PlanB
Well-known member
Having flown into and out of Hamburg recently, we were struck by the level of scrutiny our UK passports underwent on both occasions. And of course, they were scanned.
Visiting the EU & exceeding the 90/180 rule
- Thread starter trialframe
- Start date
Momac
Well-known member
Don't think I want to take a risk but it seem odd that some people have completely different experience to others.
It will be interesting to see what out experience is in Greece next month .
It will be interesting to see what out experience is in Greece next month .
Forty_Two
Well-known member
Hopefully when the EES eventually gets going in a year or three it will be simpler as it will be a case of computer says no rather than the border guard. Whether they will have any leeway on what to do then will be another learning curve & probably different in every country.
Certainly will catch the "below the radar" folks.
Certainly will catch the "below the radar" folks.
Last edited:
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
I doubt that there will be any leeway and it will be a case of temporary incarceration until the next available means of leaving is available plus a fine and endorsement of passport. It's exactly what happens in the US and Australia and I suspect most other countries. I know people that have fallen foul of immigration in the US and Oz the experiences were not pleasant.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
There may also be issues if the diplomatic climate is adverse! A few years ago, I attended a scientific conference in St Petersburg, during one of the downturns in diplomatic relationships between the UK and Russia (I think we'd just expelled some "diplomats" for spying). Normally - that is, in every single other case - I would have entered the country on a standard tourist visa; usually attending a conference is not seen as employment or business. In this case, as I and others from the same organization were government employees we were strongly advised both by the Foreign office and by colleagues in Russia to get the far less convenient but technically more appropriate business visa. I spent several hours queuing up at the Russian Embassy!
Rules can be differently enforced if there is seen to be a political reason to do so.
jordanbasset
Well-known member
The question is
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
It was bad enough getting a tourist visa a few years ago took ages and a good wait in the Russian consulate in Lyon for the interview.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
But officialdom has the house percentage on its side.
lustyd
Well-known member
Sums it up nicely, some people have problems and some people don't. Officials aren't out to get you, and innocent mistakes often are fixed without issue for nice genuine people. Other people have a different experience after putting up the backs of the officials for no good reason, or pushing their luck, or purposefully breaking the law.
newtothis
Well-known member
<Movie pedant alert>
The actual question is: "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?"
RAI
Well-known member
Deleted
AndrewB
Well-known member
I must have got lucky. I've over-run in both Australia and USA. The US border protection lady in San Diego said "You ARE going now, aren't you." Not a question. But that was it. In Sydney they didn't even seem to notice.
I've also over-run elsewhere. The worst penalty I've had was in Trinidad: a T$50 (£7) fine for over-running by two months. (I hadn't realised my airport clearance was for 24 hours only - rejoining my boat meant I had to clear in properly at the port).
My guess is that in a few years time most of the EU won't be too concerned about minor infractions, either. But Brexit remains pretty sensitive, and as a UK citizen I wouldn't take chances at present.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
I've never over-run, but I have been warned about having less than 6 months on my passport. My experience is that it's tiny places (Falklands in this case) that are more likely to be pedantic about rules, but then likely to let you off with a warning (they knew when I was leaving, and I worked for British Antarctic Survey, which has a fairly high profile in the Falklands). By tiny, I mean places with populations in thousands, not millions!
Motor_Sailor
Well-known member
The attitudes expressed on here remind me very much of the USA in the 1980s, or certainly prior to 9/11. There were loads of Brits on yachts or in ski resorts who existed 'below the radar' and you heard loads of similar statements about the lax attitude of immigration and how 'with millions coming over the Mexican border, they're not going to bother about the odd Brit', etc.
Well that held true until it didn't! We witnessed a dawn raid by 10 fully armed agents of a fairly large British boat with a family on board that had become rather attached to the southern life style and had over stayed their visa. They were taken straight from the boat to an immigration court and the judge had them deported 'with prejudice' preventing them ever returning. The friends who said they're look after the boat sort of lost interest after a year and it broke free in a gale from it's temporary mooring where the marina had moved it after the non payment of fees. It founded on the mud on the edge of the Intercoastal Waterway and started to spill diesel. The USCG declared it an abandoned wreck and removed it with a large floating crane. They then presented the owner back in the UK with the $30,000 bill which with non payment fees and interest was running into hundreds of thousands of dollars when I last heard of them after about ten years. Their idyllic wanderlust years replaced by financial ruin and fear about leaving the country.
