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My parents are Indian Citizens. They hold a valid B2 Tourist Visa to USA. I'm planning to book a flight with Hyderabad (India) - Abu Dhabi (UAE) - Dublin (Ireland) - USA. The leg from Hyderabad to Dublin is operated by Etihad and I know there is no problem hopping at Abu Dhabi. The leg from Dublin to US is operated by Aer Lingus. I called Aer Lingus customer care agent told me a transit visa is required to land in Dublin. She did not care to ask for the citizenship of traveller or about the USA visa. I went through Irish immigration website - (http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/Transit%20Visas), India is not in list of countries that require transit visa. I'm now confused. Can some one confirm if they traveled with the same itinerary recently

Update: I called Aer Lingus again. Another agent told as long as I don't exit the airport, a transit visa is not required. I think these people don't really understand trouble we go through when boarding is denied. I put this question because I read a person was denied boarding earlier - Do I need a UK or Ireland transit visa when flying from the US to a Schengen country?. His case mentions about denied because of different day. But I see his transit time is 12 hours only.

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  • His transit would have required him to stay overnight, and you can't leave Dublin airport if you are transiting without a visa.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 20:08
  • In Timatic, there is no mention of overnight stay. My ticket doesn't involve an overnight stay, its from 7 AM to 12 PM - 5 hour wait. But just want to be sure about information in Timatic.
    – TechCrunch
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 20:11
  • That's also a bad example of a question, as it was an edit where he described a completely different situation to his original question, and nobody had the opportunity to answer it. Most likely his airline made a mistake; as far as I can tell Dublin airport is open 24 hours. But it might not have been at the time. If the airport was closed overnight then he would have had to leave it to get a hotel, and would have needed a visa. There's no easy way to look up what the rules were three years ago.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 20:14
  • I found an old thread in yahoo which says Dublin airport was not closed overnight at that time - answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080221140826AAaHz7c
    – TechCrunch
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 21:04
  • Could you possibly update on how your travel experience was with this situation? I am doing the same and even though I do not need a transit visa I am still a little worried.
    – user41932
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 19:58

1 Answer 1

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Dublin Airport is one of the rare European airports without an airside international transit area (with a minor exception that doesn't apply here). Everyone arriving at the airport from another country must clear Irish immigration before continuing onward. For this reason, anyone passing through here must either have a transit or short-stay visa or be exempt.

Regardless of where in the airport you arrive, you will need to make your way to Terminal 2 and the 400 series gates, where the US preclearance facility is located. This official map shows the (slightly confusing) method by which you will transfer from the Terminal 2 arrivals hall to departures. Once you have passed (the apparently pointless) passport control you will be in the departures shopping area and can proceed to US preclearance.

As far as I can tell from the official information, Indian citizens do not need a visa to transit Ireland, provided you do not leave the airport. Timatic also says: "TWOV (Transit Without Visa): Visa required, except for Holders of onward tickets for a max. transit time of 24 hours." So the airline should not deny boarding.

If you pass through the airport via this method you will not really have the opportunity to leave the airport anyway, so you should have little difficulty at passport control.

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  • I think the Aer Lingus agent did not care to answer my question and simply answered visa is required to be on safer side. I checked IATA tool in emirates website emirates.com/english/plan_book/essential_information/… which says transit visa not required, with some extra irrelevant and difficult to comprehend information.
    – TechCrunch
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 19:46
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    @TechCrunch That's the same information from Timatic, just formatted differently. Most airlines use this to determine if your documents are in order before you board the flight. In any event you can be sure that Irish immigration officials are well aware of the unique issues at Dublin airport and will see such transits many times every day.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 19:58
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    @TechCrunch No, you won't need to pick up and re-check your bags.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 20:03
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    @TechCrunch I've since learned that Etihad and Aer Lingus both use Terminal 2, so the map given above is exactly the route you want to follow. That particular passport control is used only by transiting passengers, so you ought to have no difficulty with this connection.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 19, 2015 at 5:17
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    Normally, if you are not allowed admittance to a country, the airline that brought you is responsible for the cost of deporting you. The complicating factor here is that Dublin Airport provides pre-clearance facilities for travelers to the USA. However, if you failed pre-clearance, for what ever reason, a transit traveller could now be stuck in Dublin Airport without a visa to be in Ireland and the carrier that brought him or her would be able to disclaim responsibility since local authorities did not deny admittance.
    – Paul Smith
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 23:09

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