Going through customs
 

I'm flying internationally for the first time. I'm flying from Gulfport MS, to Memphis, to Amsterdam to my final destination Edinburgh Scotland. Will I have to go through customs in Amsterdam as well as Edinburgh?

The short answer is yes. Although people in the US use the term <i>customs</i> to also mean immigration clearance, customs deals with goods entering a country and immigration deals with people.

You'll actually go through what's known as <i>passport control</i> (immigration) in Amsterdam when you enter the area covered by the Schengen Treaty. If you were go from Netherlands to any other country in the Schengen Area, there would be no other checks, similar to traveling between states of the US.

Britain and Ireland lie outside the Schengen Area, so you'll have to go through passport control again in Edinburgh or wherever you enter Britain.

You do go through customs. The typical traveller goes thru the green door (nothing to declare). Sometimes, a person gets singled out by a customs agent to open his/her bags to be sure he/she is not bringing in goods that would require paying duty. Nothing to worry about.

Not sure if you go through customs twice. We just entered thru Amsterdam, did clear customs and immigration, and spent a few days there. We then flew on to Switzerland... no immigration or passport stamp, but we did pass thru a customs gate (green for nothing to declare).

Thank you. I only have an hour and 5 minutes layover, I'm hoping that will be enough time.

Unless you decide to go landside at Amsterdam you will NOT go through either immigration checks nor customs at Amsterdam.

You also won't see your luggage until you collect it at Edinburgh - after you've gone through immigration checks but before you go through customs.

The first two replies are incorrect. You're merely a transfer passenger in AMS. You will not go through passport control or immigration there. You will just go to your new gate for your second flight. If you weren't given a boarding pass for that flight when you checked in, you'll need to stop at a transfer desk to get the second boarding pass.

You may have to go through security (metal detector, x-ray) again at AMS, but that's it.

No I won't be going outside the airport. Just from one flight to my next.

Thanks, that eases my mind. I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't see a reason I'd have to go through passport control/immigration since I was just stepping off one plane and headed to another but wasn't sure.

"I didn't see a reason I'd have to go through passport control/immigration since I was just stepping off one plane and headed to another but wasn't sure."

If you were flying to another Schengen country then you would have passed through immigration checks at Amsterdam

Things have changed in Amsterdam. Last week transferring thru U.S. to Athens and return. We stood in line at Passport Control for 20-30 minutes. Then prior to getting on the plane coming back to the U.S. we stood in line at the gate for an hour. After being interviewed at the gate we then went thru a body scanner and a pat-down.

The real problem at Amsterdam which I will avoid in the future is coming from the U.S. the planes arrive at a gate that is at the opposite end of the airport from gates going on to other European Cities. KLM and Delta are the worst. 50 minutes won't get it!

Er... The OP is going to the UK, not Greece.

I also think the first two answers are incorrect. I have never gone to those exact destinations, but arriving overseas from the U.S. and transferring planes, my suitcase was always checked thru to the final destination, so no customs were involved at that midpoint transfer.

Okay, let's try to cut through the incorrect answers here...

You are connecting from the US to the UK. As the UK is non-Schengen, you will NOT go through passport control, nor will you go through customs at AMS. You will walk from one gate to the other and re-clear security at the gate for EDI.

At EDI, you will clear both passport control and customs.

"Things have changed in Amsterdam. Last week transferring thru U.S. to Athens and return. We stood in line at Passport Control for 20-30 minutes."

Em, it's been like that for 15 years ever since Schengen started. If you are ending up in a Schengen country then you pass through passport control at your entry point into Schengen - just like if you were flying Europe to Chicago via New York you'd go through passport control at New York.

The UK is NOT in Schengen therefore you don't go through passport control if you are transiting Amsterdam

Just to clarify for anybody who might not know this term that's being tossed about, "Schengen" refers to a union of 25 European countries that treat themselves as "one country" for travel purposes. There are no internal border controls when traveling between them. Most of the European Union participates; the UK and Ireland do not. The agreement was signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.

So traveling US to UK via AMS, you never officially enter a Schengen country; you're just in transit at AMS. No passport control or customs until you get to Edinburgh. But US to Greece via AMS, then AMS is your first port of entry into a Schengen country and you do go through passport control before boarding your second flight at AMS. Netherlands to Greece is treated as a "domestic flight." You wouldn't see your bags until you get to Greece and would go through customs, but not passport control there.

To the heart of TMarie's question is will 1 hr and 5 mins be sufficient to make the connection. If the first flight arrives on time, probably so. But if the first flight is significantly delayed for any reason, then probably not.

It's a little unsettling to see such incorrect answers. What if the OP stopped reading after the first 2 posts. She would have gotten absolutely *wrong* information from this forum.