Passport control

[jimbo1683]

Im sailing Southampton - Zeebrugge -Rotterdam - Southampton. How/where does passport control happen - when going ashore in Rotterdam and when returning to Southampton?

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, jimbo1683 said:

Im sailing Southampton - Zeebrugge -Rotterdam - Southampton. How/where does passport control happen - when going ashore in Rotterdam and when returning to Southampton?

 

Well, that is very interesting. When we went on our Canary Isles/Lisbon cruise, Cunard looked at our passports at Soton for ID purposes, but nobody checked them after that. They weren't stamped in or out of the EU. So there is no evidence we spent five or six of our 90 days there. Very mysterious.

[Kynance]

Although the border and immigration authorities of the respective countries on any itinerary may require a physical passport inspection, in practice Cunard will be sharing details of the passenger manifest with these authorities for immigration and security purposes, so the inspection also takes place virtually and information on passenger movements will therefore be available to host authorities. This will be done to comply with the legal requirements placed on Cunard. If Cunard is required to notify the host authority of anyone who failed to rejoin the ship following a port of call, or had to leave the ship mid-cruise, for instance for a medical evacuation, all of this data will be held on host authority systems and will be used for their purposes, as necessary. 

For anyone with an interest in data protection, you can check out Cunard’s privacy policy which is one of the links from the legal information landing page (found in the links at the bottom of the home page).  This explains what personal information Cunard collects, the purposes it processes it for and with whom it shares that information. You’ll find several references to law enforcement agencies, security and immigration.

 

[davyjones]

Although this URL is for France the advice is valid for all Schengen countries:

 

• https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france/entry-requirements
• Check your passport is stamped if you enter or exit the Schengen area through France as a visitor. Border guards will use passport stamps to check you’re complying with the 90-day visa-free limit for short stays in the Schengen area. If relevant entry or exit stamps are not in your passport, border guards will presume that you have overstayed your visa-free limit.

 

So it would seem there is no central database of entry/exit and it will rely on what is in your passport.

 

DJ

[jimbo1683]

13 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

Well, that is very interesting. When we went on our Canary Isles/Lisbon cruise, Cunard looked at our passports at Soton for ID purposes, but nobody checked them after that. They weren't stamped in or out of the EU. So there is no evidence we spent five or six of our 90 days there. Very mysterious.

Oh mysterious indeed

[jimbo1683]

8 hours ago, Kynance said:

Although the border and immigration authorities of the respective countries on any itinerary may require a physical passport inspection, in practice Cunard will be sharing details of the passenger manifest with these authorities for immigration and security purposes, so the inspection also takes place virtually and information on passenger movements will therefore be available to host authorities. This will be done to comply with the legal requirements placed on Cunard. If Cunard is required to notify the host authority of anyone who failed to rejoin the ship following a port of call, or had to leave the ship mid-cruise, for instance for a medical evacuation, all of this data will be held on host authority systems and will be used for their purposes, as necessary. 

 

I'm not convinced by this explanation as the same would be true of airlines and their passengers, negating the need for immigration at airports which of course is not the case.

[steamboats]

Surprisingly there was no passport control on our Southampton - seaday - Cherbourg - Southampton - neither for entering France (aka Schengen) nor for returning back to UK.

 

steamboats

[sandancer]

13 hours ago, jimbo1683 said:

I'm not convinced by this explanation as the same would be true of airlines and their passengers, negating the need for immigration at airports which of course is not the case.

Definitely. We recently took a transatlantic cruise, arriving back in Italy. There were no immigration or customs formalities at the port, nothing. Didn’t even see anyone in a uniform. Flying home from Rome we had to pass through inspection and the agent checked every single page of our passports. 

[exlondoner]

3 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Definitely. We recently took a transatlantic cruise, arriving back in Italy. There were no immigration or customs formalities at the port, nothing. Didn’t even see anyone in a uniform. Flying home from Rome we had to pass through inspection and the agent checked every single page of our passports. 

 

So what happened? As you weren't stamped in, could you get stamped out?

[sandancer]

He growled at us a couple of times and then let us proceed to the gate. 

[exlondoner]

Unstamped?

[techteach]

Upon arrival in Paris we stood in a huge line for over an hour and when we finally got to have our passport stamped I was informed with a growl, “we don’t do that any more, I don’t have a stamp.” In Montreal you put your passport into the machine and it pops out the other side, then a person looked at our ID and off we went.

[exlondoner]

27 minutes ago, techteach said:

Upon arrival in Paris we stood in a huge line for over an hour and when we finally got to have our passport stamped I was informed with a growl, “we don’t do that any more, I don’t have a stamp.” In Montreal you put your passport into the machine and it pops out the other side, then a person looked at our ID and off we went.

 

UK passport holders can't use the machine for entering Europe, because, since Brexit, they have to look at our passports to make sure we haven't been in the EU for more than 90 of the previous 180 days. As you can imagine, if people make lots of short visits, this can take a while.

[frankp01]

1 hour ago, techteach said:

In Montreal you put your passport into the machine

I was surprised that both the UK (Heathrow) and US (Brooklyn cruise port) immigration process involved a machine rather than a human. You insert your passport, stare at the camera, and the gates open. Frankly I was very surprised that the US was that automated. But also happy... it was the fastest re-entry we've ever had.

[sandancer]

4 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Unstamped?

They were stamped. 

[techteach]

@frankp01 We have Global Entry, so I don’t know if that impacts entry. The other thing I remember was the really really long walk in Montreal to customs, but it was nothing as long as the line at CDG. We then sprinted to catch our flight to Rome, which turned out to be late. Guess I’m not such a good traveler…

[frankp01]

1 hour ago, techteach said:

 We have Global Entry, so I don’t know if that impacts entry.

I'd considered signing up for Global Entry, but I believe it's only available at one or two cruise ports. And I no longer fly internationally (or domestically, for that matter, using Pre-Check) to justify it. From what I've read of Global Entry, however, the process at Brooklyn was similar to that.