European Firearms Pass validity or replacement?
- Thread starter treps
- Start date
dunwater
Well-Known Member
If you’re a UK resident then your EU pass lapsed on 1Jan, with the exception of NI, their EU passes remain valid.
There are several threads on the site dealing with this issue, but broadly you’ll need a visitors firearms permit for every country you transit through and not just your destination.
There are several threads on the site dealing with this issue, but broadly you’ll need a visitors firearms permit for every country you transit through and not just your destination.
Bavarianbrit
Well-Known Member
Which country?
France
Bavarianbrit
Well-Known Member
Will France issue you an EFP? Germany does, it just costs some fees.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
Nope EFP is no longer valid for GB citizens. I believe it was on the table till last minute and then it was sacrificed along with everything else.
GB citizens now need to apply to each and every country they intend to visit / travel through for a Visitors Permit. Some are easy to get, others require lots of paperwork. Just about all require a sponsor from the country being visited along with letters of invitation etc. - in other words think UK visitors Firearms Permit that we have to get if overseas visitors want to come here. And you need specific dates for travel etc etc. OK if you are travelling on an organised hunt you have booked several months in advance. But gone are the days when friends can ring up, and say get your arse over here as we have lots of pigs that need shooting. You book the ferry for tommorrow, through guns in and of you go.
I will probably get one of my German friends to buy a rifle that I will then set up for me, and keep it on his ticket and use it over there. What's not clear is whether the German authorities will accept my FAC as a valid document alongside my Jagshein, or will I still need a German visitors ticket, alongwith the visitors jagshein to use a rifle that belongs to a friend.
GB citizens now need to apply to each and every country they intend to visit / travel through for a Visitors Permit. Some are easy to get, others require lots of paperwork. Just about all require a sponsor from the country being visited along with letters of invitation etc. - in other words think UK visitors Firearms Permit that we have to get if overseas visitors want to come here. And you need specific dates for travel etc etc. OK if you are travelling on an organised hunt you have booked several months in advance. But gone are the days when friends can ring up, and say get your arse over here as we have lots of pigs that need shooting. You book the ferry for tommorrow, through guns in and of you go.
I will probably get one of my German friends to buy a rifle that I will then set up for me, and keep it on his ticket and use it over there. What's not clear is whether the German authorities will accept my FAC as a valid document alongside my Jagshein, or will I still need a German visitors ticket, alongwith the visitors jagshein to use a rifle that belongs to a friend.
The EFP was not worth the paper it was written on anyway. Have hunted abroad for years and have never been asked for it. At least it is another piece of paper I don't have to carry about.
Bavarianbrit
Well-Known Member
Bavarianbrit
Well-Known Member
On your German Jagdschein you are allowed to borrow a firearm (long) belonging to a different WBK holder and use it.
I have a Win 100 shotgun that belongs to my mate in Germany, we put it onto my German WBK and my UK SGC stored in UK it was his late fathers gun, when he comes over to the UK he uses it with me in attendance.
tusker
Well-Known Member
We were always checked on arrival by whoever customs, nobody wanted to see it .
Tusker
Pighunter
Member
See here, you can now travel to France with your uk permit. TRAVELLING ABROAD - the document saga -
Got checked several times and only wanted the English FAC. Very few even knew what it was.
not with me they haven't I have never been asked to produce it in Heathrow or Budapest. Actually never been asked for it anywhere
Agree with TH4 on this one, in 30 plus trips haven't been asked for an EFP ever.
The original FAC has always been accepted along with a letter of invitation to the destination country when driving or flying to EU or non EU hunts.
Border force have only ever been extremely helpful and professional noting FAC details on departure and arrival.
Just my experience.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
Given that we are now out of the EU we should not take previous practice as the norm. Thanks to the pandemic very few of us have travelled into Europe with Firearms. Now that rules have changed we are no longer part of the EU, and most European countries have some form of Visitor Firearms Pass that non EU travellers are required to have before they can legally carry and use firearms.
The one thing that Boris et all insisted was the removal of all equivalence, whereby the EU recognises UK processes, licencing, qualifications as equivalent to EU and Vice Versa.
What makes it more irritating is that the UK with it withdrawal act signed all the EU regulations into UK law. So both sides of the Chanel still work to the same standards - ie the requirements to certify that an individual is fit to possess and use a firearm are pretty much the same, but our government has chosen not to recognise this, and thus a German or French or Dutch customs office, whilst pre Brexit would recognise a UK FAC and take it as equivalent their own and wave you through, now there is no longer that reciprocity.
It is up to the individual EU countries to make their own decision on this. Some will, some won’t, and of customs and police will often take their own interpretation of the regulations.
I really do hope that it will be as simple as simply turning up with your FAC, but having looked at the visitors firearms permit requirements for Netherlands and Germany, its quite a bit of paperwork to do before hand.
The one thing that Boris et all insisted was the removal of all equivalence, whereby the EU recognises UK processes, licencing, qualifications as equivalent to EU and Vice Versa.
What makes it more irritating is that the UK with it withdrawal act signed all the EU regulations into UK law. So both sides of the Chanel still work to the same standards - ie the requirements to certify that an individual is fit to possess and use a firearm are pretty much the same, but our government has chosen not to recognise this, and thus a German or French or Dutch customs office, whilst pre Brexit would recognise a UK FAC and take it as equivalent their own and wave you through, now there is no longer that reciprocity.
It is up to the individual EU countries to make their own decision on this. Some will, some won’t, and of customs and police will often take their own interpretation of the regulations.
I really do hope that it will be as simple as simply turning up with your FAC, but having looked at the visitors firearms permit requirements for Netherlands and Germany, its quite a bit of paperwork to do before hand.
