Schengen issue on Transatlantic cruise

That was my biggest concern...how to get it stamped while on the cruise?

Wondering if a call to Princess "Legal" Dept. seeking clarification would be beneficial?

Mike

Can't hurt. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

But you want that Schengen exit stamp - it's your proof that you didn't overstay. If you have an entrance stamp and no exit stamp, they will assume you've been in the Schengen zone continuously unless you can prove by other means when you left.

I think with modern technology, they know without the need for a stamp in your passport.

We do not currently get our passports stamped and I sail around France all summer. When I cross to France on the ferry, my yacht lives in France all year, my passport is scanned at UK check in for the ferry and I get nothing more than a visual check as I leave the ferry.

As my yacht is British flagged, I very occasionally, perhaps once every couple of years, get visited by customs officers who, as part of their inspection, check the passports of all the crew.

When they visit me, one of the inspection team remains on the pontoon with a laptop and they hand the passports to him and, although our passports have no stamps, he appears to have access to records of when we all entered the country. Presumably from manifest data submitted by the ferry company.

So I would not worry too much about stamps in your passport. They will almost certainly have a complete record of when you entered and left the zone.

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That's good to know. We were just coming to the end of a fight with cancer when I planned this trip and I wasn't as focused on details as usual or I would have read the rules enough to know that I had to count days at sea between ports. Next time I will be prepared! I appreciate all the responses...thanks.

per the Department of State So you are right on both counts. (your passport also has to be valid for at least 90 days beyond your planned departure date from the zone) Just talked to a friend in England who said that rules are being enforced much more strictly now and they need to be at the airport 3-4 hrs before international flights because it's causing such backups!

 

Does it include Heathrow? Just curious as I have a flight back next month.

Nope you didn't hit a nerve.

It just amused me when you introduced the word harsh without first climbing over the fence and considering how the US treats visitors.

Sorry if my reply offended.

 

 

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I am delighted that you were amused.

Does it include Heathrow? Just curious as I have a flight back next month.

Personally I think that these reports of delays on departure are a convenient excuse for inefficiency at peak times.

Our experience is of few delays on departure but of increased checks on arrival in France, but even that is inconsistent and my wife had hardly any delay at La Rochelle whilst a friend (who is always the last to get off the aircraft took about 20mins to get to the front of the line at Rennes.

Also to put this into context, it is now 09h15 here and I am about to drive 120km to an airport in France for a 13h flight and I can find time to type this reply.

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Got it. Safe travels!

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No problem. Now at airport (Rennes) two hours before departure of flight to Southampton and they haven't even opened check-in yet!!

Also FWIW, we have a flight LHR-MIA in December with an 11h departure. We will stay at airport hotel on Bath Road the night before (simply because we have to take car to long term car park, and dropping it off the evening before is easier than driving up on the morning) and we will leave the hotel to go to airport around 8h30 (2h30 before departure) BUT we are only going that early so that we will have time for breakfast in the lounge, otherwise we would probably not leave hotel until around 9am.

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Does it include Heathrow? Just curious as I have a flight back next month.

The issues are at Schengen border points. The UK (including Heathrow) is not in the Schengen area. Also, the last time I was at Heathrow (1.5 years ago), no exit passport checks are conducted in the UK.

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I think with modern technology, they know without the need for a stamp in your passport.

You'd think so but from what I've read, each Schengen country keeps their own database so if you enter one country and exit another, there will be no single computer system showing both your entry and exit. A year ago, I did a trip that had me fly into Frankfurt but exit from Brussels. I have a new passport since last year. Next month, we enter the Schengen area in Frankfurt on our way to Copenhagen for our cruise. I'll have the old passport with me just in case German border control should say "we see you entered Germany last September but have no record of you ever leaving". I can then pull out the old passport with the Belgian exit stamp.

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The issues are at Schengen border points. The UK (including Heathrow) is not in the Schengen area. Also, the last time I was at Heathrow (1.5 years ago), no exit passport checks are conducted in the UK.

