Island in talks about use of ID cards in CTA

The UK has announced that from 28 December, French students on school trips will be permitted to travel through its ports without a passport.

This represents a U-turn on the part of the UK government, which imposed restrictions in the wake of Brexit. The school-trip concession has been in place for all EU and European Economic Area students travelling to Guernsey for 18 months.

‘We changed our immigration rules in May 2022 to enable any EU/EEA national under the age of 19, and who is travelling as a member of an organised group of school pupils, to travel to the island using their National ID Card,’ said Home Affairs president Rob Prow.

‘Such trips are important from a cultural and relationship perspective. We note the UK’s intention to no longer require third-country students on school trips to have a visa. We would expect this to be the case across the CTA and are discussing this with other member jurisdictions.’

The ability to travel using ID cards rather than passports is considered particularly important because only about half of French nationals own passports.

Following discussions with Normandy and representations to the UK by both Guernsey and Jersey – both of which saw tourist travel from the EU take a hit post-Brexit – day-trippers of all ages were permitted to travel using ID cards from 26 April on certain commercial passenger routes. This scheme has been extended until 30 September 2024.