EU citizen to UK

[giorgosa]

I hold an EU passport.

I traveled on August from Istanbul to London LHR. I made my online check-in , printed boarding pass and arrived at gate prior to departure.

There was boarding pass control and officer checking boarding pass noticed I have no visa in passport and informed her supervisor. Supervisor asked me why I have no visa and I told him that this is an EU passport!

He asked why I am travelling from Istanbul! I told him that I live in Istanbul. He asked to see my return ticket, I told him that I don't have it printed, so we went to a computer and he confirmed that I have ticket to go back after 3 days...

What was it for?
What if I was not holding a return ticket? (It 'll happen soon as I will relocate)

[Englandd]

how can this be possible that you were asked the visa despite holding EU passport.

[giorgosa]

how can this be possible that you were asked the visa despite holding EU passport.

Thats why I ask here.... I have no idea...

[aledeniz]

I hold an EU passport.

I traveled on August from Istanbul to London LHR. I made my online check-in , printed boarding pass and arrived at gate prior to departure.

There was boarding pass control and officer checking boarding pass noticed I have no visa in passport and informed her supervisor. Supervisor asked me why I have no visa and I told him that this is an EU passport!

If you mean the lads and the lasses at the Istanbul airport, just before dropping your bag, they have asked me a visa a few times as well. It is rare, but it does happen. They have called the supervisor a few times too, when I was there with my national ID, and for my wife's passport, as she doesn't have a visa, but a RC. Just keep your cool and answer politely, even if the question seems stupid, they are there not only to save the airline some bucks, but especially to try to save some life.

Once we had an interesting conversation with one of the supervisors, she told us at the times they weren't accepting spouses of EU citizens without a valid visa, as long as the border police of the EU country of destination wasn't confirming them over the phone they would have allowed a specific passenger, this was meaningful for us because Italy has decided not to issue anymore visas to spouses of Italian citizens, as they officially don't need those to enter the country (that's it, if you can teleport at the port of entry, of course), and she confirmed that at the times they were actually calling the Italian border police case by case! Here is hope nowadays they may have improved on that, but I'm sort of a pessimist on those matters, I've to admit it ...

[aledeniz]

Italy has decided not to issue anymore visas to spouses of Italian citizens, as they officially don't need those to enter the country (that's it, if you can teleport at the port of entry, of course)

For the sake of correctness, nowadays they have slightly relented, if the spouses of the Italian citizens declare they will travel alone, they may ask a visa, subjected to the payment of the normal fee, and the presentation of the usual documentation for visa nationals, including bank statements and travel bookings (2 in distant months if you are asking for multiple entries), but so far they let you still apply at the consulates ...

[giorgosa]

I hold an EU passport.

I traveled on August from Istanbul to London LHR. I made my online check-in , printed boarding pass and arrived at gate prior to departure.

There was boarding pass control and officer checking boarding pass noticed I have no visa in passport and informed her supervisor. Supervisor asked me why I have no visa and I told him that this is an EU passport!

If you mean the lads and the lasses at the Istanbul airport, just before dropping your bag, they have asked me a visa a few times as well. It is rare, but it does happen. They have called the supervisor a few times too, when I was there with my national ID, and for my wife's passport, as she doesn't have a visa, but a RC. Just keep your cool and answer politely, even if the question seems stupid, they are there not only to save the airline some bucks, but especially to try to save some life.

Once we had an interesting conversation with one of the supervisors, she told us at the times they weren't accepting spouses of EU citizens without a valid visa, as long as the border police of the EU country of destination wasn't confirming them over the phone they would have allowed a specific passenger, this was meaningful for us because Italy has decided not to issue anymore visas to spouses of Italian citizens, as they officially don't need those to enter the country (that's it, if you can teleport at the port of entry, of course), and she confirmed that at the times they were actually calling the Italian border police case by case! Here is hope nowadays they may have improved on that, but I'm sort of a pessimist on those matters, I've to admit it ...

As I told I was holding only hand luggage. The control that I described above took place at the boarding gate!

[aledeniz]

As I told I was holding only hand luggage. The control that I described above took place at the boarding gate!

The fact you were holding only hand luggage, is actually the reason for the questioning at the boarding gate

When they interview you at the queue for the check-in, after they are satisfied from your answer, they put a colour coded stick on your luggage and on the back go your passport. The colour code changes every day, sometime perhaps during the day, and expresses their assessment of the given passenger.
At the boarding gate the security officer checks the back of the passport, and from the colour code of the stick decides how to deal with the passenger. As you reached there without a stick on the back of your passport, they dealt with you logically as you had not been previously assessed.

This has also happened to me in the past, once when I was travelling back from a weekend in Istanbul in my trainers, Adidas jacket, no luggage and just the passport, a credit card and my driving license in my pocket.

[aledeniz]

At the boarding gate the security officer checks the back of the passport, and from the colour code of the stick decides how to deal with the passenger. As you reached there without a stick on the back of your passport, they dealt with you logically as you had not been previously assessed.

Perhaps to avoid the full screening at the boarding gate, one travelling without luggage could try to ask at the security officers at the check-in, passport in hand, if they may directly go at the boarding gate without passing from the check-in queue. Better not to mention sticks and colour codes during the conversation, I reckon .

I have a vague recollection of doing so once, but I don't really remember the outcome, that's it if I got the stick on the back of the passport or not.

P.S.: also, my understanding is that this level of security in the Istanbul airport is not used for every destination, but I have noticed they are using it always for London or any British destination, or for Tel Aviv. In my experience they didn't use it always for the Italian destinations, it was depending by the period and the contemporary state of the international affairs, but my experience could be dated on this regard.

[ca.funke]

Supervisor asked me why I have no visa and I told him that this is an EU passport!

That´s mainly due to some of the visa-check-clerks not understanding the visa rules in full.

Had a similar experience when travelling from Frankfurt(Germany) to Larnaca(Cyprus) with a Belgian ID-card(not passport).

The airline-check-in dude seriously wanted to tell me that Cyprus is not in the EU, and hence I´d need a passport, not "just" an ID... While I did have my passport with me (just in case I´d lose the ID), I insisted to travel with the ID, and managed to get through after he checked with some suervisor over the phone. He didn´t let me through without the (stoopid) remark that "it´s always better to have a passport with you"...

...unreal but true, just like your experience.