Border guards at Lanzarote’s Cezar Manrique Airport have been told they must stamp all British passports on both entry and exit.
The order came after British visitors complained that their passports weren’t being stamped when they departed from the island, so there was no evidence they had actually left.
That led to fears that they could be banned from re-entering the EU because it would look as if they’d stayed more than the permitted 90 days in Lanzarote.
One travel agent was even contacted by a client wanting to change her holiday to Lanzarote because she was worried her passport wouldn’t be stamped.
Posting in Travel Gossip’s Facebook group, the agent said her client had requested to change her departure from Lanzarote from a Thursday because she’d heard that was the day passports were least likely to be stamped.
In theory, British passports should have been stamped on arrival and departure since 1 January 2021, at the end of a transition period following the UK’s departure from the EU on 31 January 2020, but many Brits reported that their passports were either not stamped at all in Lanzarote, or only on arrival.
Local media have quoted police sources saying that border guards had been ‘subtly and verbally’ told not to stamp them ‘in order to make the passage of British tourists easier’.
However, local media also claims that British visitors have been waved through because of a lack of border guards and facilities, especially on Thursdays when many flights depart for the UK. Yesterday, Thursday 1 August, there were 32 flights from Lanzarote to the UK compared with 17 scheduled today and 21 on Saturday.
Border staff have now been told to stamp all non-EU passports, including British.
The post Lanzarote airport ordered to stamp all British passports as visitors fear EU ban appeared first on Travel Gossip.
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The order came after British visitors complained that their passports weren’t being stamped when they departed from the island, so there was no evidence they had actually left.
That led to fears that they could be banned from re-entering the EU because it would look as if they’d stayed more than the permitted 90 days in Lanzarote.
One travel agent was even contacted by a client wanting to change her holiday to Lanzarote because she was worried her passport wouldn’t be stamped.
Posting in Travel Gossip’s Facebook group, the agent said her client had requested to change her departure from Lanzarote from a Thursday because she’d heard that was the day passports were least likely to be stamped.
In theory, British passports should have been stamped on arrival and departure since 1 January 2021, at the end of a transition period following the UK’s departure from the EU on 31 January 2020, but many Brits reported that their passports were either not stamped at all in Lanzarote, or only on arrival.
Local media have quoted police sources saying that border guards had been ‘subtly and verbally’ told not to stamp them ‘in order to make the passage of British tourists easier’.
However, local media also claims that British visitors have been waved through because of a lack of border guards and facilities, especially on Thursdays when many flights depart for the UK. Yesterday, Thursday 1 August, there were 32 flights from Lanzarote to the UK compared with 17 scheduled today and 21 on Saturday.
Border staff have now been told to stamp all non-EU passports, including British.
The post Lanzarote airport ordered to stamp all British passports as visitors fear EU ban appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
