Dual Nationality, Electronic Travel Authorisation and Border Control delays

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Also from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Easyjet leaves 100 behind at Milan in border check queues

About 100 people have been left stranded in Milan after a flight to Manchester left without them.

They were due to depart on an Easyjet flight on Sunday but faced queues of up to three hours at Milan's Linate airport because of border control checks.

Marooned passengers told the BBC people had been vomiting and passing out in the heat and now did not know how they would get home.

Easyjet said it was trying to support passengers but that the situation was "outside of our control".

One passenger, Kiera, 17, from Oldham, told the BBC she and her boyfriend faced a 20-hour wait in the airport until they could get another flight tomorrow. She said it had cost her mother about £520 for new flights, but that they would be going to Gatwick, not Manchester.

She added: "We got here at seven-thirty for our flight at eleven so were super early. We got to Border Control and it was a massive queue of people. I wasn't feeling great anyway because I think I'd got food poisoning. At about ten-fifty they brought some water over for people, and when we got to the front of the queue someone asked us if we were going to Manchester, and told us our flight had just gone. There were only about 30 people got on the plane, and about 100 people didn't."

(BBC article continues)

[Surrey 455]

One thing can do, and media doesn't seem to highlight this is previous week, look up arrivals at airport travelling to and see how many non Schengen flights arrive just before yours.  Gives you good indication if they will still be processing arrivals from previous flights.   (note flight times can vary by day of week so best to check same time previous week)

Thanks JohnD, good thinking. I'm off to Fuerteventura on Saturday. Just checked the scheduled arrivals and the previous Non EU^» (European Union - about) arrival is 5 hours earlier and the next arrival after is 90 minutes later. So hopefully will not have to wait too long. I believe that I am already registered having had my photo and fingerprints taken in Vienna in January.

The downside is I am starting to hear about probable strike action at both Stansted and Fuerteventura airports from this Friday. 

[Oxonhutch]

Geologist here: but if you like fancy and rare rocks, when in Fuerteventura visit the seaside village of Ajuy on the west cost if you can. It is a special area where rocks of the Jurassic aged, Atlantic Ocean floor rocks and the Earth's mantle have been brought to the surface and outcrop in the bay and its surrounds. Even if fancy rocks aren't your sort, there is a lovely tapas bar there on the beach.

[grahame]

There are ... multiple ... issues all in the one thread here.   

Headed out from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), the admission of people travelling on British passports into the Schengen area through the new biometric system is causing some headline generating blockages as it goes through what are hopefully teething problems.  The corollary to that is the Schengen area exit procedures which are also having some hiccoughs.

The second issue is for British citizens who are also citizens of another country (dual citizens) and can no longer enter the UK purely on a passport of their second county - they need to hold a British Passport or have a certificate of entitlement to enter (return) to the UK.  That is a new requirement too; from a personal  viewpoint we're an international family and with our particular metrics Lisa always carries both UK and USA passports as there's a similar issue in entering the USA.   Where it seems to be a particular issue is for certain family members of our generation who have lived out of the UK for half their lifetime,  travelled here in the past on non-British passports, and now find themselves required to get a British passport before they visit their fatherland.    The UK government says it has done a lot of publicity on the matter, but no amount of publicity will reach everyone - for example (in our family) the people who were born in Buckinghamshire, transported as children by their parents who moved to the USA, and have lived half their life in California - coming just for a visit to the place they were born is now steeped in red tape which has not made the headlines in the LA^▸ (Local Authority ) Times.

[Bob_Blakey]

I is confused; I am pretty sure that 'Dual Nationals' are by definition citizens of, and therefore passport holders of, two sovereign countries.

So why would a UK^▸ (United Kingdom) (or RoI) + 1 other passport holder be affected in any way by this immigration process change?

[grahame]

I is confused; I am pretty sure that 'Dual Nationals' are by definition citizens of, and therefore passport holders of, two sovereign countries.

So why would a UK^▸ (United Kingdom) (or RoI) + 1 other passport holder be affected in any way by this immigration process change?

