 Poster: A snowHead
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I took my car on the DFDS ferry from Dover to Dunkirk on 16th March, and as has been usual the French border official at Dover put a stamp in my passport to show I was entering the Schengen zone. However on taking the 2pm ferry back from Dunkirk today when I inspected the passport after passing through the French border booth there was no exit stamp in the passport. The official had pulled his booth dark window closed after I handed over the passport so I couldn't see if he stamped it or not, and there was a queue behind me so I didn't want to hold things up by going through my passport in detail there and then. The question of course is does it matter for Schengen monitoring purposes. A passenger I spoke to said it's all digital now (not sure if that's correct or not), but I phoned the DFDS assistance number and the guy I spoke to seemed to agree with that. I've also sent an email to the French Embassy in the UK asking if I need to take any corrective action, hopefully I'll get a definitive reply.
In the meantime the ferry is just pulling out from Dunkirk harbour, hope the strong winds don't make the crossing a bit rough 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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What you have described has happened to me several times since Brexit.
The stamp isn't relevant, your entry and entry is tracked digitally, no need to worry.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Not sure about the digital thing. I had my passport stamped arriving at, and departing from Lyon airport.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@achilles, yes, every time I've travelled since Brexit I've had both entry and exit stamps put in my passport, hence my slight concern. However @NoMapNoCompass says it's tracked digitally so no need to worry. Which rather poses the question if it's tracked digitally why do some (most?) Schengen country officials go to the bother of putting stamps in at all? 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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In Lyon airport there are often two desks open at either side of the immigration hall. One for EU and the other for everyone else. On a couple of occasions I have been in the queue for 'everyone else' and been sent to the EU side. The EU side often didn't have a stamp so I just had my passport checked and that was it. When your passport is inspected the RFID chip embedded it will be scanned and the immigration officer may also optically scan the photo page. This data is used to track you entry and exit. The stamp is legacy procedure and a nice souvenir, but not really relevant.
This isn't anything to worry about believe me. If it was I would have been in bother a while back!
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A few weeks ago some friends of mine flew into Salzburg airport from the UK and walked straight through the non-Schengen arrivals customs gate at Salzburg, which was completely unmanned. Does this mean that their entry into Austria would be unrecorded, or would the airline or UK Border Force share files with Austrian customs?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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From the gov.uk travel to France web page:
Passport stamping
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.
You can show evidence of when and where you entered or exited the Schengen area, and ask the border guards to add this date and location in your passport. Examples of acceptable evidence include boarding passes and tickets.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Who cares?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Boarder guards. But as I recall they are moving to some digital recording so stamps may become irrelevant in EU.
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| snowyc wrote: |
Boarder guards. |
I always knew boarders were suspicious..... 
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You know it makes sense.
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@Alastair Pink, I’m afraid he’s wrong - there is no central digital record of entry and exit to Schengen - which is why they still (usually) stamp. You probably won’t have an issue as they missed you going out - what they’re concerned about is if you have no entry stamp as they don’t know how long you’ve been there for. My mate was dragged into a back room at Schipol because they didn’t stamp coming in - he had to dig out boarding passes etc to show he’d only been there a few days.
As others have said this goes away after EES launches later this year.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@NoMapNoCompass, that may be the case if you are only entering and leaving a single country, but until EES stamps are the only way a German border guard can tell when you entered France.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Austrian Seagull wrote: |
| A few weeks ago some friends of mine flew into Salzburg airport from the UK and walked straight through the non-Schengen arrivals customs gate at Salzburg, which was completely unmanned. Does this mean that their entry into Austria would be unrecorded, or would the airline or UK Border Force share files with Austrian customs? |
Wouldn’t be recorded so it is possible when they leave they might have to prove they haven’t been there before Brexit.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I was indeed referring to the single country use case. However to say there is currently no Entry/Exit sharing between EU countries is also incorrect, there is, although I agree the EES will formalise it.
