Hacker News Reader

Comment by InTheArena | Hacker News Reader

This isn't all that unusual either. From what I can tell from my travel, this is more of a European thing then anywhere else, as I have not been able to transit without clearing local customs in Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Seoul or Bangkok. Call it an accident of geography - most travel in the EU is technically international, because the EU is a loose confederation at best rather than a federal government.

View on HN

It's actually an artifact of the Schengen region not the EU itself. EU has freedom of movement rules, but Schengen provides for universal visa and lack of border controls. The UK (which is soon to be outside of the EU) has never been part of Schengen, but has and will continue to be part of the Common Travel Area which is the same thing but for UK and Irish Republic.

I've transited Hong Kong, Tokyo (NRT), Singapore, and Seoul (both SEL and ICN) without going through immigration or customs. All of them have a security check. They look at your passport and boarding pass, and x-ray carry-ons. But it's not full immigration.

Shanghai should have a custom free transit section now, at least for the last five years. I’ve transferred in Tokyo (from Beijing to the USA) and Hong Kong (from Beijing to Bali) often without clearing customs, so I’m not really sure what is going on with your situation there.

Hong Kong and Singapore, as examples, are huge transfer airports where many passengers never clear customs.

I was able to transit Seoul (South Korea) without clearing customs. This was in 1984, though, so things may have changed...

They haven't (as of 2018 at least).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com