A great idea which eases UK to NL flights. Thanks to those who did it.
Hopefully, it will work with more countries.
OnlineGAR says it works with Dutch customs BTW.
The GenDec discusson is a rather old one, I guess.
When I was doing the ‘how to do cross border flights’ extension of our training facility after passing PPL, we were taught each and every flight has to be able to present a General Declaration GenDec according to ICAO Annex 9, Appendix 1. We learned to keep blank copies of APP-1 at any time in the aircraft in case anybody ever asks for it, as ICAO does not require in general preparing one in advance of the flight but only on request. The UK was one of the few countries requiring a ‘GenDec’, which they oddly called GAR. The Netherlands and some other countries jumped on the Bandwaggon, maybe there are so many bored from pandemic and looking for new ways to <…> pilots.
I do welcome effort like OnlineGAR and Gendec.eu, but benefits are limited, indeed.
I have used the site a couple of times and it works on the Dutch side of the border fine and on the UK side too I think. Athough I’ve only been checked in NL and never in the UK, I did e-mail with the borderforce regarding changes in my flight plan and the alway seemed informed about the stuff I filed through the GenDec site.
I would be rather amazed if this site generated a real UK BF acceptable GAR form.
I could believe that it generates “some form” which goes to the UK BF where some not very happy person enters it into their system manually. The UK GAR is either a .xlsx file (which is processed with some script into a database) or the data is submitted directly electronically (which OnlineGAR does, and airlines have been doing since for ever). I do know UK BF still accept GARs in old formats and enter them by hand, because they told me so 
Looks like much of Europe has jumped on the Gendec/GAR bandwagon and is doing it mostly very badly.
which they oddly called GAR
The UK GAR is > 20 years old, predating anything I know about (actually used) in Europe except the Greek “gendec” declaring you don’t have tuberculosis 
It is also a great idea since just about every UK runway has Immigration/Customs; something which none of the “Gendecs” do. They are just data collection projects.
The Gendec has been included in ICAO AIUI since the Chicago Convention was drawn up in 1944 effective 1947. I was under the impression that the UK GAR was something totally different.
It always seemed to me that the gendec was mainly about things carried onboard and remaining onboard whereas the GAR is more of an immigration thing.
gallois wrote:
It always seemed to me that the gendec was mainly about things carried onboard and remaining onboard whereas the GAR is more of an immigration thing.
The GenDec originated from Declaration of Health to help fight spreading diseases by aviation PAX and was launched together with (im)migration application.
Quite right about Declaration of Health just revisited Annexe 9 appendix1.
I’m not sure how it deals with immigration because it doesn’t ask for passport nos or any of the normal immigration questions.
ICAO “health” GENDEC exists in UK, it’s called C155, it’s mostly about sars, zika, smallpox…
Immigration PN, pre-avis, GAR…are completely different from GENDEC
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/import-and-export-general-declaration-outwardinward-c155
Peter wrote:
I would be rather amazed if this site generated a real UK BF acceptable GAR form.I could believe that it generates “some form” which goes to the UK BF where some not very happy person enters it into their system manually.
They are listed on https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1043233/GOV.UK_GAR_instructions_-_December_2021.pdf on page 16 under “Annex G 3rd Party Applications with secure links to Home Office systems”. So no, that is not (paraphrasing you) “some form” that some not very happy person enters into their system manually, but the data is submitted directly electronically (just like OnlineGAR does).