The issue comes where a dual citizen has allowed their British passport to lapse - or perhaps has never held one.   Take the example I quote (and I am redacting some identifying data) of someone who was moved as a child from the UK to (in our family example) the USA.   She still has very strong family links to the UK and visits every few years and has done so on her USA passport, her British one having lapsed towards the end of the last century.

She's looking to visit again - but this time she finds that her USA passport isn't acceptable into the UK; she can't now get a visa or visa waiver because she's also British, but rather needs to apply for such a passport - from where she is in the USA, and with a turn around of a couple of months, or perhaps an extended timescale due to difficulting of proving / checking ID after multiple decades.

[Noggin]

Have been through Malaga this week. All very slick - nice lady helping with enrollment which took under 5 minutes for a family of 4 - then did e-gates no problem. Passport stamped coming in, but they didn't bother going back out again (hopefully that won't be a problem).   

Prior to that, the Portuguese weren't bothering in Lisbon at Easter, nor were the Swiss in Geneva at Christmas.

P.S. One noteworthy thing on the enrollment screens is that you have to confirm you have sufficient funds for your stay (c. €150/pp/day) and technically you have to be able to prove you have accommodation. If my Mum had followed the law, she would have needed to make an appointment with the Policia Nacional to fill out official invitation forms. 

[grahame]

And - another - case ... settled residents - from The Guardian

A German woman has been separated from her two-year-old daughter in Edinburgh after a Home Office mistake left her stranded in Dusseldorf earlier this week.

Liza Tobay, who has lived in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) for 15 years, had taken her oldest child, a six-year-old boy, to visit his grandfather and some other relatives over Easter when confronted with what she said appeared to be “a serious administrative error”.

She is one of millions of EU^» (European Union - about) citizens who, before Brexit, could just use their passport at the border, but must now prove they have “settled status” to enter the country as a lawful resident.

The first she knew of the error in the UK system was during her return on Wednesday when she tried to make a connecting flight from Munich to Edinburgh during a layover in Dusseldorf.

Article continues ...

[Surrey 455]

Geologist here: but if you like fancy and rare rocks, when in Fuerteventura visit the seaside village of Ajuy on the west cost if you can. It is a special area where rocks of the Jurassic aged, Atlantic Ocean floor rocks and the Earth's mantle have been brought to the surface and outcrop in the bay and its surrounds. Even if fancy rocks aren't your sort, there is a lovely tapas bar there on the beach.

Sorry for the late reply. I was in the resort of Costa Calma which is in the South East. I did not have a hire car and unfortunately public buses are very infrequent and I think there was only one route in my resort. I don't remember seeing that as an excursion from Costa Calma either. Anyway it sounds like the sort of place that would have interested me had I been able to get there.

Thank You.

[GBM]

We're probably booking a Norwegian cruise from/to Southampton next year.
Probably won't affect us needing ETA's, etc?

[grahame]

We're probably booking a Norwegian cruise from/to Southampton next year.
Probably won't affect us needing ETA's, etc?

Top advise is - if in doubt - read the official sites very carefully.

the ETA is for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

If you and your "we" company are British, you each should have a UK passport.   That is even if you are a dual national. If you are dual national, best to hold a UK passport in addition to the other, though you can obtain (costs a lot more than a UK passport) a certificate of authourisation.  Your UK passport should be valid on the day you return to the UK.

and the EES is for the Schengen area or Europe.

Again, if you are British, you should have a UK passport and this needs to be valid for at least three months after your return to the UK, and that must be within 10 years of the original validity.  OR if you are dual and hold a passport from a Schengen / EU^» (European Union - about) country, that passport will suffice for your entry into and exit from the Schengen area.  Entering under EES (and Norway is part of Schengen) you'll probably have photo and finger prints taken, and the Schengen computers will enforce the rule that you can only spend 90 days in any 180 period in Schengen.

