The Spanish authorities have decided to change the passport rules for British holidaymakers at selected airports to avoid queues during the summer.
UK passengers arriving at any of the airports mentioned below can now use the automated border control to scan their passports, meaning that they will no longer have to wait at the non-EU passport queues:
Gran Canaries, Fuerteventura, Tenerife Sur, Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Girona, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Madrid, Málaga, Mallorca, Menorca, Valencia and Sevilla.
While the above-mentioned airports will allow automated passport controls, the authorities have warned that UK citizens will still be required to have their passports stamped at some other airports.
These changes come after the tremendous queues experienced at airports here, partly because there was a passport-control-personnel shortage (criticised by the police themselves) and because British holidaymakers needed to get their passports stamped upon entry and exit (officially).
Just during May, the British authorities calculated that just under 2-million people had arrived in Spain from the UK
Finally, as to the importance of obtaining a stamp if you are planning on taking up a longer stay here, getting a stamp is very important to show that you have not overstayed your 90-day limit.
“Border guards will use passport stamps to check you’re complying with the 90-day visa-free limit for short stays in the Schengen area. If relevant entry or exit stamps are not in your passport, border guards will presume that you have overstayed your visa-free limit,” the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office explained.
(News: Spain)
In the Netherlands you can use the gates and then go to a desk to get your stamp – just an idea!
James: it’s not a guess. Holidaymakers can join the normal EU e-gates. You can do so even if you coming out for a couple of months, but you won’t get a stamp.
Back in the early 80s before Spain joined the EU, we all had to go through the passport control – there was only one bloke on that check; sometimes two, at Málaga airport. You got off the plane, walked across the tarmac and into the one-storey Málaga International Airport – the National one was just a bit further down about a kilometre away. I’ve still got my 1981-issue passport and it is full of stamps. What we used to do, if we didn’t intend going back to blighty was drive to Portugal to get a stamp to show that we had been out of the country.
Nowadays, it’s basically the same: you won’t get a stamp unless you ask for one to prove when you entered the country and hadn’t overstayed the 90 day limit that existed back then, too.
Summing up, you can go throught the electronic passport check where you’ll get through in minimal time, but if you want a stamp, you’re going to have to join the rest of the non-EU passengers arriving.
Thanks, Martin,
but because your answer is a guess, then we can’t say it is definitive.?
Can you get an official response, I was on one of them on a 1.5 hours queue back in May, so no queue much nicer if possible.
James: the fast-track is meant for holiday makers, not second-home owners coming out to stay. If you’re planning on staying, then join the normal queue and get a stamp, I guess.
If you use the automatic gates at Malaga how are you going to prove you are abiding by the 90-day rule.