Flying to Europe (Spain) with national ID from the UK

[Doctoralx]

I was almost denied entry to Lanzarote (Spain) using my EU national ID when flying from the UK. They said that post-Brexit they only accept passports for travellers from the UK despite the Spanish Government website saying that EU IDs are accepted for EU ctizens. I decided to put border control to a tough test and we had heated discussions for about one hour when I landed to Lanzarote. Border control and police could be simply clueless but they insisted on having a valid passport when travelling from the UK even for EU citizens. At the end I had to show them my British passport (I have dual citizenship) to move on with my day. Not sure what would have happened if I did not provide them with a passport but I doubt they would put me to a flight back to the UK since they would need to bring someone who really knows the rules.

That will also affect what are the rules for EU nationals travelling to Europe from the UK after the EU visa waiver kicks-in in early 2025. My understanding is that I should not need one if I presented my EU ID, but I have now second thoughts after my recent experience.

Does anybody have any similar experience?

If you read previous posts, I have British passport.

In fact someone could use their EU national ID to leave the UK, which I have successfully tested and worked. You may not be able to check in online but they will check you in at the airport. Obviously you would need a passport to return

You don’t need a passport when you return to the UK IF you have the Settled Status AND your Settled Status is linked with your Id Card rather than your passport.

So yes, for you, it wouldn’t work as you have a British passport.
But many people can.

Border guard was wrong and the posters stating you need a passport to enter from outside Schengen are also reading the rules incorrectly. The rules quoted state that you need a passport "if you are travelling to a non-EU country". To, not from.

An EU citizen can enter an EU country with their EU ID, no matter where they are coming from.

Iirc there was always issue with Spanish border. I travelled to EU with non eea spouse with his EEA FM card from UK (and marriage cert) so he didn't need visa, but many, many people reported specifically Spain returning them back to UK or giving trouble.

A British passport isn’t an EU passport.

This reply is out of context and you state the obvious. I never said a British passport is an EU passport.

There are so many wrong answers in this thread.

An EU citizen only needs proof of citizenship to enter the EU. That can be a government-issued ID card or a passport. It doesn't actually matter too much if the passport or ID card has expired, as long as the immigration officer can satisfy themselves as to your identity.

Whether or not the entry to the EU is at a Schengen border or not is completely irrelevant (although since most of the EU is now in Schengen it will generally be a Schengen border). Nor does it matter if you are arriving from the UK, Ireland, the US, or China.

Source 1: DP and I both have EU passports and ID cards, and we regularly enter from both the UK and non-European countries on our ID cards as they allow you to bypass the queues for the e-gates.

Source 2: The attached extract from the EU's very readable document entitled "Practical Handbook for Border Guards" which you can download from here [PDF].

In terms of what happened to the OP, I can only assume that the Lanzarote border officials had read about the rules that the UK now applies ("everyone needs a passport to enter the UK") and therefore decided to reciprocate for some reason. Lanzarote has been in the news because it turned out that since Brexit they have not been giving UK passport holders exit stamps, leading some people who come back from holiday there to be accused of overstaying when they next visit the EU. All of this will be fixed when EES finally goes live and stamps become a thing of the past.

(Of course, "everyone needs a passport to enter the UK" is also wrong. Irish people don't need a passport. Nor do the 1.5 million or so EU citizens with the right to remain after Brexit who came to the UK on just their EU ID cards and still don't have a passport, for the most part. But sometimes these people have trouble getting on the plane at the EU end because the check-in person doesn't know the rules...)

I decided to put border control to a tough test and we had heated discussions for about one hour

I know a man like you. His wife is a wreck.

Source 3: The actual EU directive, 2004/38/EC. EU member states are required to implement this in their national immigration laws. (Formally, you enter a country, not the EU, and you do so under the laws of that country. The EU just determines some parts of those laws.)

As an update to this interesting post, yesterday we returned to France from the US after a holiday. DS and I showed our EU ID cards and that was fine. We had our British passports, but they didn’t want to check them or stamp them or anything. Conversely, on the way to the US, the French border guard ignored our ID cards and insisted on stamping the UK passports. It’s all very arbitrary and depends on how informed the border guards are. For safeness, we’re going to sort EU passports out, because it’s clear that the dual citizen thing with ID cards is an issue.

But this all makes total sense.

You can use EU national ID cards to enter the EU without any problems. That is what they are for.

You can't use them to travel outside the EU, which is why the French border police needed to see that you had an appropriate travel document for travelling to the US.

You go very infrequently but you "decided to put border control to a tough test and we had heated discussions for about one hour when I landed to Lanzarote."

To "skip the long non-Shengen queues", you didn't mind blocking one immigration officer in the Schengen queue for an hour, just to prove your point?

There would be no Schengen queue for travellers within the Schengen zone as passport controls have been removed, unless they had been imposed temporarily at the time of your arrival.

"At the end I had to show them my British passport (I have dual citizenship) to move on with my day." A normal traveller without anything to hide would have done that straight away.