To answer the original posters question again - you won't have any issues.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@NoMapNoCompass, yes I suppose if France already has it's own digital system then they know when I entered France (16th March) and when I left France (today). However unless that information is currently shared with other Schengen countries then when I next fly to Zurich at the start of May the Swiss border official looking at my passport may see that I entered the Schengen zone on 16th March but doesn't know when (or if) I left it.....
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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In my experience if you are challenged about your travel history just shrug your shoulders and say "It was the French." They are(in)famous amongst other European immigration agencies for their lack of stamping.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| NoMapNoCompass wrote: |
I was indeed referring to the single country use case. However to say there is currently no Entry/Exit sharing between EU countries is also incorrect, there is, although I agree the EES will formalise it.
To answer the original posters question again - you won't have any issues. |
If there is sharing across the Schengen area, why on earth would they still stamp passports (and why did my mate get dragged into an office at Schipol - when we had entered via there five days previously)? Have you got any references for that, given that there’s plenty that say there’s no central record across Schengen yet.
To answer the original poster’s question again: you probably won’t have any issues but you could have to prove your entry and exit date.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Alastair Pink wrote: |
| @NoMapNoCompass, yes I suppose if France already has it's own digital system then they know when I entered France (16th March) and when I left France (today). However unless that information is currently shared with other Schengen countries then when I next fly to Zurich at the start of May the Swiss border official looking at my passport may see that I entered the Schengen zone on 16th March but doesn't know when (or if) I left it..... |
Which was exactly the problem my mate had at Schipol. They said “we don’t know when you entered Schengen. You could have been here since before brexit”. So at Schipol they didn’t have a record of him arriving 5 days earlier.
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Alastair, you won't have an issue. Ignore the hysteria.
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@NoMapNoCompass, Probably unlikely to have a problem. But problems do occur. I have been questioned quite a few times recently going into and out of Schengen as have many of my colleagues.
I think we would all like the reassurance of knowing on what basis the statement below was made, in particular what country (or countries) and what evidence you have of a system that electronically logs you in and out across Schengen.
| NoMapNoCompass wrote: |
What you have described has happened to me several times since Brexit.
The stamp isn't relevant, your entry and entry is tracked digitally, no need to worry. |
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| NoMapNoCompass wrote: |
| Alastair, you won't have an issue. Ignore the hysteria. |
If the stamp is redundant, then why do they do it? Given the pressure on border guards, if it wasn’t necessary, they wouldn’t bother, surely? If they bother to do it doesn’t it imply that there are situations where it does matter? This isn’t ‘hysteria’, it’s logic.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Fri 31-03-23 10:32; edited 5 times in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| NoMapNoCompass wrote: |
| Alastair, you won't have an issue. Ignore the hysteria. |
You probably won’t. But you could - and if you do it’s probably easily sorted. This isn’t “hysteria” - it’s a fact that there isn’t currently a cross-Schengen electronic record of entry and exit. So if you get a grumpy border guard and you don’t have a stamp they could make things pretty inconvenient.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@LaForet, exactly. Why on earth would airports employ extra staff and queue managers if it’s unnecessary?
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| andy from embsay wrote: |
| So if you get a grumpy border guard .. |
It should be grumpy German border guard. All my troubles were always there even though everything on my side was ok.
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You know it makes sense.
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At Eurotunnel the French are diligently checking previous stamps before adding a new one, at Folkestone AND Calais, if there was no need to do so I'm pretty sure the French Border Police would have given up by now.
Perhaps, @NoMapNoCompass, could have a word, and stop the needless queuing.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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A few weeks ago someone returning from Moutiers on the direct-to-London Travelski/Eurostar service got pulled aside for interview / interrogation, for having no EU entry stamp from the outbound service a week earlier. Probably took 30 minutes to get sorted. Could have been a problem if he had been towards the back of the check-in queue, so without 30 minutes to spare before departure.
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