Flying through Frankfurt to Croatia - passport control
I'm traveling from US to Croatia via Frankfurt International.
I vividly remember going through a passport control last time I took this trip. However, at the Frankfurt International Airport website it says:
"You are arriving from outside the Schengen Area and your destination is in a non-Schengen country: Usually no passport check is mandatory, provided that that you do not leave the transit zone. Depending on your nationality, you may require a transit visa. If in doubt, please contact an embassy or consulate of your country"
Now I'm confused because Croatia is not a part of Schengen (but it does belong to EU) and I certainly did not leave the transit area.
Would there be a passport control for my trip? Am I losing my marbles?
Best Answer
It is very unlikely that you actually went through a proper immigration checkpoint.
On my last trip out of Frankfurt in September, I had ample time between checking in for my flight to Hong Kong and the plane’s departure so I spent my time exploring how far I could move around airside. The non-Schengen parts of the airport follow a decentralised security concept, i.e. each security checkpoint serves only a couple of gates. After exit immigration but before going through security, I was able to walk all the way from terminal 2 to the centre of terminal 1 where the security checkpoint for the B gates was. I took the SkyTrain back to terminal 2. As the SkyTrain is separated into landside and non-Schengen airside, it should be possible to ride it to reach the non-Schengen A/Z gates too, all without ever passing immigration.
Aside from the security check (the one where your hand luggage is X-rayed), the only other possibilities I can think of are:
- your passport was checked either as part of the security check (why?) or by the gate staff
- you ran into a spontaneous document check conducted by some police force. Disclaimer: I have never seen this happen non-Schengen airside but I wouldn’t rule it out completely.
- you took the wrong turn and accidentally exited the non-Schengen airside (passed through entry immigration) and later entered non-Schengen airside (passed through exit immigration) again.
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You were probably talking about immigration (passport control)? It's nowhere near as slow as in the US so that won't be your problem. It usually takes about 30-50 minutes for the luggage to arrive (yes, they are slow in FRA).Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: APEX.GRAPHICS, Oleksandr Pidvalnyi, Pok Rie, Miguel Á. Padriñán