Customs/Immigration on a TA

[dad son team]

I'm sailing this weekend on a TA from Miami to Barcelona.  Our first stops are in the Canary Islands, followed by 2 more in Spain before ending in Barcelona.  I know when flying you do immigration at the first port of entry.  Since all the stops are in Spain, will that be the case here as well or will we have to do immigration/customs in Barcelona?

[alserrod]

12 hours ago, dad son team said:

I'm sailing this weekend on a TA from Miami to Barcelona.  Our first stops are in the Canary Islands, followed by 2 more in Spain before ending in Barcelona.  I know when flying you do immigration at the first port of entry.  Since all the stops are in Spain, will that be the case here as well or will we have to do immigration/customs in Barcelona?

 

 

Hello.... I am not sure. 

I thought customs (it is the word you will read in Spain, not immigration) are in last port, so Barcelona.

If they have changed... it will only apply to first port obviously. It doesn't have any sense to have twice a passport control.

 

 

In case of flying, you have a passport control everytime you get off the flight zone

Arriving by plane makes you having a passport control because in the last flight it is hard to know who should cross customs and who shouldn't

In a cruise, police have the passengers list before any call. They can ask everyone to have a passport and they will know if someone is missing after leaving again.

 

 

 

[alserrod]

I think this information could help you

 

 

 

if you need more about Barcelona, I have published something here too

[VMax1700]

I , also, am not sure. But, as a point of reference, friends recently completed a TA from Florida to Rotterdam and the first port of call in Europe (not Schengen area) was Ireland and they had to do face to face immigration control brfore being permitted to disembark.

[alserrod]

Hi.... but as you know, the point is "Schengen area" (not European Union)

 

Just to know.... it can be a bit messy-blessy but

 

Schengen area (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#:~:text=The Schengen Area (English%3A %2F,controls at their mutual borders.) 

 is where all inner borders doesn't exist and any outer border is the same for the rest of countries

 

It includes all European Union

except Ireland (which has a special Treaty with UK)

includes Norway, Switzerland and Iceland

 

 

Anyway, it is recently known those 69 Bolivians who went on a MSC Cruise from Rio de Janeiro to Barcelona with a fake visa.

 

The cruise called in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Malaga and disembarkation was in Barcelona.

All duties were done in Barcelona, were it was found that visas were fake and all problem started for them and for MSC

 

 

 

 

[Hlitner]

We are just completing a long cruise (including TA) where our first port was Madeira.  The Portuguese (a Schengen country) want no part of stamping Passports, Customs, etc.  The cruise line just gives the authorities the manifest and they clear the ship.  Not sure if Spain is following the same protocol, but it is more likely than not.

 

By the way, the way Portugal handles TAs can cause later issues.  Since they refuse to stamp Passports with an EU Entry stamp, there is no record (in the Passport) of your day of entry into the Schengen (which now has a 90 day, every 6 month limitation).  Some authorities such as the German's can get upset when you later fly-out of their country and they cannot find that entry stamp.  About 2 years ago we had a real hassle at Munich because of this problem.  The Purser on our ship said there is nothing they can do since the Portuguese have refused to stamp Passports on TAs.  Go figure.

 

Hank

[Twolittleboys]

On my TA last year from Fort Lauderdale to Lisbon (with a stop in the Azores on the way) there really wasn't any obvious immigration/customs procedure (we just walked off). However, I did hear that passengers who were not from the EU ran into some problems when trying to leave Portugal at the end of the trip (or when trying to visit Gibraltar) as there wasn't a clear record of them arriving there.

 

Not sure how helpful this is as clearly something went wrong with the process but it is what it is.