Within EU but crossing Schengen border: have to show passport (i.e. must pass Immigration) but a stamp is not required.
If you are not EU citizen or EU resident you should get a stamp on crossing Schengen borders, every passport get stamped on crossing EU (external & customs) borders
Not sure if the guys who are doing the job know this though…a French passport holder need stamp on the way LeTouquet to UK today but I have not seen it happening 
Emir wrote:
- Schengen membership – free movement of people
That depends on what you mean by “free movement”. In principle, EU citizens have free movement in the whole of the EU, not just in Schengen. Of course if you’re not moving intra-Schengen you have to show a passport/ID at borders but that in itself doesn’t restrict your free movement anymore than having to show a passport/ID at an airline check-in desk. Probably less.
That’s ok if you never go outside Schengen 
Getting back to the original topic, it seems certain that the stamps are not actually used for any purpose. It is just a ritual. You just get some totally baffled police officer who gives up after a certain time, say 2 minutes
The EU may have a database to keep track of who has arrived and who has departed but it cannot possibly work reliably enough to be of any use for detecting illegal entry.
After all, the “EU PLF” used during coronavirus does not appear to have served any purpose whatsoever, apart from a purely one-way data collection (database stuffing) process. The vast majority of EU member countries never used it anyway.
The UK does run a database for in and out but again it can’t be used for anything serious because of the relative ease of entering the UK without a passport check, plus the 100% ease of leaving the UK without a passport check Your passport is actually scanned only with airline, Eurostar, or possibly ship border transits.
In comparison, the US database does get used and if you have mismatched entries on their computer, they will question that when you come back years later. Mentioned e.g. here.
vic wrote:
Stamps, no stamps, . . . get an id card, small like a credit card and no hassles to have in the pocket
I can’t use ID card (carte nationale d’identité) when going UK/France today, it seems no longer possible since last year? it’s impossible to stamp one !
You get the same result if you show French passport to French and UK passport to Brits
I can’t use ID card (carte nationale d’identité) when going UK/France today, it seems no longer possible since last year?
Was that ever possible? I vaguely recall being able to travel UK to Ireland with an “ID card” issued at a Post Office, decades ago.
It is of course possible to “get out of the UK” without any papers, but not legally.
Not really relevant to passport stamps.
Ibra wrote:
I can’t use ID card (carte nationale d’identité) when going UK/France today, it seems no longer possible since last year?
You can if you have (Pre-) Settled Status but that’s only cover some of us.
While ago there were two layers:
- CTA citizens could move freely inside CTA between England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland without passports, this was the case since 1930 (you can even use birth certificates or some post office papers)
- EU citizens could move freely in EU with ID card (but UK never issued these to Brits)
It would be interesting to know if today an Irish citizen can come to UK with ID card? (French citizens can’t)
Xtophe wrote:
You can if you have (Pre-) Settled Status but that’s only cover some of us.
I had the impression it is not for any UK resident? only EU citizens with grandfathered Art50 rights in UK/EU WA? the same should happen the other way UK to France, some UK people who are EU residents can still travel with their residence cards? seems difficult to explain
Peter wrote:
Your passport is actually scanned only with airline, Eurostar, or possibly ship border transits.
Well, that makes for 99+% of travel.
While the value of stamps in passports certainly has diminished / disappeared with the increasing proliferation of electronic databases, they used to be – and still are – of importance in parts of the world that have not yet gone digital. I spent a good part of my working life in, shall we say ‘interesting’ parts of the world and there you made damn sure the stamps were correct and legible.
Peter wrote:
In comparison, the US database does get used and if you have mismatched entries on their computer, they will question that when you come back years later. Mentioned e.g. here.
Yes and you can query it yourself, it’s called an I-94 (Google it) that gives you your details. Can be important info for immigration and tax purposes.
AFAIK the EU is planning a similar system to the US ESTA, not sure when that’s supposed to become operational.
Ibra wrote:
It would be interesting to know if today an Irish citizen can come to UK with ID card? (French citizens can’t)
They can with passport card.
