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03.06.2021, 08:22
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| | Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK
A story today in the Tribune du Genève details the problems CH/EU travellers have entering the UK.
No. 1 problem is that ID cards are no longer valid. PASSPORTS ARE REQUIRED!
Nothing to do with Covid. https://www.tdg.ch/des-milliers-deur...i-902033890031 (Paywall)
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03.06.2021, 08:55
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | The following 3 users would like to thank Island Monkey for this useful post: | | 
03.06.2021, 09:22
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | | | | | | Someone needs to inform the Brits about that. Better safe than sorry
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03.06.2021, 12:20
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | | | | | | Yep, another exercise in stupidity... since there is little passport control between the British mainland and Ireland and none at all between NI and Ireland... just inconvenience for tourists etc...
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03.06.2021, 12:28
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK
So, a passport is need for international travel? Tell me more... (3rd country nationals grabbing the popcorn)
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03.06.2021, 12:33
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | So, a passport is need for international travel? Tell me more... (3rd country nationals grabbing the popcorn) | | | | | I suppose we'd also be asked for passports if we travelled to third-countries.
The whole EU thing is wonderful, it's not our fault other countries can't replicate it. | 
03.06.2021, 12:40
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | A story today in the Tribune du Genève details the problems CH/EU travellers have entering the UK.
No. 1 problem is that ID cards are no longer valid. PASSPORTS ARE REQUIRED! | | | | | Just another reason not to travel to third world countries!
Tom
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03.06.2021, 12:40
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | Just another reason not to travel to third world countries! 
Tom | | | | | My reaction too. | This user would like to thank greenmount for this useful post: | | 
03.06.2021, 12:45
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | I suppose we'd also be asked for passports if we travelled to third-countries. | | | | | I never needed one for Norway when CH was not in Schengen (neither of which are in the EU), and the UK has never been in Schengen.
So, it's all bullshit by the UK.
Tom
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03.06.2021, 13:09
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | I never needed one for Norway when CH was not in Schengen (neither of which are in the EU), and the UK has never been in Schengen.
So, it's all bullshit by the UK.
Tom | | | | | Norway has ID cards themselves though - the UK does not, they only accepted them because the EU made them.
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03.06.2021, 15:33
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | So, a passport is need for international travel? Tell me more... (3rd country nationals grabbing the popcorn) | | | | | They have just made it more difficult for a for about 400m potential tourists to visit the country for the sake of a document format, do you really think that will help their tourism industry....
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03.06.2021, 15:42
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | They have just made it more difficult for a for about 400m potential tourists to visit the country for the sake of a document format, do you really think that will help their tourism industry.... | | | | | Looking at their “green list” update today - they don’t give a shite about the tourism industry!
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03.06.2021, 16:01
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK
Having to have to take PCR test before going, then isolate for 10 days and have pre-booked tests for day 2 and 8, then wait for results - then PCR to return and isolate again- seems a bit more of an inconvenience at the moment.
Last edited by JackieH; 04.06.2021 at 21:17.
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03.06.2021, 16:14
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | Having to have take PCR test before going, then isolate for 10 days and have pre-booked tests fro day 2 and 8 - then PCR to return and isolate again- seems a bit more of an inconvenience at the moment. | | | | | Its pretty silly both way around. I have a little bit more sympathy for the Swiss position than the UK (which is simply ridiculous - the UK evidently has herd immunity from the UK variant already - the number of adults with antibodies must be in the 80s (over 75% vaccinated at least once)). As long as everything is back to normal by September I am happy!
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03.06.2021, 16:18
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK
Well, it is what it is. I just cannot wait any longer to seeand hug my daughters and grand-children. My grandson was 15 the other day, and he has grown about 40 cm since I last saw him in Feb last year. And grand-daughter, 12, was a little girl then, and now a real teenager - crazy.
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03.06.2021, 16:23
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | Well, it is what it is. I just cannot wait any longer to seeand hug my daughters and grand-children. My grandson was 15 the other day, and he has grown about 40 cm since I last saw him in Feb last year. And grand-daughter, 12, was a little girl then, and now a real teenager - crazy. | | | | | Lots of sympathy. I've never met my only nephew. My parents have only met my daughter twice, and she's nearly 2. It sucks, but we in Switzerland are nearly there. The UK is pretty much there, but has Stockholm syndrome. Unlike Switzerland, its made a major and totally unreported hash of its vaccination prioritisation (resulting in some areas being relatively unvaccinated, 20 or 30%, whilst others are well past herd immunity).
We are fully vaccinated (inc 2 weeks) in late June, heading to Spain for a wedding at the beginning of July, parents are coming later in July, and then have my brother's wedding in the UK in September.
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03.06.2021, 16:54
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | Having to have take PCR test before going, then isolate for 10 days and have pre-booked tests for day 2 and 8, then wait for results - then PCR to return and isolate again- seems a bit more of an inconvenience at the moment. | | | | | | Quote: | |  | | | Well, it is what it is. I just cannot wait any longer to seeand hug my daughters and grand-children. My grandson was 15 the other day, and he has grown about 40 cm since I last saw him in Feb last year. And grand-daughter, 12, was a little girl then, and now a real teenager - crazy. | | | | | Try to remember it is only that - an inconvenience. The reward is far greater than the hassle. Go, enjoy it, and don't dwell on the inconvenient parts.
