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BREXIT

UPDATE: Should Brits living in France have passports stamped at borders?

Brexit has ushered in a host of changes to travel rules but confusion still surrounds the issue of passport stamping - we asked the French government what the rules are.

Published: 13 October 2021 16:28 CEST
Updated: 17 October 2021 12:05 CEST
Passport control at the French border in Ouistreham.
Passport control at the French border in Ouistreham. Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP

As Brits are no longer EU citizens, crossing the border between France and the UK has become more complicated and for most people now involves having their passports stamped.

Travel to France: What has changed since Brexit?

But what about Brits who are resident in France?

Who

British tourists or people on short visits to France will usually have their passports stamped on entry and exit, in order to help border police keep track of the length of their stay.

Brits who do not have residency status or a visa are now limited to 90 days in every 180 within the Schengen zone and the passport stamp helps to keep track of this (although if your documents are not stamped it doesn’t mean you can stay longer, stays can also be tracked electronically).

Residents

Brits who are resident in France need to be able to prove their residency status at the border, so when asked for a passport on entry or exit from France, you should always hand over both the passport and the carte de séjour residency card.

If you do not yet have the card, you can use the acknowledgement of your application as proof if you moved here before December 31st 2020. Those who moved here after that date will need a visa.

We asked the French Interior Ministry what the rules are on passport stamping, and their answer was very clear.

“Since the effective exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union on January 1st, 2021, only British nationals who are residents of France are exempt from having their travel documents stamped when entering or leaving the Schengen area.

“Residency status is attested by the presentation of a titre de séjour or an attestation that an application for a titre de séjour has been filed with the préfecture for beneficiaries of Article 50 [the Withdrawal Agreement, which covers Brits resident in France before December 31st 2020].

“In the absence of such documents, the passport of British nationals will be systematically stamped to verify the authorised length of stay in the Schengen area for non-resident persons.

“British nationals married to a French or European national are not an exception to this rule unless they have a residence permit or an equivalent movement document.”

So is that what happens at the border?

Not always. It seems that some French border guards are also pretty confused on this issue and The Local has received numerous reports of UK nationals who had their passports stamped despite presenting their cartes de séjour and explaining that they were residents in France.

Many people have simply been told that the rule is that all British passports get stamped, while one border guard said that only UK nationals married to a French citizen were exempt.

Is this a problem?

Other than cluttering up the pages of your passport, is this actually a problem?

British Embassies around Europe say no. Ultimately, your right to residency in France is proved by your carte de séjour and that will always trump a passport stamp. But many people have raised concerns about being detained or questioned at a border in the future because of an incorrectly applied passport stamp.

The British Embassy in Germany told our sister site The Local Germany: “Stamping a passport at the border does not mean that a decision on residence status has been taken. The stamp merely documents that the passport holder was checked in the place stated on the stamp, whether this check had been performed in the course of an entry or exit, and which means of transport was used.

“The stamp entails neither the loss of rights under the Withdrawal Agreement nor in any other way a change of legal status. Consequently, a stamp on entry does not need to be annulled and may be retained unaltered in the passport as a souvenir.

“If however someone exits the Schengen area more than 90 days after their passport was stamped, then they should also carry with them a document demonstrating their current residence status, for example as a beneficiary of the Withdrawal Agreement.”

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Paris said: “We have made the Ministry of the Interior aware of this issue and will continue to raise it with them.”

Has this happened to you? If so, please tell us about it by completing the brief questionnaire below.

Member comments

  1. The problem is one of consistency . If the passport is stamped on exit but not on returning then when renewing the carte de sejour it will appear you’ve been out of the country for an indefinite period. What’s needed is for the border guards to either do it or not do it but be consistent

    1. I would think the physical stamp is irrelevant as your personal details and arrival or departure information is recorded off your passport electronic data strip. I’m not British so have no experience of what happens at ferry ports, do the Customs have electronic readers at all ferry ports ? and in the unlikely event of an issue arising, you can prove your movements with your plane or ferry ticket.

  2. I am a French-British dual nationality resident in France who plans to visit the UK where I have a house. Which passport would be better to use when travelling to the UK? I assumed my British one, but will it have to be stamped?

  3. I recently flew from Marseille to Stansted and had to be quite forceful telling the guard not to stamp my passport and had to show him my carte de sejour.When I returned I simply used my carte de sejour so no problem.To answer my own previous question time spent getting through customs was no longer than in 2019.

  4. Why is this nonsense constantly fretted over when third country nationals have resided in and moved about the EU for decades? The procedures are in no way new. Yet even the French Interior Ministry gets it wrong (as does this article, in not questioning their statement), in stating that on entering the EU/Schengen area in France, only the holders of French residency should not have their passports stamps. This is clearly wrong, as residency in any EU state entitles the same exception to stamping. This is clear from the official EU ‘Practical Handbook for Border Guards’, section 6.2.i.

