What is the process if Brexit card holder’s passport is accidentally stamped?

Reader Question: I have a ‘Brexit’ card with the right to live in France but I was accidentally stamped last time I entered France at Nice airport. Will this affect future travel? I often travel in and around Europe so do not want to be caught out.

While frustrating, your passport being incorrectly stamped is unlikely to lead to significant issues for you. 

As you are the holder of a valid residency permit to live in France, your ability to remain is not affected by the stamp, provided you can prove your right to remain through your residency card to officials when required. 

If you frequently return back to the UK, you need to pass additional checks when taking a flight to leave the Schengen area, which sees your passport checked.

A Connexion staff member had the same issue of being mistakenly stamped despite being holding a valid residency permit during a visit back to the UK in May 2024, and has not faced any issues subsequently when presenting both their passport and residency permit to border officials since.

The EU has been aware of cases of passport stamping for Britons since Brexit, though French officials have confirmed that it should not be done in France.

A 2022 document published by the EU states that “there is little practical use in stamping passports of WA beneficiaries… Beneficiaries of the WA in a Schengen member state are not required to leave the Schengen area [after a set period of time] as they legally reside in one of the Schengen member states.”

It added: “The usual limitation of a stay of 90 days in a 180 days’ period in the Schengen area does not apply to them, irrespective of whether their passport has been stamped or not.”

Read more: France residents: If I enter via another country is passport stamped?

End to passport stamping in sight

The eventual arrival of the EU’s Entry/Exit-System (EES) and European Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias) will see the end of manual passport stamping, it is planned, as biometric security features will replace these border controls. 

Border officials will still be able to check travel documents, but the need for stamping will end, as a database will contain information on arrivals and exist from the Schengen area. 

An updated launch date for the EES is yet to be given, after an initial launch date of November 2024 was scrapped.

Read more: Port of Dover expects new EU border controls to be in place by November 2025