European border controls - Entry Exit System - finger prints

[Cloud Strife]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can have issues if you regularly use one passport one way and another passport the other way? Doesn't apply to me, so didn't pay too much attention.

Nah, it's fine. I do this quite routinely, because it's simply easier and more convenient to use my Polish ID card where I can rather than my British passport. So, I leave Poland on my Polish ID, enter the UK on my British passport, then my return journey is entirely with my Polish ID. Not a word from anyone, even though I use the human passport control in the UK because the chip is broken in my passport.

I have visited Gibraltar probably around ten times in recent years and I have never had more than the most cursory border check. The last time I travelled with my partner and they were only interested in checking her UK visa. They didn't ask to see proof of accommodation or funds (although we had them prepared).

I did have one check that could be described as "more intensive", but I was quite inebriated at the time and they were curious as to where I was going at midnight while being rather unable to walk straight. That check was nothing more than a couple of questions about the stamps in my passport, probably to see if I was in any fit state to be walking towards the city centre across the runway.

That means there is a 50:50 chance of a hard border when the Spanish government changes next.

I would say that the critical thing is to at least agree with the EU that Gibraltarians can continue to have free access (without stamping of passports) to Andalusia at least. Schengen (and the other issues) are not so important in the short to medium term, but I think there's a real need to agree that people from Andalusia and Gibraltar can continue to move freely across the frontier as it is now. Unfortunately, I think it's going to end up in a hard border, because many of the issues simply cannot be solved easily. For instance, Gibraltar has proposed introducing a Gibraltar-specific sales tax at 10%, but Spain has straight out said that it's simply not comparable to the Spanish IVA at 21% and so it's unacceptable. There are rumours that a 15% sales tax has been negotiated, but this would be incredibly unpopular in Gibraltar.

 

[Chester1]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can have issues if you regularly use one passport one way and another passport the other way? Doesn't apply to me, so didn't pay too much attention.

Its not currently an issue for British Citizens but a large number of countries do mandate that their citizens enter and exit on the passports of the country. The UK will from the autumn / winter when the remaining non european nationalities that do not require a visa to enter the UK are enrolled onto UK ETA. For instance an Australian who has British citizenship through a "£10 pom" parent will not be allowed entry into UK with an Australian passport (assuming their ETA application finds records of registration of overseas birth or an old British passport). It will effect EU/EEA nationals from next year.