Dover

[Fisherman]

Its the same at airports which is why there have been longer queues there also, its not just stamping a passport, its checking people, what they are carrying and their details etc from a "third country". This is the French doing what they do for all third countries, controlling their borders. Even if it takes just a minute longer per person the shear volume of traffic which is tens of thousands of people a day is enough to cause this kind of chaos without putting the proper resources that they knew would be required in place. It will be magnified also by freight which now has a mammoth amount of paper work to comply with. Thankfully now much of it is prepared away from the ports but if its not right then it causes further delays.

The clue was in the name why it worked perfectly before. "Free movement" we no longer have it.

Not so smug now I bet, except she probably is

https://twitter.com/x/status/1551206394686218240

My mate landed in Palma on Friday Barry. It took them nearly two hours to get through passport control. Everyone’s passport was looked at carefully, and stamped. In previous years you only had to flash it at the officials, and it normally took about 30 minutes.

 

[Derekoak]

It will only get worse later this year when the Eu brings in biometric controls for all third countries, which probably mean you must leave your vehicle.

 

[brian c]

I live 7 miles from Dover. The traffic is normal for us

 

[Costers]

I certainly don’t think it’s incompetence oof the French. They have extra work today which if it takes time so what? It’s not like the passengers are in France. Might be different if the checks were done on the French side. Don’t think they would allow the port of Calais to clog up.

 

[shortcircuit]

My mate landed in Palma on Friday Barry. It took them nearly two hours to get through passport control. Everyone’s passport was looked at carefully, and stamped. In previous years you only had to flash it at the officials, and it normally took about 30 minutes.

I assume they are being stamped as a result of the 90 days in 180 and that is your record as well as bigbrother?

 

[Wooie1958]

On a simialr theme when we was coming back from France through Calais port back in May we had a fair old wait to get through passport control and check in.

Going out 4 weeks earlier it took us the best part of a couple of hours to get through Dover check in etc. etc. because the port was gridlocked so on the return given the Dover experience we arrived at Calais in plenty of time to find that there was only about a dozen or so vehicles in front of us waiting to go through and there was only 2 kiosks open at the new entrance.

Each vehicle was taking forever, in fact long enough for me to turn the engine off each time we moved up 1 vehicle length.

Check in, passport control, another check in, then security check was all done in slow motion, thankfully we got wavied through the customs shed which we had to drive through, the 2 young women in there just stepped back so i carried on through.

Passports got looked at by both people in the kiosk, then scanned, then looked at again, then looked at us, then stamped, then looked at again, then looked at us again and then returned to me ( driver ) singularly

The young girl at the queue lanes told us we`d only just made it and to arrive earlier next time, i said we`d been there 2 1/2 hours but that drew a blank look on her face so i left it at that and we boarded, within a few minutes we set off.

Got out of Dover without any checks, the guys on the little platform by the customs sheds just blanked us so i drove through and away up the hill.

 

[Rodders1234]

We came back to the UK last Thursday (just before the school holidays) and we were delayed over 2 hours in Calais. Reason only 2 UK border control kiosks in operation, short staffed! No problem with the French passport control. Missed our ferry and had to get on the next one.

 

[myvanwy]

That sort of answers the questions. Same both ways. Perhaps move the border checks to the actual countries as suggested in this thread.

 

[barryd]

That sort of answers the questions. Same both ways. Perhaps move the border checks to the actual countries as suggested in this thread.

I Dont think that would be popular. Wasnt our borders being moved to France part of the 2003 Le Touquet agreement that saw the then migrant crisis drop from 80000 a year to 30000 as a result? I believe it also required a lot of security investment also.

 

[myvanwy]

Seems to work ok for airports? Iv not flown for a while so I dont know how much scrutiny is applied to your passport on entering EU country, prior to getting stamped.

 

[Cass]

We drove from Yorkshire to Dover on the 12th sailed on the morning of the 13th no hold ups, not many on the ferry straight off at the other end

 

[myvanwy]

Lets see in one or two weeks time when the flow should be reversed. We are able to suit ourselves these days regarding travel so returned before the "rush". One thing I will mention is, when we got to Calais tunnel port and went through the return booths, I pulled up for the checks at the French booth but the operative was sound asleep. Chair reclined and feet upon desk. I revved the engine a bit but no sign of life. Do I hit the horn? SWMBO says, look inside, there are two more sound asleep. Stuff this, I proceeded to the Brit booth and mentioned to the guard, "they are fast asleep back there" to which he replied "Yep, we had heard that laughing. Now I need to go and check my passport as I cant remember if it got stamped on return.

Just remembered to check passport, not stamped. Looks like they had the last laugh. Booked to go back over Sept. See what happens.

 

[REC]

Just remembered to check passport, not stamped. Looks like they had the last laugh. Booked to go back over Sept. See what happens.

Bring a copy of your return booking to prove the date you went through? Someone...in here?...can't remember...said that they aren't strictly reinforcing the 90 days, but I have also been told they are! IMHO it's best to take proof with you ...just in case!

 

[myvanwy]

Also looked at my tracker data to print off. It shows we crossed at Boulogne ? Nowhere near the Tunnel. What's going on there?

 

[Deleted member 24156]

Pretty obvious really, have you tried counting up to 90 on your fingers then subtracting any number between 0 and 90. Then asking how long you staying in French. No wonder there are queues.