Bathdave
Well-known member
We checked into France in Roscoff on 17 July and just travelled by bus this morning from St Quay to St Brieuc to get the passport stamp out. It’s an office on a business park, miles from the port, and quite different experience to visiting a customs post at a port. Quite a pain to do it but easier for us than sailing to a formal port of entry at this point.
the very nice and helpful guy who checked us out today pointed out there was a problem with the stamping in, in that the customs officer who had done it had set the flag on his stamper to exit, so he had stamped us out not in …possibly partly our fault as we had presented ourselves to a customs officer who was stamping passports for foot passengers leaving on the Roscoff-Plymouth ferry
the helpful guy today stamped us out as well, direct opposite the Roscoff stamp, …he said it SHOULDNT be a problem in the future, but it depended a bit on who and how closely the next inspection was done.
during our chat with him, we also learned …
- entries and exits at the moment are not entered into a data base…the passport is simply scanned for checking for outstanding arrest warrants, interpol notices etc
- the special ‘arrangement‘ whereby visitors could come to and leave from St quay and St Cast without presenting themselves to a customs officer, was approved at the highest level of government in Paris, and expires on 30 Sept
- hi did not know whether it would be extended to next year
- he seemed dubious that the IT for the EES visa scheme would be operational for the next season
a colleague of his told our friend the previous day that if you Used the St Cast/St Quay special arrangement, no days were logged in your 90 in 180 days allowance.
we left wondering
- whether we needed to have bothered checking out, seen as our passports were already stamped out
- how the 90 in 180 rule is managed if days are not entered on a computer ..hard to envisage how a customs officer in a gare maritime is going to count the days in and out, and the cumulative, and teh effect of days dropping off…
the very nice and helpful guy who checked us out today pointed out there was a problem with the stamping in, in that the customs officer who had done it had set the flag on his stamper to exit, so he had stamped us out not in …possibly partly our fault as we had presented ourselves to a customs officer who was stamping passports for foot passengers leaving on the Roscoff-Plymouth ferry
the helpful guy today stamped us out as well, direct opposite the Roscoff stamp, …he said it SHOULDNT be a problem in the future, but it depended a bit on who and how closely the next inspection was done.
during our chat with him, we also learned …
- entries and exits at the moment are not entered into a data base…the passport is simply scanned for checking for outstanding arrest warrants, interpol notices etc
- the special ‘arrangement‘ whereby visitors could come to and leave from St quay and St Cast without presenting themselves to a customs officer, was approved at the highest level of government in Paris, and expires on 30 Sept
- hi did not know whether it would be extended to next year
- he seemed dubious that the IT for the EES visa scheme would be operational for the next season
a colleague of his told our friend the previous day that if you Used the St Cast/St Quay special arrangement, no days were logged in your 90 in 180 days allowance.
we left wondering
- whether we needed to have bothered checking out, seen as our passports were already stamped out
- how the 90 in 180 rule is managed if days are not entered on a computer ..hard to envisage how a customs officer in a gare maritime is going to count the days in and out, and the cumulative, and teh effect of days dropping off…