 

 

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I'm British, live in the U.K. And my passport is always checked when I leave either by ferry of by air. We just do it efficiently! When was the last time you

a) checked in at Heathrow and didn't have to show your passport?

and then

b) didn't have to show your boarding pass and passport as you went through security to go airside.

Answer: Never.

Hardly noticeable, but it is done. You can't get a boarding pass unless the passport presented is in the same name as the booking (and make sure the first forename on the booking matches the first forename on your passport) and you can't get airside unless you have a boarding pass which matches your passport.

As I say it happens, your departure is recorded. It is done discretely. You just haven't noticed it happening.

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I'm British, live in the U.K. And my passport is always checked when I leave either by ferry of by air. We just do it efficiently! When was the last time you

a) checked in at Heathrow and didn't have to show your passport?

and then

b) had to show your boarding pass and passport as you went through security to go airside?

Hardly noticeable, but it is done. You can't get a boarding pass unless the passport presented is in the same name as the booking (and make sure the first forename on the booking matches the first forename on your passport and you can't get airside unless you have a boarding pass which matches your passport. As I say it happens, but it is done discretely and you just haven't noticed it happening.

Not the same. While airlines check passports to verify you'll be admissible to your destination country and further ID checks are conducted while going though security, there is no border control checkpoint or checking of passports by "UK Visas and Immigration", the part of the UK government responsible for controlling entry and exit to and from the country.

In contrast, when you depart the Schengen area, you'll have the same checks by your airline and at security but you also go through a border control checkpoint where your passport is scanned and stamped.

BTW, I am retired from an airline and did a station visit (meeting with my airline's management there) to Heathrow less than two years ago that included going behind the scenes (and did the same last year at Frankfurt and Brussels so saw first-hand how the Schengen checks work, particularly as I had to be escorted past border control into the non-Schengen area of the airport as a working visiting employee who was not actually departing).

Not the same. While airlines check passports to verify you'll be admissible to your destination country and further ID checks are conducted while going though security, there is no border control checkpoint or checking of passports by "UK Visas and Immigration", the part of the UK government responsible for controlling entry and exit to and from the country.

 

In contrast, when you depart the Schengen area, you'll have the same checks by your airline and at security but you also go through a border control checkpoint where your passport is scanned and stamped.

 

BTW, I am retired from an airline and did a station visit (meeting with my airline's management there) to Heathrow less than two years ago that included going behind the scenes (and did the same last year at Frankfurt and Brussels so saw first-hand how the Schengen checks work, particularly as I had to be escorted past border control into the non-Schengen area of the airport as a working visiting employee who was not actually departing).

OK, if you insist BUT I don't think you are anywhere near correct as far as the UK Border control is concerned, which was the supplementary question I was answering.

You may have visited behind the scenes, but do you really think they would disclose their security procedures to a visiting foreign national?

I will defer to your inside knowledge, but let me assure everyone who is worried about their departure being recorded that, whilst I do not see an one of their officers when I leave the UK, when I return, Border control (Visas and Immigration never did this physically man the borders - they focus on making decisions on Visas, not policing the borders, certainly know when I left, which I think is what was concerning people who's passport didn't get stamped on departure.

I will defer to your inside knowledge, but let me assure everyone who is worried about their departure being recorded that, whilst I do not see an immigration officer when I leave the UK, when I return, Border control certainly know when I left, which I think is what was concerning people who's passport didn't get stamped on departure.

There were two things at issue one of which was the delays at border control due to increased Schengen requirements. So for departing Heathrow, since it's not Schengen nor is there a border control check point when departing, the issue of delays is moot.

The second was the issue of exit being properly recorded and again, it was about the Schengen area so not applicable to Heathrow.

Lots of people think Schengen equals EU so don't realize the UK is not Schengen, hence the question above about Heathrow which really has no place in a Schengen thread. The reality is not all E.U. countries are Schengen countries and not all Schengen countries are in the E.U. In particular, the UK is in the E.U. (for now) but is not Schengen. OTOH, Norway, Switzerland, Lichtenstien, and Iceland are Schengen but not in the E.U.. And then there's the matter of which countries use the Euro and which don't.

