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BREXIT

EU or non-EU? Which passport queue should Brits use after Brexit?

Brexit might have become reality, but Brits shouldn't experience any changes to travel within the EU until the end of the year. Although don't be surprised if officials, perhaps unwittingly try to usher you into the wrong passport queue.

EU or non-EU? Which passport queue should Brits use after Brexit?
Photo: AFP

At midnight on January 31st, the UK entered the so-called “transition period”, during which negotiations on post-Brexit deals are set to take place.

That period lasts until December 31st 2020, unless it is extended on agreement by both Brussels and London.

But until then, British citizens still benefit from freedom of movement within the EU.

So while Brits may no longer be EU citizens they are still treated as such when it comes to travelling in and out of the EU.

That means joining the queue for EU citizens at airports, ports and railway stations.

But don't be surprised if you run into some difficulty with officials who aren't aware of the rules.

One British resident of Sweden reported his experience of using his UK passport at Stockholm's Arlanda airport early on Sunday morning, just over a day after the UK officially left the EU.

He was told he should join the non-EU passport queue, and added that the official he spoke to was unaware of the transition period.

At airports, Brits should use the EU passport queue rather than the non-EU or 'all passports queue'. A press officer at Swedavia, which runs Sweden's larger airports, confirmed this to The Local.

While travelling within the EU, there will be no roaming charges on mobile phones and there are also no changes to driving rules (in other words, a British licence is valid in the EU and vice versa, with no requirement for an international driving permit).

As for what happens after December 31st 2020, that seems to depend on what is agreed between London and Brussels during the 11-month transition period.

Although the British government's website suggest the rules “will” change from January 1st 2021 and that includes which queue Britons are supposed to join.

The government's advice website for travel after January 1st 2021 reads “Border control: you may have to show your return ticket and money”

“At border control, you may need to show a return or onward ticket, show you have enough money for your stay or use separate lanes from EUEEA and Swiss citizens when queueing”.

The government also notes that the “guarantee of free mobile roaming may end”. 

 

 

 

 

Member comments

  1. Nobody seems to know the answer. I Brit and my wife French visit our daughters in the uk a few times a year. We will obviously be in the same (French registered) car. Which lane should we join in Calais and Dover? I am quite sure we are not the only couple in this situation and after 47 years marriage never expected this.

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GIBRALTAR

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spain has expelled four Royal Navy servicemen who crossed the Spain-Gibraltar border on foot three times in a single day while dressed in civilian clothing, with Spanish media claiming they were checking the porosity of the border.

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spanish police expelled four British soldiers from Spain on Monday night, removing them from the country and sending them back to Gibraltar after it emerged that the four Royal Navy personnel had entered Spain illegally while “posing as tourists”, as the Spanish press has reported.

The incident comes a week after the British Navy carried out military drills in the waters surrounding Gibraltar, the British overseas territory that Spain still claims sovereignty of, and amid the seemingly never-ending negotiations between Spain and the UK to finally settle a post-Brexit deal.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar Brexit deal ‘close’ as Brits crossing into Spain use fake bookings

The expulsions, now reported in the Spanish press by Europa Sur and confirmed to El Periódico de España by official sources, occurred after the four soldiers arrived in Gibraltar on a civilian flight and entered into Spain. They also had return tickets via Gibraltar.

They then reportedly passed themselves off as tourists and entered Spain on foot, staying at a four-star hotel in La Línea de la Concepción, the town in the Cádiz province of Andalusia that borders Gibraltar.

Stranger yet is that they crossed the border at La Línea on up to three occasions in the space of a few hours.

READ ALSO: What Brits need to know before crossing the border from Gibraltar to Spain

Spanish authorities detected their presence because two of the soldiers tried to return to Gibraltar at night.

At the border, Spanish police officers enquired as to the reason for their entry, to which the soldiers replied that they were on their way to work and brandished British military documentation.

The police decided that their entry into Spain had been irregular because they did not meet the Schengen Borders Code requirements demanded of non-EU citizens entering EU territory.

According to Europa Sur, Spanish police then asked the two soldiers to call their colleagues in the hotel in order to collect their luggage and return to Gibraltar, which took place at midnight on Monday 18th March.

The Spanish press has stated that it is common for soldiers to try to stay in Spanish territory by concealing their military status and entering while posing as tourists.

The motive for the soldiers’ presence, particularly their repeated trips across the border, remains unknown.

The military drills in the area seem to suggest that the soldiers may have taken part in or be due to take part in further exercises and wanted to enter as tourists.

Spanish media also suggests that they could have been testing the porosity of the border, though these claims remain unsubstantiated.

Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status still remains unresolved. The EU and UK government are now onto their 18th round of treaty negotiations after the framework agreement between London and Madrid made on New Year’s Eve 2020 essentially ‘fudged’ the border issue, leaving Gibraltar’s status within the Schengen area undefined.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in late-2023 that “we are very, very close” to finalising a Brexit agreement.

“I would sign a deal with Britain over Gibraltar tomorrow,” Albares told journalists at the time. Yet no agreement was made, despite the Minister’s positivity, nor the appointment of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.

Albares’ comments came at a time when it was reported in the Spanish press that many UK nationals have been using fake hotel bookings in order to try and bypass the Schengen rules and trick their way through border checks.

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