Immigration process question

You don’t actually even need a passport to travel between the U.K. and Ireland if you are British or Irish so the checks are not the same as you would normally get when travelling between countries.

Passport checks when you leave a country are always pretty quick. Just a check at the boarding gate. Countries are much more fussy about who they let in than who they let leave. Your experience seems very standard to me.

There are no immigration checks between the UK and Ireland (mostly). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Travel_Area

Exit checks are pretty new for the UK, until 2015 they only wanted to see your passport when you entered the country, they were not interested in when or how you left. Checks are now done, but much less formal than the Schengen area. If you're leaving the UK by plane, the airline handles it.

Interesting. I knew about the common travel area, but had still assumed since there were time limitations, there would be checks.

I started thinking and decided that, with my four or five trips to the U.K., I had not flown elsewhere from there except home (unless just transiting). Same with Ireland. And with the checks at Gatwick and at Dublin, I just assumed I would have the others.

Thanks for answers!

In my experience I have never had Border Force checks when travelling in either direction at a UK seaport between the UK and the Republic of Ireland by ferry.

And I have never had any kind of check arriving or departing from Ireland by ferry.

Sometimes you get the police doing identity or brief property search outbound checks at UK seaports, but that is different to immigration. Such checks are usually very perfunctory. While you don't need a passport to travel in the CTA you are meant to have some type of photo ID, even to Northern Ireland but it is not compulsory. Last time I came in to Liverpool was a shock when there was a line of very alert police, some armed, at Birkenhead arrivals Hall as that was a first for me.
I assume there was a specific tip off about something or someone. But some people did not have ID and the police had to be reminded forcefully of their limited powers given their aggressive attitude. In that situation, without specific reason to suspect you they cannot demand your identity.

All very interesting. I have only ever changed countries by ferry one other time (Albania to Greece) and had an immigration process both leaving and arriving, like at an airport.

New experiences! :)

From one US passport holder to another......

Let's start with travel between Great Britain and Ireland. British and Irish subjects travel freely thanks to the CTA. However, others have to go through Irish Immigration. (Like Us.)

Going from Ireland to Great Britain, there is no British immigration. So, none would be expected when arriving in Holyhead. (The transportation companies have to make sure you have a passport but it's not an official check.) I've gone back and forth between Great Britain and Ireland numerous times and that has always been my experience.

You see I say Great Britain and not the United Kingdom as the travel between Ireland and Northern Ireland is different.

The UK does not have a physical check of your passport for exiting, It now takes your photo just as it does when you enter using the egates. (I last did that in early July. I'm surprised that you got some type of stamp leaving the UK. I've never gotten a stamp or even an official passport check by Border Force. And that's 30+ years of traveling to the UK and leaving from numerous airports within.)

The US is now using facial recognition. I had that at JFK in New York two weeks ago when leaving. The airline didn't want to see my passport as it took a photo of me instead. (Facial recognition).

As for going digital, yes, that is what is happening. Once ETIAS and EES start up, it will get even faster. Americans will be able to use the egates throughout Schengen.

The UK does not have a physical check of your passport for exiting,

Except for when you take the Eurostar from St. Pancras to the Continent. But it's right next to the Eurozone check.

The UK does not have a physical check of your passport for exiting, It now takes your photo just as it does when you enter using the egates

That happens at airports, but unless it has been changed recently, not at seaports when going from the UK to Ireland. And I have never seen anyone at Immigration at Dublin, Fishguard or (in former times) Cork (I say Cork as the ferry port is at Ringaskiddy, not Cobh) ports- so it would be impossible to check the passports of any nationality as there is no-one there to do so. There is the ability to staff the desks but they aren't on a routine basis.

It would be interesting to know what happens at Ringaskiddy when the ferry arrives in from France.

All very interesting….. Frank II, you made me question my memory and I had to go back and check my passport. LOL. So no stamp entering or exiting U.K. but I definitely remember the old style (guy in the booth) check at Gatwick headed to Dublin (not egates). There was a bit of a long line. And I do have a stamp for entering Ireland with nothing on paper to prove I left either country. Ha! But after that, definitely stamps for entering and exiting Italy.

Thanks all for indulging my curiosity!