"Without any doubt my fellow passengers had plenty of entertainment during those conversations". I guess they were applauding while you were enlightening the poor ignorant immigration officer.

You may or may not be right about the correct rules, but were completely out of order.

The right thing to do would have been to make a complaint later, instead of unnecessarily making the immigration officer waste an hour.

Not sure what would have happened if I did not provide them with a passport but I doubt they would put me to a flight back to the UK since they would need to bring someone who really knows the rules.

@Doctoralx If you had refused to provide them with a passport they could have denied you entry to Lanzarote (which is discretionary) for fucking about and wasting their time. If you didn't have a passport on you, you almost certainly wouldn't have made it to Lanzarote in the first place, since you can no longer enter the UK without one unless you're an EU national with settled status.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom You may not be allowed to enter the UK without a passport but you are allowed to LEAVE the UK with an EU ID only. Once arriving in Lanzarote not only they could not deny me entry, but I could live there for the rest of my life if I chose to. If I wanted to waste more of my time with the poorly trained border control staff I could demand see a team supervisor and even if I had to go through an interview with them they would finally have to say Welcome to Lanzarote sir.

@NoProblems They didn't waste their time because they are paid staff. I wasted my time when I shouldn't have. EU citizens at the end of the day they have right if entry and stay in the EU. Lanzarote or Spain is no exception. I still believe my understanding of the rules is better than it was for border control staff, but I have to say it was an interesting experience and food for though. This is why I posted here in the first place for people who really know to enlighten me. Any other commentary criticising my action (not just from you) doesn't really help getting to the bottom of what rules actually apply.

Yes, but assuming you entered the UK at some point before you left it, you almost certainly wouldn't have been able to do that without a passport. So it would have been obvious that you possess one and were just playing silly buggers.

Of course border police can deny you entry if you are being uncooperative and a time waster.

You didn't just waste your time, you wasted the time of everyone else who was waiting while you were off on your ego trip.

You can enter the U.K. on an EU Id card if you have the SS and it’s attached to your Id card.

So yes someone can come and go between the U.K. and the EU only on an Id card. And they would have had no reason to stop someone even try because of that.

However, in the OP’s case she also has a British passport and was simply playing games to show she knew better than the staff at borders. Not sure it’s really helpful to anyone. Not people waiting to get through the gates. Nor anyone else who will genuinely travel only on their Id card. And she lost loads time herself 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

@MissScarletInTheBallroom I could have entered the UK before Brexit on my EU ID and not travelled since, meaning I could possess no passport. From what I understand after reading EU/Schengen travel rules, nowhere says that EU citizens are required to have passport to enter EU even if they travel outside Schengen. And no they could not deny entry under any circumstances (even if I had no travel documents, e.g. could have flushed them accidentally down the toilet on the plane) because at the end I am an EU citizen landed in EU. What you suggest is similar to denying entry to a British citizen to the UK if for any reason they cannot produce a passport on arrival. Once they do their checks and verify who you are, they would have to let you in.

I could have entered the UK before Brexit on my EU ID and not travelled since, meaning I could possess no passport.

Indeed. In fact there are about 1.5 million EU citizens who are resident in the UK and who have no passport (because they arrived pre-Brexit when you didn't need one). They have been given pre-settled or settled status, which is tied to their ID card rather than their passport, and they have no trouble entering the UK. In fact some large UK airports have an "ID card (more or less-)only" lane specifically for those people, because UK e-gates don't accept ID cards (unlike many EU e-gates, for some reason).

The main problem that this group faces is getting on the plane at the EU end, because they sometimes meet jobsworths at the gate who learned on their training that "From October 2022 everyone going to the UK needs a full passport" and stopped listening before the trainer got to the list of exceptions. (At some point there will probably also be a Windrush-type situation due to an IT failure, since no EU citizens — whether or not they have a passport — were given any physical receipt of their post-Brexit status, but that's a story for another day when it happens.)

None of the border agents ever did checks on exit on me or my husband about appropriate visa or ID for destination country. They just wanted us to leave on the same document we entered the country on. The airline did the checks (so they don't get fined) . Funnily on different document than what we present at the border... They don't even ask anymore where do we fly when leaving.
As I said, few explained you enter and leave on same document, it's not tied to what you gave to airline. So odd that you enter on your EU ID but leave on UK passport. That must mess up their tracking?

@samarrange I called it Windrush 2.0 from the beginning. There were already number of cases of people suddenly having their EUSS jump back to pre approval status online, losing jobs/job offers due to IT glitches and so on. It took my first job post EUSS 3x to confirm my status!

That must mess up their tracking?

No, because the EU has never systematically kept track of people entering and exiting (other than by the stamps in their passports), and when EES comes in, that will only be for non-EU citizens; it will not keep track of EU citizens entering and exiting. Freedom of movement, innit.

Yep I agree there.
It’s one reason why some EU citizens have felt they have no choice but to get British citizenship. No one trust the U.K. government on that one. Esp as everything is digital so you don’t have that bit of paper to prove you have Settled Status vs windrush documentation.