Customs car stickers

Yeah, just like wearing a Yellow Star in 1930’s Germany. Visible to all.

I think the logic is as follows:

If you have a CDS i.e. are a permanent resident in France, but are driving a UK registered car, it means one of two things:

a) you are driving a UK hire car;

b) if you own the car, but it’s still on UK plates, you are probably committing an infringement because you should have started the process to re-register it in France within a month of becoming a resident (unless you can show that you just bought the UK car and are bringing it over, in which case they will still want to chat to you about VAT).

So they want to filter such vehicles in order to check the status of them on arrival in France.

It’s the vehicle that’s being flagged not the people; not a “human rights infringement” if you are breaking French law.

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Good grief… I feel a Recipe moment is coming along… :wink:

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Yeah but it’s publicly visible to anyone there.

If you really think it has the same implications that’s your problem. For the customs and immigration people it is not very different to the other stickers and hangers they use to separate different groups of passengers.

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PS also we don’t know if it is only those with CDS’s, if it’s anyone driving a vehicle of a different national registration to their passport, etc.

So? As i said, it’s not the people in the car that are being tagged, it’s the vehicle. Vehicles get tags at ports all the time, to direct them to the right lane for boarding, for example. And people queue up in different lines at airports for passport control depending on their nationality and visa status. Is that a breach of their human rights?

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Yes but it’s a mark.effectively stuck on the person going forward. And not just visible to a particular group of officials. A Yellow Star was theoretically only for an official purpose but later led to much more and not just from officials.

OK, but only until they get off the ferry in Caen; AFAIk they don’t have to keep the dangly tag on the car forever or wear it around their necks when they go to Intermarché. :slight_smile: It sounds like it just means they get stopped by the Douanes in Caen and asked about the registration status of their vehicle…

It’s a far cry from the arbitrary interrogations and deportations that the USA is imposing on visitors and even legitimate resident visa holders and its own citizens.

Let’s watch it and work out the criteria shall we?

I’ve often had stickers stuck on my motorcycle at bigger meets where we have been divided up into smaller groups to travel together. I’ve never thought of that as being singled out as being different. Come to think of it two of my cars have stickers on them indicating that I was in a minority group allowed access to certain areas at the Angoulême Remparts weekend, I’ve never had a problem with that either.
We will have people questioning the validity of EU passport queues at airports next.

To this point, they are not marking “non-French drivers” , it seems they are marking UK-registered cars driven by French residents.

Anyway let’s see how Lord @Badger gets on…

Badger’s in a French vehicle…and he got one. So being visibly Marked Out must be based, at least, on the passport.

The next question is:

Is it passport, or passport+CDS, that is the criteria for being visibly Marked Out.

And the quesion after that is:
Is UK Immigration desk doing the same at exit from French ports, to non-UK passport holders (all) or just non-resident passport holders showing Right to Remain/Residence docs for UK.

Let’s wait for info to filter through so we can work out the criteria.

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Or perhaps we should just get a sense of proportion.

It’s a sticker that makes the PAF’s live easier at disembarkation and is then disposed of.

Exactly, he doesn’t not need his vehicle’s legality checked. The triage has worked, his journey will not be interrupted unnecessarily.

Let’s see first Badger’s report and subsequently others.

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Badger has already proved that this assumption was incorrect.

,? Badger is non-French and in a French vehicle and he did get a Yellow Star

So we don’t know yet if all non-French drivers, just non-French drivers with CDS,'s, or other criteria, sre getting visibly Marked Out. But it sounds as though the first criterion is to be travelling on a non-French passport. We’re waiting for reports o find if/what other criteria additionally.

(For the moment I’m not thinking about whether anyone travelling on a French passport in a UK car is also getting flagged by French immigration on exit from the UK.)

Does the yellow star look like the star of David?

So, this sticker business is not a hoax then! I await despatches from Badger with baited breath :rofl:

This is a clever money making exercise. Anyone with a French passport or a CdS (is it not a CdT now…?) gets a yellow patch regardless of the type of car - bear in mind, it is not illegal to be French and drive a UK car up to the ferry entrance. It becomes illegal at the exit of the ferry. Then at the ferry exit, the guys 'n gals in blue pull over any UK regd car with a yellow patch and bang on a TVA demand! Very clever. And effective.

But yes,I do agree with you, it does have a whiff of the 1930s and 40s - but if it all combines to keep my tax to minimum, then yes, I hope there are many ‘takers’ :rofl: