@Ibra I will concede the point that things have changed post-Brexit from a customs perspective. But I think the original question was about immigration, which is different to customs.
Mention of La Rochelle earlier and their permanent police presence. The odd thing is, the few times I’ve flown there one is not processed at all by police/immigration/customs. You just leave your aeroplane and walk out the gate, and then use the code to get back in and walk to your plane without having to report to anyone. There is a little office near the gate, but that is just landing fees and fuel payment to my knowledge.
I will concede the point that things have changed post-Brexit from a customs perspective. But I think the original question was about immigration, which is different to customs
The concession I was referring to is more complicated, it actually mix customs & immigration, the latter can be done by douanes on behalf of police who only required flight PN but no immigration controls were necessary 
again, it’s worth translating national law with DeepL
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/article_jo/JORFARTI000035871865
Let me know what you think?
“When an aircraft carrying goods within the meaning of this Order, coming from or bound for a country belonging to the European Union or a territory belonging to the customs territory of the Union or to the special tax territory, but not belonging to the Schengen area, takes off from or lands at an international airport of the Union that is not a border crossing point, the pilot and crew members may benefit from the derogations from external border controls, pursuant to Annex VII, paragraph 2 of the Schengen Borders Code.The arrival and departure of the flight must be notified in accordance with the conditions laid down in Article 5 of this Order.”
Previously, crew only flights needed to be notified by 24h PN but the crews had exemption from immigration controls…this still applies today to flights from Croatia & Ireland as they are in customs union but not schengen, just like UK before Jan21 !
You just leave your aeroplane and walk out the gate, and then use the code to get back in and walk to your plane without having to report to anyone. There is a little office near the gate, but that is just landing fees and fuel payment to my knowledge.
I think that is highly ambiguous and if I did that today, with my plane still parked there, I would not post it – in light of recent events mentioned in this thread
But it is fair enough. You did the PN, you complied with the AIP+notams. You were 100% legal. Until… somebody gets upset. But you are OK; you speak French!
Let me know what you think?
I would be totally amazed if the police establishment could read that stuff.
If this is real, why not in the AIP?
Trust me the police & customs know that stuff, it’s operations and pilots who are not aware on updating the AIP, the last time I asked SIA & OPS to get AD AIP updated, I was told it will piss off neighbours and some big airport: those 10T jets from Sion & Biggin have loaded passengers and need to go to LeBourget for now…
Anyway, it’s was narrow consession that only applies to flights with crew only and no longer applicable to UK today…the same thing with Germany removing needs for customs for the narrow set of flights without goods to declare, it’s official and it’s confirmed by Zoll but it’s not yet in AIP…so, one need to read German, again it comes with funny restrictions, if airport has no customs, you can fly to with no issues but if it has customs, you need to adhere to strict PN !
See here, non of it is in the AIP yet, 877
Peter wrote:
But you are OK; you speak French!
No I don’t!
Well, a bit. But not enough to want to have an argument with French officials – although it’s not necessarily the language barrier, it’s more a case of being unsure where the limits of power lie when not in one’s own country. In the UK I’m more sure of my ground and will not generally give in to an official over-stepping their remit/power.
Graham wrote:
What’s changed is the way the French deal with non-Schengen arrivals and departures.
I don’t think that’s quite correct. Nothing has changed for non-Schengen arrivals and departures of EU citizens. What’s changed is that Brits have move from a category of EU citizens to a category of non-EU citizens. The later category involves a limit on the number of days that they can stay inside Schengen. It seems to me that all the issues being raised, come down to being able to prove that you haven’t exceeded that limit.
It would also seem to me that there are other ways of proving that, but the officials prefer their own method ;)
As for the rest of your post, I agree with your approach. Do the notification, with the proper notice periods, and just get on with life. If interacting with officials, be polite, even if they are being grumpy. Worse case scenario it should be easy enough to prove your arrivals and departures from your log book and email notification history. So while they might “huff and puff”, they probably aren’t going to do much other than complain (so long as you remain polite).
Peter_G wrote:
Have been through Calais three times in the last 10 days.
No Customs present.
Last time, this notice has appeared:
I was at Calais on Sunday and the sign is no longer there. I specifically asked the douanière about this, who told me nicely but firmly ‘there will always be someone here’. I didn’t press the point
So, let me get this right… they are saying they will always be there, rather than not turn up and threaten that they might do something nasty if you pass through without the stamp?
As reported here, at La Rochelle there is/was zero police presence (for PN’d traffic) so there you won’t get a stamp.
It is of course completely unjust to publish a PN and then not turn up and then threaten pilots who did the PN that they are going to be in trouble just because the police could not be bothered to turn up. The only way this PN system can work is the way the UK GAR system works: you do the PN (the GAR) and that is the full extent of your obligation.
Police love exceeding their powers – everywhere. It is inherent in the personality on which their recruitment self-selects. Here in the UK they, for some years, phoned you up, often at 3am, with a PTF (permission to fly) number. No support for this in the law, but it took a few years of brave people (myself included) telling them this practice is not supported by the law, before they stopped.
They must only be there x hours a day, e.g. banking hours. Pre-Brexit I’ve been through Calais late, 2000 local and deserted, without problem. Now, with passport stamping, no idea. I’ll call the operator to see what they say.
There was skydiving so plenty of spectators and family members walking through in both directions, they and the douane completely ignoring each other.
Pre-Brexit I’ve been through Calais late, 2000 local and deserted, without problem
That may have changed a bit, although I am not sure if I was unlucky talking to the wrong person, apparently airports now can refuse O/R or PN in AIP/VAC if they don’t like your arrival & departure hours or days
I was told recently it’s not possible to use airports like Calais, Rouen, Beauvais…at 5am, one has to use “opening hours” or use “another platform” whatever that means, I am still trying to get a clarification on this from official sources, it seems for now the only choices for an early flight are Lille, Ostend or LeBourget…just a side note, some people in charge are not aware that French airports stay open H24 on auto-info without operations & controllers, so maybe better let that dog sleep !
Few years ago, we landed there from UK at 11pm for few night circuits and swapping crew, PCL PPR and 24h PN with no issues from customs & airport manager
