Geneva Airport to France missing the Swiss section -anyone?

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I wish I'd been on snow heads last year. Flying into the French side was fine and getting out and driving to chamonix was fine. Driving back was a nightmare. The map from the hire company was rubbish and couldn't find the French side and there's no sign posts. After much panic we finally found our way after trying every exit and then had to navigate our way to the Swizz side to get our flight. This seemed strangely impossible with a trolley so I had to carry luggage for a family of 5. But, if you know what to expect and you prepare you should be fine. We did catch our plan but it was close! And I at all possible, avoid staying in geneva. We thought a night there could be nice. Which it wasn't.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Jonesj, I had not realised that Geneva has a large red light district and, surprise surprise, that is where the budget hotels are (according to someone who stayed there)

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We stayed in quite a nice hotel - can't remember which one now. But incidentally, it was also right next to the red light district so it would seem that not only the budget hotels are located there. To be fair, the hotel was fine. It's just Geneva itself must be one of the worst cities I've ever been too.

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andyrew, French domestic flights come into the French side. International flights come into the Swiss side but that doesn't mean they'll let anybody in! When I met a couple who didn't both have Swiss entry papers they had to be taken to the French side. The wife had the right passport, the husband not. she had to go and collect the baggage then I picked them both up from the French side. I then SHOULD have driven through France but it's a faff, so I took a chance on driving back through Switzerland, having never had any passports looked at, in lots of journeys. The offending passport was a Zimbabwe passport. I was aware of the problem and had had to get a special piece of paper from the local mairie for the Zimbabwe passport holder. I had to do the same thing another time for a Thai passport holder.

Might all be different now, though - both cases were a few years ago and before Switzerland was in Schengen.

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pam w, i was about to say that once you're in Schengen, you're in but I still frequently have my docs checked in and out of the French side of the (Geneva) station and when rail crossing into Italy when often the whole carriage is checked.

I can update on Sunday as we're coming back in from Nice.

After all it is free

andyrew, they'd better still do that as we're on an Easyjet to France from the French side this afternoon.

under a new name, In the majority of continental europe you are obliged to carry your identity card with you at all times (which is why we are supposed to have our passports with us). Technically you can have your documents checked at anytime, but I suspect it is done more frequently close to the borders. It is this obligation to carry ID cards at all times that I suspect is the real reason the UK and Ireland did not join Schengen.

under a new name, Yes, there are some easyjet services from the French side. It depends on where you are going. If you time your arrival wrong you can get caught in streams of people transitting from the French to the Swiss sides of the airport. I do not know why.

While discussing Geneva airport does anyone know what happened to the plans for a hyper-speed rail link between Geneva and Lyon airports?

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johnE, yes, yes, I know that, I live in CH. I was under the impresion however that Schengen meant no mandatory for everyone every time passport checks at borders - e.g. road borders are rarely manned near here now, (exceptions being Bardonnex and Vallard) and there's no passport check for Schengen flights - just random occasional checks unless they noticed by satellite you loading your 10kgs of neat coke into your car in Istanbul.

So if you're arriving from France and happen not to have the correct papers for CH you are probably not going to have a problem as it's unlikely that anyone will be standing by the door checking papers. But it's clearly not 100% foolproof.

All flights from the French side are going to French airports. No flights to France go from the Swiss side. Not even the Swiss Airlines ones (cos they're operated by AF).

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My understanding is that in general it's no permanent immigration check (ie passport control), but they can still have a customs check (and customs officers will want to see ID).
My experience has been zero checks by road at Bardonnex, Basel, CERN (that's deserted), one into CH from Austria between Liechtenstein and the lake, and all airport arrivals.
On trains, I'll find out next month for CH, but between German and Austria, I've seen them spot check say 2-3 people in a carriage.
On road in Germany, they do random customs checks, as is their right under Schengen rules. They're easy to spot - shiny Audi A4's cruising at 110km/h on the Autobahn.

I'd always have passport, when not in home country.

And when the US president ever visits, then Schengen Immigration rules get suspended, because he is more special than the 28 EU presidents/PMs.

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andy, it is entirely possible (probable?) that I have confused the douaniers at the station/on the train with passport control. That sounds more likely.

Of course the US president is more special. He has a bigger 'plane.

Controls might be changing chez vous: http://www.admin.ch/aktuell/00089/?lang=fr&msg-id=51030 Is this something that comes up every few months like debating taxes or is it potentially a real shift in their approach? I seem to recall that barely a majority of the pop voted to join ten years ago anyway.

You know it makes sense.

Major building work going on on the access road on the French side of Geneva airport at the moment with temporary (8 months from October 2013) traffic lights close to the terminal. The car hire is still in the same area but you need to allow a bit of extra time to cater for the new roadworks.

For anybody considering parking on the French side the long term car park (p29) has completely disappeared and the entrance to the short term car park (p20) has moved, it is now a narrow entrance half way along the ground floor parking area. the first floor parking is no longer available so there is very limited parking available on the French side.
There is also a temporary roundabout installed at the junction of the road down to the airport just after the border post. The signposts aren't al that clear which is a little confusing if you know the way so could be extremely confusing if you have never been there before.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

skichampcouk, thanks, very useful information. I have visitors coming this Friday who are hiring a car and so far I have failed to get them to tell me which side of the airport they are hiring - I shall try again and if necessary I can warn them about the roadworks. They are navigationally challenged folk (took ages once, to get from Gatwick to my place near Chichester, and it turned out they went via Lewes).

Help!!

Geneva Airport to France missing the Swiss section -anyone?

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