Timeline for Why do French customs search Flix Buses?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
26 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 2, 2022 at 7:26 | comment | added | Relaxed | @AmiralPatate The language is indeed even stronger than I remembered (with talk of what's “autorisé“ and “sanctions“) but then there is this very odd sentence “Les quantités rapportées doivent correspondre à votre propre consommation personnelle“ that's presumably supposed to justify the whole thing. The EU has a similarly confusing page that starts with “As a private individual, there are no limits“ but then lists those same limits without fully clarifying how this is supposed to work. | |
| Aug 2, 2022 at 5:48 | comment | added | AmiralPatate | @Relaxed At least, the government isn't framing it as a guideline but as a definite "you'll get taxed or fined" rule. service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F812 | |
| Aug 1, 2022 at 22:26 | comment | added | wimi | "No check is done at the borders between Schengen member countries" that is the theory, but has nothing to do with practice. Coming back to Germany from Austria by train, I always get delayed because the border police stops the train and checks everyone's ID card. They should start including that in the train schedule. | |
| Aug 1, 2022 at 21:50 | comment | added | Flydog57 | For what it's worth, if you drive from LA to Dallas, TX, you'll hit El Paso, TX about halfway. Soon after El Paso, you'll go through a Customs and Border Patrol checkpoint near Sierra Blanco on Interstate 10 (liquisearch.com/…). There are limits to what the CBP can do at these checkpoints, but they have been known to arrest people (pro tip: don't go through there smelling of marijuana). | |
| S Aug 1, 2022 at 16:28 | history | edited | Nathan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Copy edited (e.g. ref. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlixBus> and <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/visa#Noun>).
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| S Aug 1, 2022 at 16:28 | history | suggested | Peter Mortensen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Copy edited (e.g. ref. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlixBus> and <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/visa#Noun>).
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| Aug 1, 2022 at 16:25 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Aug 1, 2022 at 16:28 | |||||
| Aug 1, 2022 at 15:53 | comment | added | Relaxed | @AmiralPatate The authorities sometimes imply this very strongly but that's not quite true. You can import any quantity as long as it's for yourself. In theory, the amounts you quote are just a rule-of-thumb for what counts as “personal use”. | |
| Aug 1, 2022 at 15:45 | comment | added | phoog | @AmiralPatate yes, I'd forgotten about that. I believe these articles are treated differently because they are subject to excise taxes rather than (or in addition to) customs duties, but of course customs officers enforce excise regulations as well as customs regulations. | |
| Aug 1, 2022 at 14:35 | comment | added | AmiralPatate | @phoog Some things you can't import in infinite quantities. E.g. from a EU country, you can only cross the border with 10L of liquor, 20L of fortified wine, 90L of wine, 110L of beer, 200 cigs, 50 cigars, 100 cigarillos, and 250g of rolling tobacco. Yes, and, not or. Per person. | |
| Aug 1, 2022 at 11:55 | comment | added | Flying Thunder | Even within Schengen border checks can still happen. Going from Netherlands into Germany, you will encounter frequent checks if you looks suspicious to them. | |
| Aug 1, 2022 at 7:58 | comment | added | gerrit | Flixbus is checked more than Thalys because poor people travel on Flixbus. | |
| Jul 31, 2022 at 22:39 | comment | added | Relaxed | In any case, French law explicitly gives customs agents additional powers along the borders, even internal EU/Schengen borders. I am not quite sure how much resources are allocated to this but they can legally do many things that in other countries would be handled by other law enforcement agencies including checking a person's immigration status. Customs agents can only do that along the border and in airports and train stations, not everywhere in the country. | |
| Jul 31, 2022 at 22:34 | comment | added | Relaxed | @phoog You would think so but there are still a few things they could catch like goods that are simply illegal or things that have been smuggled from outside the EU (e.g. cigarettes). The border is just a convenient place to intercept them, I guess. I have also been asked about the amount of cash I am carrying as requiring a declaration for large amounts of cash is legal under EU law. | |
| Jul 31, 2022 at 15:28 | comment | added | phoog | @Relaxed there's not much justification for a customs inspection of a vehicle arriving from another country in the customs union, however, is there? | |
| Jul 31, 2022 at 14:31 | comment | added | Relaxed | @njzk2 Clearly, checks like those mentioned by Nathan are, in fact, related to the fact the bus crossed the border and actually quite frequent. The French customs administration has other missions and can perform some checks on the whole territory but checking ID and visas would be illegal in other contexts (the police can do it under separate procedures). | |
| Jul 31, 2022 at 10:10 | comment | added | njzk2 | Those checks are not carried at the border per se. No checks at the border doesn't mean there are no customs, nor that they don't check stuff. (I was once checked by customs in the area of Limoges, which is not exactly near any border) | |
| Jul 31, 2022 at 6:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackTravel/status/1553621484748292096 | ||
| Jul 31, 2022 at 4:08 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Jul 30, 2022 at 21:39 | answer | added | Thomas Cruise | timeline score: 13 | |
| Jul 30, 2022 at 21:18 | vote | accept | Nathan | ||
| Jul 30, 2022 at 20:28 | answer | added | jcaron | timeline score: 7 | |
| Jul 30, 2022 at 20:22 | answer | added | Relaxed | timeline score: 20 | |
| Jul 30, 2022 at 20:20 | answer | added | Franck Dernoncourt | timeline score: 25 | |
| S Jul 30, 2022 at 20:04 | review | First questions | |||
| Jul 30, 2022 at 20:26 | |||||
| S Jul 30, 2022 at 20:04 | history | asked | Nathan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |