of any changes.
I'm a pessimist. I can no longer continue as I have done since 2004, keeping my boat and spending 4-5 months in Europe.
My solution - get a bigger boat and head further afield.

 

[eddystone]

It may change.

Initially the French, for example, were showing willing to let boats check in with harbourmasters or marinas and have the thing sorted by phone - ie no ports of entry required.
When the UK made it clear that they did not intend to take this easy route, the French said they would reciprocate - ie ports of entry + bureaucracy as yet unspecified.
To be fair the UK has a point - drugs, aliens and firearms, in general, are probably more likely to be coming their way.

If the Irish follow the lead of the French then there will no doubt be inconvenience. If they are more laid back, then not. TBH at this point nobody knows and guessing is a bit futile.

Which illustrates the point, something I learnt painfully in the past from involvement in transnational programmes, that UK government is generally less pragmatic and more rules driven than most in Europe. I imagine what will happen is for the next few years everything will get a lot more difficult and inconvenient which means many simply won't bother to venture beyond UK waters until eventually and incrementally, some pragmatism emerges. Personally, although it's much nearer, I will drop N. Brittany from future plans and think Southern Ireland instead. (yes I know it's and EU country but .......)

 

[Laminar Flow]

I could be wrong - I often am, but I can't see the non-entry ports putting up with the loss of business caused by Brits being forced to go elsewhere. I reckon there'll be a pragmatic method of booking in at Cherbourg from the Capitainarie in Barfleur or Honfleur, for example.

I'm sorry to say, but you may be wrong on that. In the Carribean, Central and South America you have to check in and out at every individual state and they all definitely want "your business". The port of entry system is really the only one that makes administrative sense for Continental Europe; after all, they too will want to "take back control of their borders". As we are talking about a common EU and Schengen border, I would expect that Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain etc. will implement a common scheme. In view of how things have gone in the UK and the tone of the official tenor, it would be naive not to expect some more of the hard*** type of treatment as has been experienced in Belgium as of late. We had an impromptu customs inspection in Tregurier last summer on our British registered boat. All quite proper and correct, I assure you, but the atmosphere got a lot friendlier when they found out we were not actually Brits. Ignore the new entry and exit regulations at your peril. Were you not told how the EU had stolen your freedom? hmm, pity.
A.

 

[Daydream believer]

Hanging around for hours clearing your vessel in /out at Customs/ Immigration/ Port Authority is why God invented Kindle.

Like many others, My wife chucked her Kindle & has gone back to proper books. Seems Waterstones etc have recorded sales of books climbing again after a short drop. So perhaps a similar effect may happen abroad, with customs, after the whole Brexit thing dies down in 2-3 years time & every thing is deemed "normal" again & we just get on with our lives

 

[capnsensible]

Like many others, My wife chucked her Kindle & has gone back to proper books. Seems Waterstones etc have recorded sales of books climbing again after a short drop. So perhaps a similar effect may happen abroad, with customs, after the whole Brexit thing dies down in 2-3 years time & every thing is deemed "normal" again & we just get on with our lives

She is probably not a yacht delivery skipper then who is limited to how much baggage she can drag around the world on 3 or more week voyages.

She also may not have spent hours and hours queueing up in various offices across the world clearing boats in and out.

Im also not sure why 2 or 3 years after leaving the customs union, ;abroad' will just go OK, lets just igmore the immigration rules that are legally required and let a few Brits with boats come and go as they please. World just aint like that, Im afraid.....