In summary - if you are "just" British - as I am for example - no need for and ETA,  and this year the EES is done on the fly.  Just need a UK passport with 90 days validity left.    For a cruise, they will insist on insurance too.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Dual-national baby refused entry to UK^▸ (United Kingdom) after passport rule change

A family from Aberdeenshire was refused entry to the UK while trying to return from a holiday in Alicante because their baby did not have the correct passport after a change in the rules for dual nationals.

Eleven-month-old Lily Rodgers was born in Scotland but has an Austrian passport, which is the nationality of her father, Philipp, 34.

Under previous rules that were overhauled in February, a British dual national could travel to the UK using their foreign passport.

Lily's mother, Sarah Rodgers, 30, said they could now face a wait of several months while they wait for Lily's British passport application to be approved.

Sarah said that Lily's Austrian passport states she was born in Britain, and that she also offered to show her birth certificate as proof - but was told this wouldn't be sufficient. The couple, who live in Ellon and are also parents to three-year-old Heidi, had already had their luggage loaded onto the plane and it was only when boarding the plane that the problem was flagged.

Sarah said: "They were talking to each other in Spanish and when they told us we couldn't board we thought it must have been a system failure." The couple had to retrieve their luggage and were told to go to the help desk.

"We thought that we would miss this flight, but that the help desk would be able to sort out the problem and we would be able to get on another flight. It was when they said 'no' that I started to get stressed," she said. "It was eight o'clock at night so we booked into a hotel straight away and we were told that we would have to go to the consulate in the morning. I was hopeful they would be able to help but when we got there we were told it could take weeks to sort out."

As Philipp is from Austria, the family booked a flight to Vienna so they could stay with his family. "This is terrible but we are so lucky to have family here that we can stay with. I don't know what we would do if we didn't."

(BBC article continues)

[grahame]

The European Entry System continues to provide delays - but patchy ones.  My 3 transits so far have been easy (all via Harwich - Hoek) but reports from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xw2kjlrlxo suggest problems on some flights ...

British holidaymakers should arrive at European airports three hours before their flight home departs due to lengthy queues caused by new border checks, the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) boss of budget airline Wizz Air has warned.

Yvonne Moynihan told the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) the long delays getting through passport control at some European airports had caused some passengers to miss return or connecting flights.

Airports said queues were worsening under the Entry Exit System (EES) which requires travellers to register fingerprints.

But a European Commission spokesperson said EES was working well at "almost all border crossing points".

... and there are pictures of long queues of cars at Dover

I notices in the article

Since October, almost 80 million entries and exits have been registered, with 35,000 refusals of entry recorded.

Which tells me that 1 in 2300 are being turned away.

[Chris from Nailsea]

An update, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Athens passport 'mega queue' strands Ryanair passengers

Ryanair passengers were stranded in Greece after their UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-bound flight left without them as airports grapple with passport control delays.

The flight from Athens International Airport to London Luton on Sunday reportedly left without 20 to 50 passengers, some of whom became visibly angry, prompting airport authorities to step in, the BBC has been told.

It is the latest incident since the EU^» (European Union - about)'s Entry Exit System (EES) was brought in to track when non-EU citizens enter or leave the Schengen free movement area.

Ryanair blamed border delays, while the airport said it had been experiencing congestion linked to "additional processing requirements", though neither directly said EES was responsible.

In April, Greek tourism minister Olga Kefalogianni promised British passengers would not face biometric checks or be "burdened" by bureaucracy when travelling to Greece this summer. But the situation is unclear after the Greek Foreign Ministry later disputed that any exemption existed.

Milo Boyd, a Daily Mirror travel writer who managed to board Sunday's Ryanair flight to Luton, said he had not had his fingerprints scanned or his photo taken on entry or exit at Athens. He told the BBC there had been a "mega queue" of several hundred people at both security and passport control amid stifling temperatures.

(BBC article continues)

[Bob_Blakey]

.....though neither directly said EES was responsible. .....

They didn't need to - anybody with a pair of eyes knows why this is happening.