Apologies in advance for the seemingly trivial question… Which passport queue do you personally join on arrival in France, if you’re the non EU family member of an EU citizen? My wife is a Luxembourg national, and I’m a Brit with an EU family members Carte de Séjour (CdS).
I’ve always been a bit squeamish (probably my British hangup about queue jumping?) about joining the generally much faster moving EU citizens queues at French ports and airports. However I now suspect I am worrying unnecessarily. Today I came across this note in the EU Practical Handbook for Border Guards which implies that EU family members should be treated the same as their EU citizen family members…I’d be interested in hearing from others in this position as to which queue they join on arrival in France.
I don’t know either which queues (ie EU vs Non EU passports) Brits holding a Withdrawal Agreement CdS should join for travel to France, but tentatively assume since people in that situation still have grandfathered EU freedom of movement rights, albeit limited to movements to/from France, that they too could join the EU queue? Happy to stand corrected on this…I couldn’t immediately find any guidance on this in the same Handbook.
I’ve a feeling that I read somewhere that this is just what we folk with CdSWA should do… someone-sometime told me that we should consider ourselves EU… and show our CdSWA to support it…
Recent experience travelling with OH, he was taken out of the EU queue with me and firmly told to move to the non-EU queue. But apparently it varies as some borders are more relaxed and you are fine to be with an EU partner. However even with a WARP card one cannot expect ro be treated as an EU national.
OH obediently joined the non EU queue, and was then questioned about whether he had entered France illegally as no stamp in his passport as he had put his WARP card in his pocket when he shifted queues.
We have tended to go through the queue for the least amenable passport, or sometimes just separate depending on the immigration control layout & business. Coming back into the UK, my wife used to sometimes join me in the non-UK queue, other times we’d just go individually. I think I’d join her now in the 3rd country queue.
I’m British/Irish and up until now my husband has had a British passport only.
Where the EU passport control is manned, we’ve always gone together through that and explained the situation to the border guard.
In June, though, when arriving back at CDG from my husband’s Irish citizenship ceremony in Killarney, the EU passport control was automated so you had to go through individually and there was no possibility of speaking to an official.
We both therefore joined the non-EU queue.
Which was just as well because it transpired the EU automated system had completely broken down and everyone had to traipse through the manned non-EU controls.
Still waiting for thé naturalisation certificate for my husband so he can apply for his first Irish passport.
OK… so I reckon the general consensus for us Brits “Residents of France” is: the non-EU channel , but offer one’s CdSWA upfront with the passport very slightly behind…
Worked for me both leaving and entering back into France, they were actually more interested in my CDS than the passport which I made sure they did not stamp.
This extract from the Border Guards handbook suggests to me that Withdrawal Agreement folk resident in France, when going into France, are treated as similar to EU citizens (ie they can still exercise freedom of movement ONLY in France) but this freedom will not apply going into other EU states. In other words they can join the EU queues into France. I wonder if others agree…
When did these queues start? Particularly at the Tunnel, because the last time I went, and returned from, the UK into France I don’t remember being separated at all from everybody else, whatever their apparant nationality. Perhaps it is because the only check I remember was as I drove across a large open space and a man did a cursory check of me as the driver of a French registered car.
You go through the channel for the passport you hold, not the one you feel you should be able to use.
Just because someone got away with being in the wrong queue once in the past, doesn’t mean this will happen again. The French border control officers appear to be rather more tolerant of Brits with CdS being in the wrong queue in the past. Again, this doesn’t mean they will be next time.
I strongly urge SFers not to play this game when entering other countries as their border control officers aren’t so relaxed and flexible as the French ones. Especially the USA. I got 20 questions every damn time I entered the USA despite being a frequent visitor with a US employer and a spotless immigration record going back 40 years.
Your WA CdS isn’t a travel document in its own right, but it does act as a resident visa when entering France.
David I think folks are talking about queues at airports, where they do have separate lanes and automated gates - at ferry ports everybody’s in a vehicle of some sort so making them get out and be processed separately would be impractical.
Mind you, we might see that happen at ports when the biometric checking comes in later this year (postponed again to November I believe…)
Ah yes, but USA Homeland Security bods are in a special category marked “paranoid loons”…
My brother used to go back and forth frequently to the US when we lived in Turks & Caicos, to pick up camera gear, and one time they went into loon mode and he got the backroom interrogation treatment - they accused him of coming in to work illegally, the whole nine yards.
Eventually they relented, but I agree going through US immigration can be a nervous experience.
Yes, here’s the Guardian report - mentions 17th November though it says the EU has ‘yet to set a date’. I wonder if the Grauniad is the only one reporting on such EU issues…
Edit - also the article says - “It is, however, understood that EES would not be rigorously enforced for all travellers at first, with a soft introduction and discretion to wave people through to avoid border queues and disruption.” Not sure how that might work on the way back!
I was talking about going from here to the UK and then when I arrived back here by air so the french douanes would know not to stamp my passport which they acknowledged without any queries. Stansted was all automatic gates with assistants on each line to help people with queries and no passports were stamped there either entering or leaving, just looked at as they were more interested in the boarding cards for the planes. To be honest, I don’t think I will be going over there again now that my parents are both gone and I did not enjoy it really, too dirty,too crowded and cold and wet.