The issues are at Schengen border points. The UK (including Heathrow) is not in the Schengen area. Also, the last time I was at Heathrow (1.5 years ago), no exit passport checks are conducted in the UK.

Thanks for the clarification. I asked because there was a mention of England on the post.

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Just off Regal's TA from Copenhagen to New York. Since I have a U.S. passport, what I say here is valid only for U.S. passports as I have no idea how other countries, which may have different requirements, were handled. Passports were collected at embarkation, checked for the Schengen entry stamp, and a bookmark inserted at that page. They were then returned after departure from Kristiansand, Norway, our last Schengen port where a Schengen exit stamp had been applied dated the day of the Kristiansand port call.

While the rest is non-Schengen related, for those interested, the next day (a sea day) we had to meet personally with UK Immigration (who had boarded at Kristiansand) and applied the usual UK "Leave to Enter for Six Months" entry stamp. At least for me, it was present passport, inspector looked at photo and me, stamped it, and returned it (took about five seconds). Passports were then recollected (we did not have or need them in our possession for our two UK port calls) so they could be presented en masse to Ireland Immigration when we reached Cobh. After departure, they were returned with an Ireland 90-day stamp.

U.S. entry was split between Immigration accomplished at the first U.S. port (was supposed to be Boston but due to Hurricane Jose was New York/Manhattan) with everyone required to leave to achieve "zero-count" while Customs was done at disembarkation at New York/Brooklyn. As near as I could tell, so long as you weren't bringing goods (other than what you needed for the day - some people did decide to disembark at Manhattan), there was no Customs inspection at Manhattan; flip side was at disembarkation, all they wanted was the Customs declaration and did not even want to see our passports.

We disembarked last week in Brooklyn. They definetly wanted to see passports and declaration forms and there were long lines

to prove it. Our passport got stamped too.(Crown Princess transatlantic).

We disembarked last week in Brooklyn. They definetly wanted to see passports and declaration forms and there were long lines

to prove it. Our passport got stamped too.(Crown Princess transatlantic).

But Brooklyn was your first U.S. port, correct? So both Immigration (inspection of people) and Customs (inspection of property) was done at Brooklyn. But as I posted for us on Regal, Brooklyn was not our first U.S. port so Immigration was done at the first U.S. port while Customs was done when we disembarked with our property.

Just off Regal's TA from Copenhagen to New York. Since I have a U.S. passport, what I say here is valid only for U.S. passports as I have no idea how other countries, which may have different requirements, were handled. Passports were collected at embarkation, checked for the Schengen entry stamp, and a bookmark inserted at that page. They were then returned after departure from Kristiansand, Norway, our last Schengen port where a Schengen exit stamp had been applied dated the day of the Kristiansand port call.

 

While the rest is non-Schengen related, for those interested, the next day (a sea day) we had to meet personally with UK Immigration (who had boarded at Kristiansand) and applied the usual UK "Leave to Enter for Six Months" entry stamp. At least for me, it was present passport, inspector looked at photo and me, stamped it, and returned it (took about five seconds). Passports were then recollected (we did not have or need them in our possession for our two UK port calls) so they could be presented en masse to Ireland Immigration when we reached Cobh. After departure, they were returned with an Ireland 90-day stamp.

 

U.S. entry was split between Immigration accomplished at the first U.S. port (was supposed to be Boston but due to Hurricane Jose was New York/Manhattan) with everyone required to leave to achieve "zero-count" while Customs was done at disembarkation at New York/Brooklyn. As near as I could tell, so long as you weren't bringing goods (other than what you needed for the day - some people did decide to disembark at Manhattan), there was no Customs inspection at Manhattan; flip side was at disembarkation, all they wanted was the Customs declaration and did not even want to see our passports.

This was our experience on prior cruises as well.

Quick and painless.

Thanks for posting.