UK Customs checks

[NomadicTurbo]

Had it on our return to Rotterdam to catch the ferry home, we were running late after being held up getting out of Bruges so we were past the check in time and the last people to enter the queue.

We were ushered to the side, all luggage removed and a full search of the car carried out before getting onto the ferry.

They spent most of the time and focus going through all of my partner's jewellery and shoes asking for proof of purchase, when it was bought, where it was bought etc.

To be fair, we were in an estate with the boot loaded to the brim with luggage.

[Jamescrs]

I usually travel from Port of Hull into the E.U (Rotterdam Port) however I have also done Dover- Dunkirk.

I'd say more often than not i've been pulled in by customs on my way out of the U.K, no idea why I can only assume I am profiled based on the car's I have driven being BMW M cars and a Porsche on one occasion.
Whatever the reason though i've always found Border Force to be very friendly and chatty with me, i'm honest with them about my travel plans and where i'm going, ultimately to the Nurburgring on each occasion, they usually have a poke around in my boot but never had a full search.
I had my door handles swabbed once but I guess it was clear as they sent me on my way again quickly.

I suspect it's down to attitudes when you meet the Border Force officers

[nute]

Hol said:

Not really.

Have you tried just not acting like the centre of the universe when dealing with other people?

Edited by Hol on Thursday 28th March 07:47

I’m not, and the OP has every right to express his frustration if he wishes, but shouldn’t expect anything but smug sanctimonious replies which is exactly what he’s got from some.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Hol said:

Jordie Barretts sock said:

If you don't want to be treated as a foreign national at UK Immigration, don't travel on a foreign passport.

You were an Irish citizen travelling alone attempting to enter the UK.

And.. that isn’t just automatically an anti Irish vibe, it’s more likely be cause the OP fit the approximate description of an alert subject that day.


There’s many a time that I have walked into the customs area of an airport to see the staff immediately look over my shoulder, because I don’t match the person(s) they are looking for.

The idiot was trying to be Mr Big Balls and was failing the attitude test. Then trying to claim he's British when using an Irish passport. In the eyes of Border Force, he's Irish. If he wants to be British, use his British passport. Don't get arsey with people doing their job.

[Tom8]

Out of interest has anyone brought much booze through Calais since Brexit? Another of the "benefits" is reintroduction of limits for duty free. Are these being enforced? I am planning a trip to France to stock up a bit and wondering what the risk is.

[bloomen]

GT03ROB said:

To be frank most of the time I walk into the customs area of airports there's nobody to be seen. On the odd occasion you will see what must be the whole of the airports customs people standing at the entrance to the green channel!

Not sure I've ever seen anyone official in the customs bit of a UK airport. It's always a ghost town.

I assume they're all in the ceiling dangling on bits of string waiting to be lowered.

Or watching telly with their feet up.

[ingenieur]

There's nothing unusual about border checks. There would be one in front of you and another behind you and another couple hundred throughout the day.

I must admit I am often shirty with these sorts of authority creatures as I'm sure secretly they get the same pleasure doing their 'unimpressed border guy' bit as I do from acting up.

The exception would be when I'm not sure if I might have done something wrong. I got stopped at Dover with three gearboxes in the back of my car once and after a quick visual scan they accepted my story and waved me on.

[CABC]

bloomen said:

Not sure I've ever seen anyone official in the customs bit of a UK airport. It's always a ghost town.

I assume they're all in the ceiling dangling on bits of string waiting to be lowered.

Or watching telly with their feet up.

being generous, I'm hoping they're behind the mirrored glass or watching cctv, which would be far more effective than a physical presence.
(except when the footy is on. or cricket if Heathrow....)

[surveyor]

I've always found it pays to be polite. They have a job to do, and me being an arse is only going to make them respond in the same way.

You do occasionally get an arse hangover, when the person in front has dicked them around, and they are ready for someone to wind them up. Again, they generally chill as the chat goes on...

[Wh00sher]

Since Brexit I've had to get a Carnet for the spares when taking my track car to the mainland.

Lots of people haven't and have had no problems, but occasionally they come across a border officer who knows what they should and shouldn't have. Hull and in particular Rotterdam seem very hot on it.

They have people pull into the inspection bay for a swab or more detailed inspection, I've had it happen, but they've never been arsey with me and I don't see what you could possibly gain by getting angry in return.?

[courty]

UK or ROI passport would make no difference in this scenario as freedom of movement between them has not changed. They were checking you weren't bringing wrong stuff in with you.

Edited by courty on Thursday 28th March 12:23

[Yellow Lizud]

The OP made a massive mistake. He arrived on a ferry, if he'd arrived on a rubber dinghy he'd have been welcomed with open arms and put up in a five star hotel.

[valiant]

Yellow Lizud said:

The OP made a massive mistake. He arrived on a ferry, if he'd arrived on a rubber dinghy he'd have been welcomed with open arms and put up in a five star hotel.