Not everyone has enough free time off work or the ability to work from home while quarantined. Not everyone has the extra funds to pay for tests. Many of us on EF are fortunate to have both.
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04.06.2021, 10:37
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | Having to have take PCR test before going, then isolate for 10 days and have pre-booked tests for day 2 and 8, then wait for results - then PCR to return and isolate again- seems a bit more of an inconvenience at the moment. | | | | | I'm in the UK now, took the night ferry with my bike to Harwich Tuesday night. Passport control at both sides were puzzled by my (pretty new) passport and asked when I had entered NL (or left the UK) as there was no entry stamp. 15 years ago I told them and living in Switzerland!
The 10 days quarantine (starting the day after traveling) is a pain, but I'm staying at my sisters old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in Norfolk and her garden is at least 2 acres. I'm just about to do my Day 2 PCR Test and I am allowed to leave the house to post it. Luckily the nearest Priority Post Box is almost 2 miles away so I'll be able to get in a short bike ride today and next Thursday for the Day 8 Test. | Quote: | |  | | | Just another reason not to travel to third world countries! 
Tom | | | | | To be pedantic, the UK, being part of NATO, is a First World Country. The old Soviet countries were 2nd World, all other non-aligned countries (including Switzerland) are Third World Countries.
Last edited by grumpygrapefruit; 10.06.2021 at 14:53.
Reason: wrong day
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04.06.2021, 17:38
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK
It's not just a matter of passports. The UK border police has been over-zealous and in some instances they just don't have sufficient guidelines on how to act. The Guardian has produced many reports about abuses on EU nationals. Handcuffed, detained, denied medicine: EU citizens’ UK border ordeals | Quote: |  | | | Abi, 20, from Estonia [...] was travelling alone for the first time to stay with family friends in Britain, and asked that the Guardian use a pseudonym.
“First they asked what I was doing in the UK and I said that I was visiting family friends,” she said. “After that they asked me the same question again, as if it was not the right response. Then I said I would be helping to watch their kids. So they immediately assumed that I was going to work as au pair.”
She was accused of intending to work as an au pair and was locked up in Gatwick for 30 hours before being expelled at the end of last month. During her detention, she said, she had several panic attacks, vomited from fear, and was not allowed to retrieve a sedative from her luggage. | | | | | UK like an ‘enemy state’ to EU nationals detained by Border Force | Quote: |  | | | Wolfgang, a German national who runs an IT business, was detained at Heathrow airport despite having proof of settled status, indefinite leave to remain and a British passport on the way.
He is furious that his rights were suspended on the whim of a Border Force official.
“I have settled status,” he said. “I have indefinite leave to remain. I am about to become a British citizen. How is it that a border official with one tick can suspend those rights?”
“To be blunt, I am avoiding coming back to the UK now until I get my British passport,” Wolfgang said from Germany. “I pay a large amount of tax there, I have never used the health service, I contribute to the economy, I own property there. London is my favourite city in the world, but I have no documents to show I can stay there,” he said, referring to the fact that the government has voted against giving EU citizens a residency card to show employers, landlords or border officials. | | | | | | Quote: |  | | | Among the other cases is that of Antonio, a Spanish airline worker who was made to wait for 45 minutes at Gatwick while border officials tried to decide if he was lying when he told them he had pre-settled status.
He said: “My passport was not associated with the settled status. When I told them that is because I applied using my ID card which was perfectly acceptable to the Home Office, they told me that ID cards are no longer acceptable at the border.”
He was only let through after he produced his airline ID and his flight-attendant schedule to prove he was not an illegal migrant.
“Because of my job I have flown to many destinations and I have been through border controls in different countries. I felt I had landed in some random enemy state. | | | | | If you read the comments section from the article from the Tribune de Genève, you'll note that people are furious and demanding the same treatment to all British nationals wanting to enter Switzerland and the EU.
It would be funny to start seeing British people being locked up for hours in a prison despite the fact that they have a residence permit from here, because that's exactly what's happened to some EU citizens in the UK. No, that's not going to happen because this country is better organised, and because we don't have such hatred for other peoples like sore Britons do against other Europeans.
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04.06.2021, 22:35
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| | Re: Swiss/EU nationals having problems travelling to UK | Quote: | |  | | | If you read the comments section from the article from the Tribune de Genève, you'll note that people are furious and demanding the same treatment to all British nationals wanting to enter Switzerland and the EU.
It would be funny to start seeing British people being locked up for hours in a prison despite the fact that they have a residence permit from here, because that's exactly what's happened to some EU citizens in the UK. No, that's not going to happen because this country is better organised, and because we don't have such hatred for other peoples like sore Britons do against other Europeans. | | | | | Really hope we'll return the favours one day. All the favours.
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