Passport Control - a query

[VeritasVincit]

I recently spent an hour in a very slow moving queue at Madrid airport, waiting to get my passport stamped, and became totally pissed off. It’s bloody knackering when you’re aged and limping.
The queue never lessened. It was constantly being added to as each new plane arrived, so my idea of having a sit-down until the queue finished wouldn’t have worked.
I should have learned from last year when it was just the same.

EU citizens were through in a minute or two, through their own gate.

My query, to anyone who has travelled to Spain in the last year or two.
Is this hold-up common at other Spanish airports or just Madrid because it’s so busy?

[lambrini]

An English colleague of mine visited Spain recently and experienced sluggish passport control. Sounds horrendous.

[JudgeTedd]

This sounds very odd. What caused the need for passports to be stamped?

[VeritasVincit]

This sounds very odd. What caused the need for passports to be stamped?

It's regulation for non-EU passengers. Introduced after Brexit's introductory period ended. It's apparently to make sure they don't stay longer than 90 days.
Coming next year sometime - you'll have to have a fingerprint taken.
I don't know if it applies elsewhere in the EU, but I suspect it does.
And eventually 2023 or 2024 there'll be a need for an entry visa - similar to what's need to enter USA.

[Vespa]

This sounds very odd. What caused the need for passports to be stamped?

It's regulation for non-EU passengers. Introduced after Brexit's introductory period ended. It's apparently to make sure they don't stay longer than 90 days.
Coming next year sometime - you'll have to have a fingerprint taken.
I don't know if it applies elsewhere in the EU, but I suspect it does.
And eventually 2023 or 2024 there'll be a need for an entry visa - similar to what's need to enter USA.

The new system is exactly the same as the US system. Finger prints, comedy queues, grump border guards.

[antdad]

Can't let any old riff-raff into the EU can they VV?

[VeritasVincit]

Can't let any old riff-raff into the EU can they VV?

Indeed. Some of those in the queue looked real riff-raff. My partner should have retained her Spanish nationality instead of becoming British, but then she's have had to wait for me on the other side.

[JudgeTedd]

This sounds very odd. What caused the need for passports to be stamped?

It's regulation for non-EU passengers. Introduced after Brexit's introductory period ended. It's apparently to make sure they don't stay longer than 90 days.
Coming next year sometime - you'll have to have a fingerprint taken.
I don't know if it applies elsewhere in the EU, but I suspect it does.
And eventually 2023 or 2024 there'll be a need for an entry visa - similar to what's need to enter USA.

About a few months before the Referendum, I remember flying into a European airport for a holiday. I remember seeing the EU/Non-EU sign for the lanes you’re supposed to walk down. I remember pausing for a brief moment to wonder what would happen if we left the EU? I soon dismissed this thought as something not to worry about as I’m should they’d be a simple solution to it.

Flying back I also remember seeing a little window with a big queue of people. I’ve come to realise this was the Non-EU people waiting to get their passports stamped.

After seeing that, I always thought it was probably a daft reason as not to vote to Leave. Perhaps it wasn’t after all?

[paolo]

I wonder what the rules on triple citizenship are?

can you hold three passports?

[antdad]

...you could as long as the other countries allow it. In your case, they all do.

[Arty Morty]

I wonder what the rules on triple citizenship are?

can you hold three passports?

A doctor I was under held Iranian, Canadian and US passports.

[Rowntree]

I wonder what the rules on triple citizenship are?

can you hold three passports?

A doctor I was under held Iranian, Canadian and US passports.

Why were you under a doctor?

[Arty Morty]

I wonder what the rules on triple citizenship are?

can you hold three passports?

A doctor I was under held Iranian, Canadian and US passports.

Why were you under a doctor?

He lived upstairs.