passport control

My experiences are:
1) both between the UK and France but not between the UK and Scotland.
2) both between Italy and Spain but not between Spain and France.

Not sure if where I crossed make a difference of if the situation has changed since I did the crossings.

Maybe someone else has recent experiences between the countries you are traveling between.

Edwin

Edwin,

could you please explain to me how you got into a passport control between Italy and Spain? Did you take a ferry?

As long as you don't board a plane or the Eurostar train under the Channel I'd say it is extremely unlikely you'd encounter another passport control within the European Union.

Some high profile sites may have extra security checks but those won't require you to show a passport.

We recently have traveled between the UK and France on the Eurostar. There was no passport check of any kind. We have traveled from France to Italy and from Italy to Austria and to Switzerland and Germany by train -- no passport check anywhere. The only time our passports were checked was at the airport entering the UK and leaving from Germany

Allen, all of the places you mentioned fall under what is known as "Schengen" which means border crossing regarding immigration and passport control are virtually non-existent. However, each country still has their own customs and can stop to inspect you to make sure you are not smuggling anything. It's doubtful that you will encounter this. Traveling in Europe by train and bus is now like traveling from state to state in the U.S.--almost.

FYI--the UK and Ireland are not part of Schengen but since you aren't going to either, don't worry about it.

Allen, In 2006 I arrived in Amsterdam by ferry from UK, and once on the continent, never had to use my passport again, and I travelled from Netherlands-Germany-France. I'll be returning in two weeks travelling to 6 different countries and don't expect to need my passport. As already mentioned, travel between countries in the Schengen Zone ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area) is like travelling between states/provinces in USA/Canada, you won't even know you've crossed a border... Americans/Canadians do NOT need any type of visa to travel through the Schengen zone

I echo the other posters with regards to the Schengen zone. Although it should be noted that they are sometimes spot customs checks and countries can temporarily reimplement border checks in special circumstances (i.e. if there are any international summits or events on.)

P.S. 10 points to the first person who can say why Edwin found no border controls between "the UK and Scotland."

Oooh, oooh! I know! Scotland is IN the UK, Edwin. :)

Peter, great question...lol...for a long time I ( and perhaps many North Americans) had some trouble understanding the political relationship between England, Scotland, and Wales until a friend who hails from Newcastle explained it to me. Definitely a unique arrangement but at least it works!

Don't forget Northern Ireland is also part of the UK!

I've crossed country borders by train only twice.
Once, crossing from Czech Republic to Austria, two very nice officials walked the aisles of the trains, stamping passports with an exit stamp (Czech official) and an entry stamp (Austrian official.) Easy.

On an earlier trip, about ten years ago, my wife and I flew into France, received passport stamps, and later traveled to Barcelona via train without any border controls. A week later when we attempted to fly out of Madrid, the officials gave us a minor hassle for not having a Spanish entry stamp. They bothered us for five minutes, questing our story of entry, but ultimately stamped an exit stamp for Spain and allowed us to fly back to the USA.

Matt, I think the key phrase there was "about ten years ago". Things are entirely different now when crossing borders in Europe.

Keep your passport handy. I've definitely been passport checked since the Schengen agreement when crossing by land from France to Switzerland at Basel, and also from France to Spain at Portbou. Also remember Switzerland is not part of the EU or the Schengen agreement. Some border crossings are more informal than others but you should never pack your passport somewhere you can't get at it quickly.

Philip...Switzerland became part of Schengen on March 29 of this year. But it is still not part of the EU.

As everyone has mentioned, for the countries you mention, there are no formal border controls. You may encounter a passport check on the train as you cross borders, but those are more rare. However, of all places in Europe, transport coming out of the Netherlands is more likely to see checks in due to drug enforcement issues.

I had a hard time following the conversation so far. If you fly into A'dam, you will have your passport checked at Schipol.

When you train from A'dam to Germany, France, Belgium or Switzerland, you are most likely to not realize you have crossed a border.

The exceptions are when there is a major activity happening (political or possibly sporting event) or some intelligence that the local authorities have determined require additional security measures.

Many are disappointed that you don't get your passport stamped at all the places you visit now.

I've entered this arena a bit late, but I must contribute my two eurocents' worth. This is more of a response to Thomas who says that there were no passport checks for the Eurostar from the UK to France. I traveled via Eurostar to Paris on July 20th and back to the UK on the 23rd and had to go through immigration/passport control in both places. Before boarding the train, Eurostar passengers go through French immigration at the terminal in London and British immigration at the terminal in Paris.

Yes, Olana, that is quite true. We certainly had our passports checked in May of this year, from UK to Paris. Thomas is mis-remembering.

• A passport is required for crossing the Dutch border by train *

On the 9th of September, 2009, I departed from the Deutscge Bahn's Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main) station at 09:28 on the ICE (Intercity Express)number 128 to Utrecht, Netherlands. After the train crossed the Dutch border, a Dutch law enforcement official demanded to see my passport while the train was in motion. Unfortunately, I had left my U.S. passport in Frankfurt. The only other identification I had was privately issued photo identification. The official made it clear that I had to have a passport to enter Holland. My colleague had a U.S. passport, which the official examined with a magnifying glass. Needless to say, the official made an exception to let me enter without a passport. Returning later that night to Frankfurt, I had no encounters with any law enforcment.

Actually, David, you were just singled out. Any country in Schengen can ask to see your passport when crossing a border however this is no longer the norm. Most people cross without being questioned. (If you really needed your passport, he wouldn't have let you in.)

David, that once happened to me on the same route but in the reverse direction. When the train crossed into Germany from Holland about twenty German Federal Police officers boarded the train and approached random passengers. Some passengers were asked for their passports and a check of their names was done via a cell phone. Others had to bring their baggage into the dining car to be inspected. They appeared to be targeting people who looked non-European based on their clothing. For example an American wearing a collegiate t-shirt was singled out, a Mexican wearing soccer jersey was singled out as well. Moral of the story, random inspections do occur.

Also Michael,

Carry your passport with you. It's your only valid ID when you are traveling. I can't recall ever being asked but I'd rather have it and not need it than vice versa.

I'm wondering if there is an emphasis in and out of Amsterdam because of drugs - but I don't want to start a fight about A'dam.

I doubt it had anything to do with Amsterdam and drugs, I've taken this train a couple of other times and and there were no spot checks. It's not that hard to obtain soft drugs in Germany;)

With respect to the previous comment about whether we were singled out on the Deutsche Bahn ICE train by the Dutch law enforcement official, my colleague is a Korean born U.S. citizen who speaks fluent English with a Korean accent. I, on the other hand, am a caucasian. I can only wonder what might have happened had it been that my colleague was not carrying her passport.

When we returned to Frankfurt from Den Bosch, also known as Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, we took four connecting trains: 1) a Dutch NS IC train, 2) two DB regional "express" trains which stopped every few minutes and 3) a DB ICE train from Koln to Frankfurt.

We did not encounter any conductors or other officials on the first three trains. On the ICE train, the conductor scanned our pre-paid tickets which were printed on a home computer with a hand held laser reader and insisted that our tickets were not vaild. We insisted that they were, and he just walked away.

However, in the dining car, when I asked if they would accept credit cards, I was informed by the waiter that they they only accept Euros. After I paid, I noticed that at on the menu that they accept all major credit cards.

Edwin must be a secret member of the Scottish National Party. There is currently a big scandal/to do in Scotland right now because some of Salmon's bureaucrats have developed reports entitled trade between Scotland and the UK. The biggest part of the scandal is that some are saying that he's had government workers doing work on the independence referendum and there are those who don't like their tax pounds going to that effort. ; ) Pam