Dublin transit

Hello everyone,

I have been really lucky obtaining help on this forum, so hope it will happen again! I have tried to find the answer but struggled to get an explicit opinion, so would appreciate the help.


I live in the UK with my girlfriend who is an Ecuadorian citizen and who studies here. I am an EU citizen and we would both like to travel to my home country for Christmas. She does have a Schengen visa, but we are thinking about flying through Dublin as the connection is really convenient and it would save us c.£100 which we could definitely use around the Christmas time.


Even though as an Ecuadorian citizen she does not require an Irish transit visa, I have encountered mixed opinions about transiting in Dublin. Therefore, just to make things clear:


- both flights would be Ryanair, therefore we would have boarding passes for both flights
- hand luggage only - no need to go to the baggage claim / check-in area
- transit in Dublin would be approximately 2:30 hrs


The question is - is she going to be fine or would we have to apply for any sort of Irish visa? If the former, we will book the flights right away. If the latter, we will simply fly directly and some of my family members will have to accept less generous presents .


Thank you very much for your help!


Regards,
Mike

mike#23 wrote:Hello everyone,

I have been really lucky obtaining help on this forum, so hope it will happen again! I have tried to find the answer but struggled to get an explicit opinion, so would appreciate the help.


I live in the UK with my girlfriend who is an Ecuadorian citizen and who studies here. I am an EU citizen and we would both like to travel to my home country for Christmas. She does have a Schengen visa, but we are thinking about flying through Dublin as the connection is really convenient and it would save us c.£100 which we could definitely use around the Christmas time.


Even though as an Ecuadorian citizen she does not require an Irish transit visa, I have encountered mixed opinions about transiting in Dublin. Therefore, just to make things clear:


- both flights would be Ryanair, therefore we would have boarding passes for both flights
- hand luggage only - no need to go to the baggage claim / check-in area
- transit in Dublin would be approximately 2:30 hrs


The question is - is she going to be fine or would we have to apply for any sort of Irish visa? If the former, we will book the flights right away. If the latter, we will simply fly directly and some of my family members will have to accept less generous presents .


Thank you very much for your help!


Regards,
Mike

Check here:
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/Co ... 20required
- you appear to be in the clear (no *-mark for Ecuador)

I can't give a conclusive answer but I can give you some information.

Transit in Dublin doesn't save going through the immigration checkpoint. Depending on which terminal you land at you may have a separate lane for transit but it still leads to an immigration desk. Then from there you go straight back up to security (if you're handbaggage only as here or if you have your bags checked through). The transit path skips going back to a check-in desk but it doesn't skip the immigration or security unfortunately. It saves a bit of walking and if the security queue is long it can cut that queue short as you arrive at the final part of the queue. But usually it wouldn't make a big difference.

There's a problem here though. If you're connecting to Ryanair and have a non-EU passport you *must* get the boarding pass stamped by a Ryanair check-in desk staff for a "Visa check". Ryanair *only* does this at a check-in desk. If you reach the gate without the stamp they won't let you on the plane. This is only for non-EU passports so a lot of EU people may not be aware of it.

If you're lucky maybe you can get the visa check person at the original airport to stamp both boarding passes but I've never tried this. If not you *must* avoid the transit path and head out to the check-in desk and get the boarding pass stamped. That could make things complicated explaining at immigration that you're really in transit... I don't know.

(Fwiw at the check-in desk look for any desk with a short queue. If you don't actually have bags to check and you have your boarding pass it shouldn't matter if it's the desk for your flight. But I haven't actually done this myself. Your flight may have a long queue of people with bags to check but usually there are desks that are nearly empty for later London flights)


Fwiw (TIL!) nationals of Ecuador are exempt from visa fees (http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/fees) So maybe it would be simplest to apply for a single entry visa for the trip? That might be sensible if you're booking two separate Ryanair flights you'll want a long connection in case of delays and the option to head into town for a short visit might be handy. For that matter, it also means you have fallback plans if she misses the connecting flight and has to stay over a night.