    This states that “No entry or exit stamp must be affixed in the following cases: i) to the travel documents of nationals of third countries who present a residence card provided for in Directive 2004/38/EC.

    You’d have thought someone responsible for the coming and goings at the EU’s external border might have read this.

  5. I have a slight variation on this issue. My British passport expires in June 2022 but was issued in May 2012 and if I was a U.K. resident I could not travel to France on it after mid November. U.K. passport renewals are currently taking 11 weeks online to renew from France. Does anyone know if the same six month rule applies to British citizens with cartes de sejour as well as British tourists? I fear I shall have to miss a wedding in the UK at end of Nov!

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EES PASSPORT CHECKS

EES border checks could undergo ‘soft launch’, UK says as app concerns mount

The UK government is preparing for a "soft launch" of the new EU border system – the Entry/Exit (EES) system - in October but authorities are still waiting for European Commission to confirm the start date, amid concerns over the delay of a new app.

Published: 4 May 2024 09:30 CEST
EES border checks could undergo 'soft launch', UK says as app concerns mount

The UK government is preparing for a soft launch of the new EU border system – the entry/exit (EES) system – on the assumption that it will go live on October 6th, ministers told a hearing at the House of Commons European scrutiny committee this week.

But the European Commission is expected to confirm the exact launch date of the new biometric checks for non-EU travellers entering the Schengen area at some point this summer, they added.

“We are very much working on a basis whereby this policy will go live on the 6th of October. It is important that we plan for that eventuality. We are expecting to hear definitively from the European Union that ‘go live’ arrangement in the summer,” Tom Pursglove, UK Minister for Legal Migration and the Border told the committee.

The parliamentary committee is conducting an inquiry on the disruptions the system will cause in the UK.

Pursglove also said that “precautionary measures” have been agreed by the EU, that will be put in place in certain circumstances after the start of EES, for example if delays at the borders exceeded a certain length of time.

Guy Opperman, Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, said that in practice this meant a “soft launch” of EES for 6 months before “a full go live”. During that soft launch EU member states and the UK could deploy flexibility measures should problems occur.

“The likelihood is, after multiple delays, that the 6th of October will proceed” and the implementation looks “very different” compared to previous scenarios considering the flexibility allowed in the first 6 months, he argued.

No details were given on what these “flexible” measures would involve however. 

READ ALSO: Your questions answered about Europe’s EES passport checks

He conceded that “a lot of work” still needs to be done but the UK “should be as ready as everybody” and “better be at front of the queue”.

App not ready

During the meeting, it also emerged that a much-anticipated app that would allow remote pre-registration of non-EU citizens subject to the checks will not be available for testing until August “at best”, prompting concerns about the EES launch date.

“You don’t need to be a sceptic about future projects to think that the provision of the app in August for going live in October is optimistic,” Opperman said.

Ministers confirmed that the app will not be ready in time for October and the committee previously stated it might be delayed until summer 2025.

The app will facilitate pre-registration, but photo and fingerprints will still have to be taken at the border in front of a guard, the committee heard.

READ ALSO: How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

Several MPs asked whether the entry into operation of the EES should be delayed again if technology is not ready. But Under-Secretary Opperman said the app “is not going to be a panacea to fix all problems”.

The main aim of EES is to increase security and to ensure that non-EU nationals visiting the Schengen area for a short-term do not stay more than 90 days in any 180-day period.

The entry into operation of the system has already been delayed several times and there have been calls from certain travel companies and national authorities to delay it again.

Under the new scheme, non-EU/EFTA travellers who do not need a visa will have to register their biometric data (finger prints and facial images) in a database that will also record each time they enter and exit the Schengen area.

Instead of having passports manually stamped, travellers will have to scan them at self-service kiosks before crossing the border. However, fingerprints and a photo will have to be registered in front of a guard at the first crossing and there are concerns the extra time needed will generate long queues, especially in Dover, Folkestone and St. Pancras station in London, where there are juxtaposed French and UK border checks.

Progress in preparations

Minister Pursglove also updated MPs on ongoing preparations. He said some testing of the system will take place within days, 5 kiosks have been installed at St. Pancras station and are available for testing. “You are beginning to see the physical infrastructure appear,” he said.

Kiosks and extra lanes are also being created at the port Dover and it was agreed with the EU passengers travelling by coach will be checked away from the Eastern dock, where controls usually take place, allowing to gain space. The vehicles will then sealed and drive on the ferries.

MPs also discussed the infrastructure cost linked to the introduction of the EES. Opperman said all EU countries will have to make “huge investments” in their ports. In the UK, he argued, this will help “address problems that have existed for some time”. Because of this “massive investment”, in a few years time “Dover will be totally transformed,” he said.

This article is published in cooperation with Europe Street News.

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