It's hardly a relaxing way of cruising if you're worried about your immigration status. It might suit some but for everyone else we need a government that will repair the damage that's been done with Europe and seek productive cooperation with our neighbours.
Well that held true until it didn't! We witnessed a dawn raid by 10 fully armed agents of a fairly large British boat with a family on board that had become rather attached to the southern life style and had over stayed their visa. They were taken straight from the boat to an immigration court and the judge had them deported 'with prejudice' preventing them ever returning. The friends who said they're look after the boat sort of lost interest after a year and it broke free in a gale from it's temporary mooring where the marina had moved it after the non payment of fees. It founded on the mud on the edge of the Intercoastal Waterway and started to spill diesel. The USCG declared it an abandoned wreck and removed it with a large floating crane. They then presented the owner back in the UK with the $30,000 bill which with non payment fees and interest was running into hundreds of thousands of dollars when I last heard of them after about ten years. Their idyllic wanderlust years replaced by financial ruin and fear about leaving the country.
It's hardly a relaxing way of cruising if you're worried about your immigration status. It might suit some but for everyone else we need a government that will repair the damage that's been done with Europe and seek productive cooperation with our neighbours.
st599
Well-known member
The EU system is going to be automated later this year or next. Not sure it will be up to individual countries or officers.
Sandydog2
Well-known member
I flew out of Portugal today. The passport control person scanned my passport as usual and said "oh, you've been 16 days in Portugal, did you have a good holiday ?".This was before he looked for my passport stamp and stamped me out. It clearly came up on his screen as soon as the passport was scanned. I've no idea whether he could see stays in other EU countries but they certainly aren't trying to calculate the stay from the often nearly illegible stamps.
st599
Well-known member
At the moment each country in the EU has a database, EES joins those databases in to one and adds biometric scanning
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
Yes so if you overstay in a single country it will be easily noticed however if you travel into another Schengen country and leave from that then the customs / immigration will look for the last EU country arrival stamp to make the calculation that is where the anomalies will occur if they can't be arsed or haven't been instructed to check.
AndrewB
Well-known member
Wow!! But I find it very surprising that, even in the USA, an instant deportation 'with prejudice' could be sprung entirely without warning on a law-abiding family. (Think about the problems we have in the UK with arranging deportation). Either this family had sailed too close to the wind in other ways, or they had ignored prior proceedings.
Do we have the full story here? How did you discover what happened to them subsequently?
(Incidentally I saw a similar sort of swoop on a foreign yacht while I was in San Diego. Everyone wondered what that was all about - until later that day when Border Protection started removing little packages.)
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
I know of two instances the first was a friend that took the opportunity to transfer to the US subsidiary and arranged everything including selling his house putting his furniture into shipping containers and sending them to the States which he followed with wife and two small children plus a mountain of luggage. Because they had been slow to arrange his green card / work permit they got him a tourist visa for the family which when with the mountain of luggage he arrived at O'Hare mid winter in English attire it aroused some suspicion and when questioned as to what he was here for and where headed he told them about the job that was it, the family was split his wife and children into one detention suite and him in a windowless room for a couple of hours of further questioning after which as it was Friday evening he was given the choice of taking another flight back to the UK or waiting till Monday with his wife and children in one detention centre and him in another but in any case he would be refused entry since he had tried to enter under false pretences. He chose the former his passport and the families were stamped preventing return and they arrived back in the UK very tired and not enamoured with the US, The company reinstated his employment but he lost a lot of money and was never fully recompensed.
The other was a little similar of someone that went out to work for 6 months on a temporary contract to cover a specific project that should have been finished in 3 or 4 it dragged on for over 9 months, he got a knock on his door by some policemen and an immigration official was taken straight to an immigration centre where a judge ordered his removal and he literally was put on the plane in the clothes he stood up in, no ifs buts can I get my things he was out and forbidden re-entry.