The trouble with the email notification system, is that often they don’t acknowledge the email,and they don’t publish a phone number. So you end up not knowing if it went into a spam folder, or was never received etc.
The trouble with the email notification system, is that often they don’t acknowledge the email,and they don’t publish a phone number. So you end up not knowing if it went into a spam folder, or was never received etc.
Exactly. We have the same issue here in the UK with the GAR form and I don’t know of a solution for that.
And in France the Customs/police/whatever never reply to any communications so short of a phone call (in English?) you can’t check if they received it. Sometimes one can check with the airport (the ARO number) and they can confirm the Customs PNR has been received. A handler will certainly do that for you too (but then you pay for handling).
With the GAR form, one simply emails it, and they don’t really seem to care – except for the CTA when the Special Branch definitely do care and I would never email that one. I’ve had the 3hr interview already… For that one I use the onlinegar or the AOPA systems (not sure if the AOPA one is still up) and they give you an official receipt.
A friend based at Toussus witnessed customs control a flight inbound from Lausanne, implying that they had not filed the PN required by NOTAM. He told me they were threatened with a fine of 1,500 euros
From Lausanne to Toussus, you have to clear customs, as Switzerland is not part of EU, nevertheless, you don’t have to clear immigration as Switzerland is within the Schengen area.
From the UK to France, you don’t have to clear customs. You just have to clear Immigration.
A breach of Customs regulation is generally a crime in France, and they usually would accept to settle it for a significant fine.
If you fly from the UK to France, I don’t think you’ll break any Customs regulation as both countries are part of the EU.
A I wrote above, if you carry only French or EU citizen in your plane, I could not see any specific penalty in the French Code of immigration called CESEDA.
the EUR-LEX list has no legal validity.
Wrong: the regulation is not a French law, it’s a treaty. And the treaty says
Member States shall notify the list of their border crossing points to the Commission in accordance with Article 34.
Article 34
Notifications
1. Member States shall notify the Commission of:
(a) the list of residence permits;
(b) the list of their border crossing points;
(…)
2. The Commission shall make the information notified in conformity with paragraph 1 available to the Member States and the public through publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, C Series, and by any other appropriate means
The sole legally valid list is hence published in The Official Journal of the European Union
I would like to drop in my favourite reminder at this point 
In international airport terminology, “Customs” means the airport is capable of accepting traffic from anywhere.
The Customs/Immigration separation is not published for most airports in the world. I guess Germany does it, and a few others. But most airports in the world provide both, or neither, and the world would be a complete mess otherwise.
Obviously one policeman can do both functions (that’s how e.g. Croatia does it) so such separation just indicates some stupid job creation practice, where each of the two State organisations hates the other one…. They probably also carry guns that require different ammunition. Separating these functions has no common sense meaning. It is just human arrogance transplanted to a high level.
Obviously one policeman can do both functions (that’s how e.g. Croatia does it)
I think he can do so because he is a trained customs officer, not just a policeman.
Likewise, in Germany, a customs officer can check a passport (rather trivial), but a normal policeman cannot provide customs clearance, because customs = rather complex regulations and procedures. Hence, special training is required. Of course, job creation plays a role, too.
Wrong: the regulation is not a French law, it’s a treaty.
Thanks for clarifying this. It is still confusing that France maintains the “Arrêté” from 1998 which has not been updated since 2008 on Legifrance and which is superseded by the treaty.
ok, this is all legalities….
Wrong: the regulation is not a French law, it’s a treaty.Thanks for clarifying this. It is still confusing that France maintains the “Arrêté” from 1998 which has not been updated since 2008 on Legifrance and which is superseded by the treaty.
… but I stand by what I said
Reg 562/2006 is a regulation and as such is directly applicable to all Member states (here all those parties to the schengen agreement)
The content of the list is not regulation although published in the OJ. It is just a notification that the Commission publishes (Article 34.2).
If said list were to contain St Quentin LFOW airfield as a point of entry but not the french law of 1998, I would dare you to go there from UK, get controlled by the police and get a free pass thanks to that list of points of entry…
Article 4.2(d) says that in case of emergency, a derogation CAN be put in place (implying they are not necessarily in place…) by Member states…
The way I see it, this list is a convenience and it should be updated every time needed, but I’m reasonably sure this list DOES NOT supersede national law
The Customs/Immigration separation is not published for most airports in the world. I guess Germany does it, and a few others. But most airports in the world provide both, or neither, and the world would be a complete mess otherwise.
The separation is caused by different treaties like Schengen and EU treaty.
Some countries are Schengen, but not EU (Switzerland) others are EU and non-Schengen (UK). They don’t care about Schengen in Timbuktu and US and they don’t need to. This is a European problem only.
This is a European problem only.
The schengen complication is a European problem only, as is the UK GAR stuff, as is the immigration/customs separation, but the general “Customs” thing is a worldwide one.
For example, most US airports cannot be used to enter to leave the USA. You have to use a Customs airport. I learnt this in my IR over there. We flew from KCHD to a place called Nogales which was popular for flying to/from Mexico.
There are probably airports in Mali (where Timbuktu is) which don’t have Customs…
There are loads of airports in Turkey which don’t have Customs, and foreign visitors are not allowed to use them even for wholly internal flights (an attempt to control artefact smuggling, apparently, because as we all know, planes are rarely searched).
