Arrival back into London

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An interesting fact about travelling between the UK and Ireland that I thought I would share (some people will find this more interesting than others).

When I left Ireland my passport never got checked by Irish Customs at all. I used a self-service kiosk to get my boarding pass and because I only had hand luggage never even presented my passport to the airline. When I went through security I handed both my passport and my boarding pass over to the security dude but he only checked the boarding pass. When I boarded the plane they did look to make sure the names matched - between my boarding pass and my passport. But that was it. At the time I thought it was a little odd but figured UK Customs would look at it so it didn't matter. After all, UK/EU residents don't need a passport to travel to and from Ireland.

When we landed back at Gatwick Airport I followed the sign for "other passports" where myself and another woman (an American) were told we didn't need to fill in landing cards and that we should just line up in the queue for people arriving from Ireland. All that happened in that queue was that the woman on the gate just took the remaining portion of the boarding pass from us basically to verify that we did just arrive from Ireland. No passport check for EU or other citizens. Not even a glance at a passport. Nothing at all. Very odd given how when you land at Heathrow from anywhere else they scrutinise you completely. Not sure why they don't at Gatwick - maybe because they only get flights from EU countries? But what's to stop me landing in France or the Netherlands and then getting a "domestic" flight across to the UK - they would have no way of checking if you had the right visas, or any visa at all.

Anyway just an observation.

At any rate I am now back in London. Moved into a house in greater London, there are two other women and a little baby. All seem very nice, staying here initially for two weeks and then seeing how the job situation goes and I will have to make a decision about whether to stay or find somewhere closer (which is probably what I will do although that could take a week or two!!). Recruitment agencies have put me forward for another two or three jobs but haven't heard anything yet. Only been in London two weeks tomorrow though! And Easter was in there.

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Comments

[anonymous]

There's a free travel area between UK and Ireland. So when you arrive into UK/Ireland on a flight from outside UK/Ireland, then your passport will be checked. But when you travel on flight within UK/Ireland, your passport wont be checked. You dont even need a passport, just ID.