Confusing Brexit travel red tape questions answered by Simon Calder

Isn’t Brexit brilliant? After the democratic vote to leave the European Union, the UK successfully negotiated for British citizens to become “third-country nationals” in common with people from Venezuela and Tonga. That means we are protected from having to spend too long in the EU and wider Schengen Area (including Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and plucky Liechtenstein).

We no longer have to endure all that pesky culture, cuisine and sunshine for any longer than 90 days in any 180 days.

In other words: if you travel to the Schengen Area on 1 January you can stay to the end of March, but you can leave and may not return until late June (this does not apply to Ireland).

In addition, British passport holders are also subject to two new rules related to issue and expiry dates when travelling to the Schengen Area. A UK passport must comply with these conditions:

These rules came into effect at the start of 2021; at the time, travelling abroad was illegal and many people did not notice.

I explained the rules to all the leading airlines and travel companies – noting particularly that the two conditions are independent of each other. But some of them got it into their heads that “UK passports are not valid in the EU beyond nine years and nine months” – which is nonsense.

Regrettably, staff from some airlines are still getting the rules wrong and barring passengers who are perfectly well documented from travelling. Last week I reported on not one but two birthday celebration weekends that had been wrecked by ground staff working for KLM and Norwegian respectively.

To explain more on the European red tape we so eagerly embraced, I conducted an Ask Me Anything session on 3 March.

Q My family and I will be travelling to Cyprus in September for a holiday. Can you advise if we will need the new travel visa, Etias?

“Holidaymaker”

A This is a two-stage answer. Let me begin by clearing up the Etias aspect, then I will deal with Cyprus specifically.

The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias) will require “third-country nationals” such as the British to go online, provide a wide range of personal and pay €7 (£6). This is the much-delayed EU version of the American Esta scheme and the UK's own Electronic Travel Authorisation.

But before Etias can begin, the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) must be running flawlessly across the entire Schengen Area, which is almost all of the European Union plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

The EES was supposed to come into effect all the way across the continent from the Greek islands to Norway’s border with Russia in November 2024, but was postponed indefinitely as the individual countries were not ready. It will not be pan-European, I predict, until late 2026 at the earliest. So no one travelling to the EU this year need worry.

Now for the Cyprus question. The island is an outlier in the European Union: like Ireland, it is a member of the EU but outside the wider Schengen Area. (There are good geo-political reasons why Ireland will remain outside Schengen: the Common Travel Area, which predates the Schengen agreement by many decades, means that the Republic has a fluid border with a non-Schengen nation, ie Northern Ireland.)

At present anyone who likes to spend their winters somewhere warmer than the UK can benefit – because Cyprus has an entirely separate “90/180-day” allowance. You could spend April to June in Cyprus and then head for Greece for a further three months, then returning to the island.

But Cyprus is expected to join the Schengen Area later this year, removing this loophole.

Q Dual UK and EU citizens in theory will not need to sign up for Etias or the UK equivalent [the ETA]. However, in practice, how will this work if you are travelling with both passports, given that airline data systems only seem able to cope with one passport? Alternatively, could you just travel on your UK passport and voluntarily register and pay for Etias?

“Jeremy 500”

A Many British travellers are blessed with the benefit of an European Union passport – particularly from Ireland. They allow the holder to swerve all the rules. They can go through the (almost always) faster Schengen Area queue, and of course have no need to have their passport stamped. All that Schengen border staff can do is check that the document is valid and that it belongs to the holder.

With airlines wanting passport information in advance, my advice is always to book travel on your EU passport, but to keep your UK passport in your pocket for use when entering Britain. By that stage the airline has lost interest in you. Going through UK Border Control with a British document avoids any issues with length of stay and, soon, the ETA. Though if it is an Irish passport, you can use it happily throughout.

(This advice applies only to entering the UK – some countries do not allow people to carry two passports. For example, the Foreign Office says: “It is illegal to have 2 passports in your name in Saudi Arabia. Immigration authorities will take additional passports. You must leave Saudi Arabia using the passport you entered on.”)

Q Returning to UK recently on our EU passports, there were only a few queuing in the UK passport lane but hundreds in the EU lane – including us, as we booked return flights with our EU passports. We wondered whether it was “legal” to show our UK passports in the UK lane despite having our EU passports recorded on both flights?

Gordon C

A Yes, it is legal (and sensible) to leave an EU country on an EU passport but cross the UK border on a British document.

But I am confused about “the UK lane”. My understanding of UK Border Control is that the “fast” lane allows a wide constituency of UK, EU, wider Schengen Area, Australian, American, Canadian, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore citizens. I don't think I have ever seen a “UK passports only” queue, though I am happy to be corrected.

Q I am a UK passport holder and my husband has an Irish passport. We regularly travel together to France as we have a maison secondaire. Each of our trips is for less than 90 consecutive days but as we make several of these trips I am obviously over the 90/180 rule. It was my understanding that as long as I travelled with my husband then I was allowed freedom of movement. I have had my marriage certificate translated and take this with me along with evidence of our trips together.

On our last visit a passport officer at Limoges airport informed me that I needed a visa even though I was travelling with an EU passport holder. I am aware that if I stay longer than three months in one trip then I need to apply to the local prefecture for a visa but I don’t anticipate this ever happening. Please can you advise me as to what I should do?

Lyn Eden

A Your husband is lucky to have an Irish passport, and you are also fortunate to be able to accompany him. My understanding (which I stress I have not fully researched with the relevant European Union legislation) is that human-rights law means you are able to spend as much time as you wish in the EU with him as you like, to respect the right to family life.

Q We were booked as a family of four to Prague on 27 December for three nights. All our passports were valid, with over three months left on return but I was refused travel at Gatwick. The staff were incredibly unhelpful in a distressing situation but were eventually told it was because of my issue date on the passport. I had to leave my family to travel without me. My children were incredibly upset. The staff couldn't have cared less and simply asked us to move out of the way. It completely stumped us as it has never been a thing before?

Laura

A I have done all I can to boost awareness of the extra red tape we demanded, but sadly people are still falling foul of the “no older than 10 years” rule. I am sorry the airline handled it so badly.

Luckily we have the many benefits of Brexit to console us.