Hi all! I'm new to the forum and happy to welcome everybody

I'd just like to ask a question that aroused curiosity in me when I crossed the French-Swiss border near Basel. I was travelling by an intercity bus (Flixbus) and had a passport check at the border. What I noticed is that while the EU passports were checked and given back right away afterwards, the non-EU ones were all collected, taken away to border control station and returned after about 5 minutes. Could someone tell me what the border guards were doing with those passports? They certainly did not stamp them, as this is an inter-Schengen border. Do they put any markers on passport to be later able to check if an individual overstayed or do they do something else? It's curious to me, becuase as an EU national I could also possibly overstay if I lived in Switzerland for more than 90 days without a permit, so my hypothesis about passport marking may be wrong.

Do we have any border guards on board who could explain that to me? Thanks!

It's customs officers being nosy, thats all. Any 90/180 day limit applies to the whole Schengen Area not just CH

Yeah, right, like a Swiss border guard is going to give you insider's information on English Forum...are you from Unicornland?

I was hoping to hear from Odile, most of her best friends are top police, border guards & judges.

My guess is they were checking visas. Border crossings are obvious points to check if somebody has overstayed.

But it's not a border for people, it's a border for goods. Hence no passport control if you arrive by plane but you do have to pass customs.

We got checked in Italy a couple weeks ago.

They asked for IDs and DL (but not the registration of the car), all Swiss, but then also asked me and my wife's daughter where we were born (but not my wife or grandson)!

Tom

There is normally allready a marker in the passport: The Schengen area entry stamp. Passports might also be checked against SIS entries.

https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/wh...s-and-visas_en

No stamps on our ID cards!

Tom

Yes, all trains from EU into Switzerland have border guards on them, Schengen or no Schengen. My many border guard neighbours used to work on the trains, on and off, and were often drafted to work on the Italian one- looking for illegal non EU immigrants. 1 has moved, 3 have retired, and the best was killed on his way to work last June.

Nice to have you back, Odile!

Umm, we were in the car:

Tom

Ah yes, they do occasinally check cars too- and passengers. Happened to me only once, with a rental car, British passport and local accent- got them all confused and suspicious. They only have to have a doubt, a hunch, to check- Schengen or no S. Most of the time they do it in road side checks- not at the border. Sometimes they have 'intelligence' info, or there has been a serious incident, etc.

Just try and tell them 'ah you are not allowed to check my papers - Schengen and all that' and see what happens

Try coming into the country from Germany with a car rented in Germany, a US passport, and speaking French...

Maybe they test the passport for traces of drugs?

Whilst Switzerland is part of the Schengen agreement which allows for free movement of people, Switzerland isn't part of the customs union and hence you find border guards around. They can check both goods and people and do take the opportunity of checking papers.

True, but we were checked by the Italian police and not border guards.

Tom

Well, things work both ways. At least around here

If you're a Swiss resident and the border people find out that you are, you could have a problem.

Checks can occur anywhere and you are obliged to be able to identify yourself and justify your presence within the Schengen Area. If you are not an EU/EEA/CH citizen that means you are a tourist with the 90 period or you can show that you are resident in the Schengen Area.