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French Customs contact for one-off N-reg document presentation

There have been sporadic reports of French Customs officers hitting N-reg owners who land in France.

There come and go over the years and are currently rare.

Rumour is that once you have been "hit" and they have seen the documents (the Cert of Free Circulation, for example, though I am sure they use the chance to turn you over fairly thoroughly) they make a computer entry and you don't get hit again.

Years ago, one "prominent forum personality" wrote that there is a contact address for French Customs to which one can send one's documents, and they enter them on their computer, and you don't get hit after that.

I spent some time chasing down this claim. The poster said he heard it from somebody else but that somebody else failed to deliver more information...

Does anybody know anything about this?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Never heard this before. I was hit twice but managed to avoid the second time by just walking out slowly after hearing (they stood by me) that they were looking for the pilot of my aircraft.

Ben

Just got checked by French customs in the middle of nowhere France. Main reason: N-reg.
My paperwork was ok. They seemed not to know much details about aviation except: « need to check N-regs »

Abeam the Flying Dream
EBKT, western Belgium, Belgium

Interesting…

Referring to the 1st post, I recall that @DerekF may well know more about that. I never got any more info, and doubt the story was ever true.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I asked once if there is such “N-reg hit list”? one of the guys scratched his head, touches his nose and smiled before saying: “of course, NO”

I was expecting “G-reg hit list” but since CAA left EASA, the chances of keeping an airworthy G-reg based in EASA land is nil, many have been re-registred or sold, except one that stays 6 months in Spain & 6 months in UK other than that nada…of course, the caveat is reg & tax are not the same thing)

Last Edited by Ibra at 29 Mar 15:09
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

@Niner_Mike: I had this too, in an N-reg, about 5 years ago. It was one the most unpleasant experiences I have ever had in aviation.

ISTU that now that your aircraft has been checked, you (in this aircraft) won‘t be bothered again by French Customs.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

They were actually quite pleasant… and so was I. After all: I paid for the VAT import and I now know it was worth it :)

Also: they commented that airplanes from the UK are having higher attention. I came from Belgium.

They also wanted to know if I carried more than 10’000 euro, which I unfortunately didn’t.
They mainly checked my N-reg import docs.
They also wanted to see the content of my briefcase.

Last Edited by Niner_Mike at 29 Mar 15:28
Abeam the Flying Dream
EBKT, western Belgium, Belgium

I asked once if there is such “N-reg hit list”?

The claimed list was an “N-reg no hit needed list”.

you (in this aircraft) won‘t be bothered again by French Customs

That is what I was trying to find out more about, but apart from that rumour (whose originator vanished as soon as I tried to track it down) have never seen any evidence. And logically it would not work for very long anyway, because planes get sold, etc, papers (which is what the police want to see; they don’t care about the plane itself) get lost and thus create a “valuable opportunity” for the police, etc.

the chances of keeping an airworthy G-reg based in EASA land is nil

I don’t understand that statement at all. Both Niner_Mike and boscomantico were not “keeping” their planes anywhere; they were just passing through. And in any case you can legally keep a G-reg anywhere in Europe where certified foreign reg are not banned (presumably you can’t do it in Denmark Norway or Sweden). And you can do pilot-privileges maintenance on a G all year, anywhere in the world, up to the Annual.

Post-brexit the reasons for hitting an N are the same as for hitting a G, or any other non-EU reg including – or especially – Swiss ones. I’d say, for pretty obvious reasons, that G would get special treatment, and this seems confirmed above

@Niner_Mike – did you get any idea of what papers they were looking for? VAT status?

They mainly checked my N-reg import docs

What were those? Do you mean the DAR issued CofA / CofR?

ISTU that now that your aircraft has been checked, you (in this aircraft) won‘t be bothered again by French Customs

Would you have any source one could check out?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I imported the airplane from Switserland (and it still carries the flag). I paid VAT in Belgium and obtained proof and import docs. Thats what they wanted to ser

Abeam the Flying Dream
EBKT, western Belgium, Belgium

Peter wrote:

Post-brexit the reasons for hitting an N are the same as for hitting a G, or any other non-EU reg including

Of course, it also applies to aircraft based in Norway & Switzerland irrespective of the reg but things are very stable in steady state
However, anything with cross operation (irrespective of the reg) between EU & UK will have legal VAT uncertainty as of now

I would not be surprised if things get checked more closely, it works both ways,
- Someone having G-reg based in France will get greeted by DGI one day
- Someone having F-reg based in UK will get greeted by HMRC one day

So far there is not yet a clear cut on aircraft that are considered EU goods vs UK goods (first they need ‘old free circulation’, then it depends if they were EU based on Jan2021 and if back to UK before Jun21), this will get established at some point? I would not be surprised if N-reg getting sold or moved between UK & EU to get a lot of attention as well, on both sides…

Something I keep in mind, no hard feelings, it’s just death & taxes

Niner_Mike wrote:

I imported the airplane from Switserland (and it still carries the flag)

That explains it

You mean CH-flag? why not US flag?

Last Edited by Ibra at 29 Mar 16:01
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom
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