Visiting France - an update

[Laser310]

Well they wouldn’t be, would they? They hold no responsibility if you’re found to be illegally in the country whatsoever.
You, on the other hand, will be fined, deported, and banned from travel to the EU. Any number of things could lead to this outcome including hospital visits, traffic accidents etc.
As a yachtsman it’s your responsibility to complete border procedures. Their role is to facilitate that, not chase you about making sure you’ve done it correctly. By “they” I mean border officials, not customs and not marina staff.

This is something the tabloids ignore when talking about “the border”. There isn’t one, just some theatre at mass transit sites.

well, If I submit the form, and they accept it, I'm not sure what else I can do...

In each place they told me I what I was doing was acceptable.., in one case after checking with their higher ups. I'm not sure what else I should do.

Anyway, within France there are hundreds of thousands of people who have made much less effort to follow the rules than I did

Also, if I was wandering the streets after returning from the UK and was asked for my papers, they would have seen that I was stamped in at CDG.., and had no corresponding exit stamp.

I am not sure what anyone of the 1000's who will enter at a PFF port this season can do to ensure that the PFF port submits the form correctly, and doesn't lose it in the office somewhere.., so anyone who uses a PFF port is in the same situation - actually worse.., because they won't have my CDG stamp.

it would be great if there was some sort of receipt.., but there isn't, and PFF ports don't stamp the passport.., so nobody has any record of having done anything.

I took photos of my forms, but that doesn't prove anything.

the reentry form was emailed, so at least there is a record of that.., but for all I know they gave me the wrong email address. I don't know if emailing the form is normal procedure.

 

[lustyd]

I wasn’t suggesting you did anything wrong, simply explaining why most of the French folk seem so relaxed about it. The rules are simple and easy to follow but the onus is very much on you to follow them.