page_title: Common Travel Area
section_title: Ireland
hierarchical_section_title: Common Travel Area / Identity and immigration checks / Ireland
caption_attribution_description: English: The Irish Border between Northern Ireland and Ireland on Killeen School Road in Killeen, County Armagh, in Northern Ireland. The only indication that one is crossing into the Republic of Ireland is the speed limit sign expressed in kilometres per hour. The Cooley Mountains are in the background.
context_page_description: The Common Travel Area is an open borders area comprising the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The British Overseas Territories are not included. Based on agreements that are legally binding, the internal borders of the Common Travel Area are subject to minimal controls, if any, and can normally be crossed by British and Irish citizens with minimal identity documents with certain exceptions. The maintenance of the CTA involves considerable co-operation on immigration matters between the British and Irish authorities.
  In 2014, the British and Irish governments began a trial system of mutual recognition of each other's visas for onward travel within the Common Travel Area. As of June 2016 it applies to Chinese and Indian nationals and is limited to certain visa types. Other nationalities and those holding non-qualifying visas still require separate visas to visit both countries and may not avail of a transit visa exception if wishing to transit through the UK to Ireland.
context_section_description: In 1997, Ireland changed its immigration legislation to allow immigration officers to examine (i.e. request identity documents from) travellers arriving in the state by sea or air (from elsewhere in the CTA) and to refuse them permission to land if they are not entitled to enter. Although formally this applies only to people other than Irish and British citizens, both of the latter groups are effectively covered as they may be required to produce identity documents to prove that they are entitled to the CTA arrangements. while targeted controls are conducted along the land border in what are referred to as "intelligence driven operations". Air passengers arriving at Irish ports/airports from elsewhere in the CTA are no longer channelled separately from those arriving from outside the CTA; consequently all sea and air passengers must pass through Irish immigration checks, administered by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). While British citizens are not required to be in possession of a valid travel document as a condition of entry, they may be required to satisfy immigration officials as to their nationality.
  The nature of the Irish controls was described by an Irish High Court judge, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, in the following terms:
  The practical result of this is that all persons arriving by air from the United Kingdom face Irish immigration controls. While in theory both Irish and British citizens are entitled to arrive here free from immigration control by virtue of the common travel area, increasingly in practice such passengers who arrive by air from the United Kingdom are required to produce their passports (or, at least, some other form of acceptable identity document) in order to prove to immigration officers that they are either Irish or British citizens who can avail of the common travel area.
  In 2012, a pilot project was set up to use civilian staff from the Immigration section of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) to work with GNIB staff at immigration control at Dublin Airport. INIS staff will be responsible for performing all "in-booth" duties (including examining arriving passengers), but will not take part in any matters related to restraint, detention or arrest.
caption: The border at Killeen, marked only by a speed limit sign in km/h
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 850 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:25 05:45:28", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1150", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5852", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:05:13 11:40:57", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:05:13 11:40:57", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "10833/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "640", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "480", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1000", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1944000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}