International Travel Newbie: Customs/Immigration?

In all cases Customs is a non issue, except when you return to Chicago. There, on arrival to the US, you will fill out a form, go through passport control, then collect your checked bags, go through Customs, then re-check your bags to Kansas City, through Security, then on to your flight home. Customs in most of Europe is a non-issue because after Immigration, there will simply be officials standing off to the side, if you have something to , go talk to them, otherwise proceed out the door. Now Immigration or passport control.... When you land in Dublin, you are in "transit", so unless the airport is set up very strangely, (And assuming you are on a ticket from KC to Amsterdam) you will just go to your connecting flight. In Amsterdam, you will have Immigration Control into the Scengen Zone. You will have no further checks until you land in London after Rome, where you will do the UK immigration Control. If you fly though between Berlin and Rome, you will obviously need your passport for security. You will again go through Passport Control entering Paris, again in London, and again in Dublin, if you are flying.

I hope your trip is long enough to enjoy all these places. I also hope that from London to Paris you are taking the Eurostar train instead of flying. Customs (baggage and goods) and immigration (passport control) are two separate things. And security is a third thing. Assuming your KC to CHI to DUB to AMS is on one ticket, you will go through immigration and customs in Amsterdam. Customs in Europe is usually a matter of walking through the "Green Channel-Nothing To De-clare" line or door, but it is possible to have additional screening. Amsterdam to Berlin and Berlin to Rome are within the Schengen zone. This is treated as a domestic flight. Countries reserve the right to check passports and goods, but usually you will not have to do anything more than you would when flying from KC to Chicago. Rome to London and London to Paris: London is not in the Schengen zone. However, it is in the EU. Thus, there will be a passport check, but not customs. London to Dublin; these belong to their own shared immigration zone (not Schengen). So, you should not have to go through customs or immigration. Dublin to Chicago to KC: You will go through Irish passport control on leaving Dublin, and will probably go through US customs and immigration there as well. Your landing in Chicago will then be the same as a domestic landing. If you do not go through the formalities in Dublin, you will land in Chicago and go through passport control. You will then retrieve all your luggage, go through customs, and deposit your checked luggage at the re-check desk (usually just outside the customs door). You will then go through security again to board your flight to KC. Note that you will probably have to use your passport as your ID when checking in for your flights within Europe, but this is not the same as immigration.

Courtney, I have to congratulate you , I have never seen such a flight intensive itinerary ever , on this forum , or others.. lol.. Please tell me your trip is at least 3 or 4 weeks long! Don't worry , every time you get off a plane you just follow the crowd, you can't "miss" going through customs or immigration if required to do so, and so just following the crowd to either your connecting flight or to "baggage claim" will be fine. As I said, if required to go through any formalities you will not accidently forget or miss it,, lol

Courtney, I hope you realize that you are going to lose about half a day each time you have to fly - packing up and checking out, getting to the airport, going through Security, waiting at the gate, boarding, then de-boarding, getting into the city from the airport to your new hotel, checking in again and getting settled. Rinse and repeat for each move. :) Also, since you admitted you're an international travel 'newbie', it seems you are going back to Dublin because you thought you had to purchase a round-trip ticket in/out of the same city. For next time, that's completely unnecesssry. You could have flown out of London, or Paris, or wherever by booking a 'multi-city' airline ticket (aka open jaws) to save time and money. It's rarely a good idea to backtrack geographically, unless you have to return someplace for an event or whatever. In any case, have a great time! Every trip is a learning experience, and travel wisdom increases as we reflect on how we could have done it differently. Bon voyage et bonne chance!

Unless they have changed it recently, every flight going into Dublin from outside of Ireland will go through a passport check. This includes people changing flights in-transit and flights from the UK.

Courtney, I am also new to International travel, having just come back from a trip to Italy. What took me by surprise was having to go thru security after we went thru passport control both in Amsterdam and when we came back thru Seattle. I guess I was surprised because in both instances we had been on the secure side of the airport for flights and it seemed strange to go thru it again. We weren't ready for it, so had to fumble getting off belts, watches, in Amsterdam they wanted phones and cameras out of purses/packs and in to a separate container. If we had realized what the drill was we would have done some prep before we got in the passport control line in Amsterdam or after we gathered bags when going thru customs at Seattle. With my inexperience, I am assuming this is the way it usually is but of course have no concrete knowledge. What I would encourage you and DH to do is to just be ready for security after passports and if it doesnt happen everywhere then you are ahead of the game.

Whether you'll have to go through customs and/or immigration is not optional at any airport. Depending on where your flight is coming from you will be routed correctly at any airport anyway. So just follow the signs to baggage reclaim or "exit". In and out of Dublin in your case you will have to go through both. But as mentioned in a post above you won't have to fill out a customs declaration before hand. Arriving at Amsterdam Schipol airport you will go through customs and immigration for the entire Schengen zone. Your flight from AMS to Berlin is then treated like a domestic flight, so is your flight from Berlin to Rome. Had you exchanged Rome and Paris it would have gone on like this. Rome to Paris would have been a domestic flight, Paris to London would have been an international one (so customs and immigration) but London back to Dublin is within the British Isles and therefore they consider it as a domestic one - without any customs or immigration. Rome to London is an international flight (customs and immigration). Don't apologize for asking questions.

Many airports have identity controls at connection/transfer flights. They will look into your passport to make sure you is yourself. That is not necessarily a customs' check.

The customs formalities, such that they are, are no different flying to Paris from London or Rome. It is the immigration formalities that differ. Dublin does have an immigration control on flights entering from the UK whereas the reverse isn't true. British or Irish people though do not need to carry a passport their nationality (other nationals do need one). The land border however has no regular formalities whatsoever - indeed is unmarked.

'indeed is unmarked' Sure it is. Going both ways there's signs saying the speed limits are now posted in the other denomination. I'd also bet you could hive it out going north by the fact that there are probably speed camera signs every hundred yards.