Load of cobblers.

he’d never get his bike on a dinghy

[Riley Blue]

During the 1980s I drove to Germany and back to the UK. While I was away the IRA bombed a BAOR barracks and the person I was with bore a strong resemblance to Donna Maguire, one of the bombers. We were stopped and questioned at length at every border crossing from Germany to Calais, proving our identities at each one. The few hours' drive took a day and a half.

We were never told why we were being questioned and only figured it out when we saw someone reading a newspaper with photos of the suspects. C'est la vie.

[Biker9090]

craigjm said:

Yes but he was travelling on Irish paperwork one assumes to make it easier to travel into the EU so he would be treated as a foreign citizen.

OP there was obviously some intel that you got caught up in and unfortunately you failed the attitude test that’s pretty much it

Exactly, I have used it multiple times before precisely to avoid the horrendous queues at various airports in the EU (which my Girlfriend with only a UK passport gets caught up in). As far as I was aware you are supposed to use the same one entering and leaving and considering Irish Citizens have right to travel and work in the UK this didn't seem a problem.

I'm not exactly sure how I failed the "attitude test" when I was incredibly polite to begin with until they started searching further.

[Biker9090]

Jamescrs said:

I usually travel from Port of Hull into the E.U (Rotterdam Port) however I have also done Dover- Dunkirk.

I'd say more often than not i've been pulled in by customs on my way out of the U.K, no idea why I can only assume I am profiled based on the car's I have driven being BMW M cars and a Porsche on one occasion.
Whatever the reason though i've always found Border Force to be very friendly and chatty with me, i'm honest with them about my travel plans and where i'm going, ultimately to the Nurburgring on each occasion, they usually have a poke around in my boot but never had a full search.
I had my door handles swabbed once but I guess it was clear as they sent me on my way again quickly.

I suspect it's down to attitudes when you meet the Border Force officers

I'm aware of not giving them a reason, hence why I didn't have a bad attitude until part way through the search - i certainly didn't have one with the initial passport check because I had no reason to. There was an incredibly long queue for one booth where they were checking absolutely everything (circa 7 minutes per car) before you even get to the actual customs part.

[Biker9090]

Jordie Barretts sock said:

The idiot was trying to be Mr Big Balls and was failing the attitude test. Then trying to claim he's British when using an Irish passport. In the eyes of Border Force, he's Irish. If he wants to be British, use his British passport. Don't get arsey with people doing their job.

You know what they say about assuming?

I didn't once mention I was a dual national to them. I also didn't have a bad attitude UNTIL HE started to become difficult. I was particuarly pleasant to the (rude) person checking the passports precisely to avoid this nonsense.

They're doing a pretty stty job about it considering what's happening a few miles down the road from the tunnel.

[Biker9090]

Tom8 said:

Out of interest has anyone brought much booze through Calais since Brexit? Another of the "benefits" is reintroduction of limits for duty free. Are these being enforced? I am planning a trip to France to stock up a bit and wondering what the risk is.

They were checking a LOT of vehichles yesterday and saw a number having their cigarettes counted so I would be careful.

[Biker9090]

surveyor said:

I've always found it pays to be polite. They have a job to do, and me being an arse is only going to make them respond in the same way.

You do occasionally get an arse hangover, when the person in front has dicked them around, and they are ready for someone to wind them up. Again, they generally chill as the chat goes on...

I was polite - to begin with - when his own attitude got the better of me. Oddly as soon as I started to become angry they let me go, which again reinforces my belief they get off on acting the billy big bks rather than doing actual work.

[CypSIdders]

You want odd, i’ll give you odd.

About six years my wife and I were at the Manx GP and Classic TT. We couldn’t get the best ferry dates so we camped for three weeks.
The car, a Subaru Forester, was loaded to the gunnels, the only free space were the front seats.
We joined the queue for the ferry, we were at the front of one of the lines and were signalled to pull into the “customs” shed.
We were then asked a series of bizarre questions, such as, did we have any booze, fags or gas. Apparently the gas canisters for the camping stoves were not the right type of gas.
Having answered the questions we were then told they wanted to search the car and it needed to be emptied.
This was never going to happen as far as I was concerned, we’d have missed the ferry with the time taken to unload it then load it up again.
I told them the keys were in the ignition and they could crack on, I walked out of the shed and had fag.
Funnily enough they didn’t seem too keen then, they had a cursory glance inside and told us we could go.
What I don’t understand to this day, WTAF, did they expect to find? Smuggled manx kippers.
If they were looking for drugs why didn’t they have a sniffer dog?
Travelling in a UK registered car, owned by my wife, from one part of the UK to another, If we’d been so inclined we could have stuffed the car with fags, booze or anything else we’d bought and there’d have been sod all they could have done about it anyway.

Training day?