Do you go thru British Customs in Dublin if you are only connecting to your destination in England

No British customs in Dublin - but I expect you will have to pass through Irish passport control before making your way to your connecting flight.

And, as the UK and Ireland are part of the Common Travel Area, your Dublin-Liverpool connection will, in effect, be treat as a domestic flight. So you will likely not go through UK passport control on arrival at Liverpool.

Is this one through ticket or two separate tickets? This is the one point that decides the answer to all such questions, but which the posters never say.

There is no customs between Ireland and the UK because both are in the EU. There is also no immigration as both have a common passport area,
Assuming you have one ticket, you will go through Irish immigration in Dublin (which can take up to an hour). Your luggage will be labelled through to Liverpool and will go through customs after you have collected it in Liverpool.
If you have two tickets, you will have to go through both Irish immigration, collect your luggage and go through Irish customs in Dublin. You then need to check in again and hand in your luggage, then go back in through security. There will then be no checks at Liverpool. This will take extra time, and your connection will not be guaranteed.

AFAIK the USA is the only country that operates customs or immigration in foreign countries, and then only in a few places.
The TSA is a US government organisation, and does not operate in other countries, who have their own security arrangements.

Thank you to both ramblin on and Chris. In answer to Chris' question, we have booked a ticket from LAX to Liverpool, which requires a connection in Dublin. Our bags will be checked at LAX all the way through to Liverpool. So I think you would consider that one through ticket, one booking, not two separate tickets or two bookings. What do you think? Ann

That is one ticket, not two. You will go through passport control in Dublin.

Thanks Nancy. So to be clear, passport control usually involves a customs declaration form or answering questions on a computer screen, correct? Also do you know if Dublin has those kiosk machines where you place your passport facedown and answer questions on the screen and you look up and a camera takes your picture. Usually that is both immigration and customs, unless I'm wrong.

Ann, when you speak of computer screens, cameras, and such, you're thinking of US immigration and customs procedures. In Europe it's different.

For immigration (passport control), they will take your passport and scan it. They may or may not ask you a few questions, like duration of your trip, purpose of your visit, etc. Unless they suspect you of trying to do something you shouldn't (like overstay a tourist visa, work, etc), they then stamp your passport, and you're done.

For customs, you simply walk through the Green Channel - Nothing To Declare line. Unless you are "randomly selected for additional screening (I've seen it happen once, in Poland), you're done.

All much easier than returning to the US.

Thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to answer in such detail. Much appreciated.

"passport control usually involves a customs declaration form" - No, because passport control (AKA immigration) are two entirely different things.

• Passport control (immigration) is the check whether you are allowed in the country, and happens before you pick up your luggage. Immigration are interested in you, not your luggage.
• Customs is the check whether your goods (luggage) is allowed into the country, and if so what customs duties (taxes) you have to pay. This takes place after you pick up your luggage, it has to because customs are interested in what is in your luggage.

You do not need to actually fill out a customs form. If you walk through the green channel exit you are deemed legally to have filled out a declaration that you have nothing to declare.

Depending on what time you arrive you may have the option of going through the transit corridor rather than the main immigration at DUB. It tends to close early in the afternoon.

Not aware of the specific arrangements at Liverpool but at some airports non EEA originating bags will go onto a separate belt whatever flight. Worth knowing if at first they seem to be missing.

Chris F and Marco, thank you for your replies. I can understand going through a security check of your carry on baggage and walking through a magnetometer since I'm just connecting to my Liverpool flight, but it doesn't make sense that we will have to go through Irish immigration/passport control if we are not leaving the terminal and entering the streets of Dublin. We arrive at Terminal 2 and we will be departing two hours later from a different gate at Terminal 2. So is this your personal experience going through Irish immigration/passport control in Dublin even when you are simply connecting to a flight and not leaving the airport? Thx

The short answer to your question is yes.

The longer answer is that the only way not to go through a passport check at DUB is to arrive at the 300 gates and depart from them - something that isn't 100% predictable in advance. These gates are normally used by terminal 1 flights in any case so it isn't going to happen.

The reason for no check on arrival to the UK has already been explained.

Ann, yes, there are no passport controls between Ireland and the UK, they have a "common passport area" (similar to the Schengen area but smaller). So the flight from Dublin to Liverpool counts as "domestic". Passengers coming off this plane DO NOT go through passport control at Liverpool. You are transferring from international to "pseudo-domestic" at Dublin, so that is where you go through passport control.
Your luggage will get mixed up with all the other luggage on the Liverpool flight, but customs can tell from the luggage label which items came from Dublin, and are therefore "intra-EU", and which (like yours) are from outside the EU and therefore liable to customs checks. Not that they are likely to check them, they only do random checks.

You go through a passport check because you are entering European soil from abroad (in this case, Irish). Any time you land somewhere other than US territory you will have a passport check. But since you will then be landing on European soil again in Liverpool, you will not have a passport check.

Got it. Thanks to all of your input. I will expect to go through passport control in Dublin. I understand better now about the EU relationship between Ireland and England and the need for passport control in Dublin. I just returned from a trip to Morocco, and my flight was LAX - Chas de Gaulle - Casablanca. On arrival at Chas de Gaulle, we only had to go through a security check of carry on bags and moved quickly to our departing gate. On arrival in Casablanca our final destination, we went through passport control and customs. I would think since France is part of the EU we should have gone through passport control, but we didn't.

Nancy, slight correction.
It is not because you are "entering European soil" but because you are entering the UK and Ireland "Common Travel Area".
If you flew USA - Dublin - France, then there are passport controls between Ireland and France, so you would stay "in transit" in Dublin and all passengers go through passport control on landing in France.

There are two passport unions in Europe:
1) The "Schengen area", 26 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland
2) "Common Travel Area", 2 countries; Ireland and the United Kingdom.

If you stay within either of these areas, you do not go through passport control (immigration). Into or out of either of these areas you do.
All this is not to be confused with the EU, which is a customs union (amongst other things) of 28 countries, and you do not go through customs travelling between EU countries.

Ann, "LAX - Chas de Gaulle - Casablanca. . . . I would think since France is part of the EU we should have gone through passport control, but we didn't."
But Morocco is not part of the EU, so that is two international flights, and you stay in transit in Paris. But, as I said above, it is not the EU, it is Schengen which is the passport union. And Morocco isn't a member of Schengen either.

Thank you Chris and Nancy. You are amazing. This is my first time on this site. How do you learn so much about travel. I noticed you post alot. Do you do it just for fun and to be helpful or are you part of Rick Steves organization. So so helpful. Thank you.

"Do you do it just for fun and to be helpful or are you part of Rick Steves organization."

Almost all of us do this just to be helpful and for fun. A few people here are members of Rick's staff, and they are so identified (it says "RS" in a blue circle next to their name).

"How do you learn so much about travel."

Practice makes perfect . And I'm not just being snarky. One thing Rick says that I think of constantly is that each trip would be better if you could do it twice -the first time as a rehearsal and the second time as the real thing. I've recently returned to some places and found the second trip was much better, precisely because I made my "mistakes" the first time and could make changes the second time. If you haven't been to a place before, the next best thing is to read as much as possible and ask questions about it from from those who have - hence the great utility of this board.

Thanks Harold. This Forum is marvelous!

How do you all decide which questions, of the many thousands, to respond to? Do you know if there is such a forum for the United States or the individual states like California?

Even otherwise experienced travellers are sometimes puzzled by the CTA arrangements. "I seem to have bypassed immigration" they post.

You can't enter the UK this way if you need a Visa, even if just for the type of entry such as study. If you do then it counts as a visitor admission at the Irish border and you cannot then change status afterwards.