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Comment by gorbypark | Hacker News Reader

I once arrived in Vancouver on an international flight from Europe and somehow they messed up the "routing" of passengers and everyone just walked out to the baggage carousels for domestic flights without going through customs at all! After a few minutes the employees realized what happened and they just brought over a few custom inspectors to the "exits" (it was really just a low wall with plants separating the carousels and the doors to the outside) and checked passports of people leaving, but a number had already left and they didn't even have a computer or anything, they just manually checked the passports. It's possible they only let Canadian through this way and directed foreign passports back to a real customs area, I don't exactly remember. It was pretty bizarre and only about 10 years ago now. Mistakes do happen!

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It's possible to get into the UK without a (UK) passport check if you go via Ireland. They treat the Dublin ferries and planes like domestic flights, they still check the passport at boarding and one presumes with it being computerised they still know you've entered the country (unless of course someone does what this guy just did).

There were signs up in Manchester that if you didn't have a UK / Irish passport (we travel on AU passport) that you're supposed to approach someone, but no-one guarding the exit. Ha ha honour system.

Doubly so if you drive across the border from Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland, since they're legally not allowed to based on the Good Friday agreement.

In some ways this is less what we want because as tourists that spend a bunch of time in the UK I actually want someone to tell me I'm complying with the law.

You say they check passports between Dublin and GB, but I'm a Northern Irish guy who took the car over the ferry from Belfast to Stranraer then back from Holyhead to Dublin, I didn't even think about bringing my passport with me. The height of customs was on the Dublin from Holyhead side, they got me to roll down my window and asked me what my nationality was.

Ah but I don't do a good Irish accent.

I was saying the flight did barely. Not the ferry to Holyhead

They do check your passport coming into Ireland. I think the CTA means reciprocal checks of equal passport standards so Ireland wouldn't admit anybody that Britain didn't want to allow in (technically).

That doesn't really apply since Ireland has different visa requirements to the UK. As a South African national I can enter Ireland without a visa, whereas I do need one to enter the UK.

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