stedtale

I will be traveling to Luleå, Sweden with my family (2 adults and 3 children 10yr and under). Our flight lands in ARN and our connecting flight to Luleå (in northern Sweden) departs about 2 hrs later.

Where will we hit customs and immigration?

We plan on carrying on all of our luggage. If we checked the luggage, would we need to pick it up in ARN prior to entering customs and immigration, or will it check all the way through to Luleå?

I'm trying to be sure I set our family up for the quickest and most efficient way to get all of us through customs and immigration. If we can avoid one, or both prior to Luleå, that'd make our connection easier to make.

Thanks!

flanneruk

THe standard rule in the EU's Schengen area is:
- you go through immigration at the first Schengen airport you reach (Stockholm for you)
- Formal Customs inspection is the kind of antiquated petty tyranny third-world countries impose on travellers. Technologically advanced countries have lots of other ways of monitoring travellers' imports, and rarely trouble travellers themselves. But, if a traveller has a profile or behaviour that triggers an alarm, they'll be stopped at the last airport a piece of baggage is checked through to. In this case, Lulea.

stedtale

So, if I check my bags, I'd pick them up in Luleå, and would go through immigration in Stockholm? If I carry on my bags, I would go through customs and immigration in Stockholm? But, customs isn't anything to worry about, unless I get stopped?

Thanks for your help!

michelhuebeli

Correct, customs is not anything to worry about unless you are singled out as a person to be questioned and your stuff to be inspected. That could be a random occurence ("today we check every two-hundredth") or, as flanner says, there's something about you or your profile that triggers an inspection.

But in reality, that happens hardly ever to regular folks, and the way the "customs" works is that you simply walk out the exit marked in green "Nothing To Declare".

If you knew you had something that might incur duty, you would volunteer to walk to the exit marked in red and talk to an official.

stedtale

I assume we will need to go through security and such in Stockholm before we can get to our connecting flight?