Travel documents

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travel documents

Identity card or passport?

For flights bound for France or a country in the European Union (E.U.), you can travel with a valid national identity card (or a passport).

For a flight or a holiday outside the European Union, a passport is required. Certain States demand a passport with a minimum validity (sometimes up to several months after the planned return date to France).

Please note that driving licences are not recognised by the airlines as valid identity documents.

If the trip has been organised by a tour operator, you can in some cases travel outside the European Union with a national identity card (subject to flight+ accommodation being booked with the Tour Operator); please ask your travel agency or tour operator.

Check the required travel documents (national Identity card, passport, visa) for entering and staying in your destination country with this country's embassy and consulate in France.

For further information, you can consult the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website: Click here.

  • Precautions before departure:
    Leave yourself plenty of time for renewing your identity documents at the Prefecture; it often takes several months, especially in the periods leading up to the school holidays.

    Think about keeping at home a photocopy of the documents you are taking with you (in case you lose them or they are stolen abroad) and taking at least 2 identity photos.
  • Please note: 
    It is no longer possible to register a minor on the passport of one of its parents. Children must have their own passport.

Visas

For trips within the European Union, the tourist visa is not required.

For countries requiring a visa (consult your destination's file for further information), visas are requested from the consulate of the country in question, in the Nord -Pas de Calais region or failing that, Paris.

For organised trips, some tour operators deal with your holiday visa request for you; ask your travel agent or tour operator.

Vaccinations / Health

Whatever your destination, it is recommended that you make sure your "universal" vaccinations are up-to-date: tetanus, polio, diphtheria and hepatitis B.

Depending on the destination country and/or the time you are travelling, specific vaccinations are recommended and even compulsory for entering the territory.

To find out which vaccinations to have according to your destination, you can consult the Lille Institut Pasteur website: Click here.

The Lille Institut Pasteur also publishes a fact sheet on Health Advice for Travelling by Plane: Click here.

Customs 

BEFORE YOUR RETURN TO LILLE: 

When you arrive in France, customs and tax allowances in quantity and value are applicable according to the categories of goods you are carrying, if you bought them:

  • in a country which is not a member of the European Union, (third country),
  • in a territory excluded from the Community customs territory (as is the case for Overseas communities, such as French Polynesia, St-Pierre-et-Miquelon and Wallis-et-Futuna, or New Caledonia and Saint-Barthélémy, for example),
  • or a third territory in fiscal terms (as is the case for the Overseas departments such as Guyana, La Réunion, Mayotte, Guadeloupe and Martinique or as is the case for Saint-Martin, the Channel Islands and the Canary Islands, for example).

You can be checked by the customs services at the borders, and also throughout the national territory and community customs territory.

Passengers must voluntarily declare goods obtained abroad by presenting themselves at Customs in order to pay the corresponding fees and duties. Not declaring them risks having the goods confiscated and a customs fine.

However, passengers can import goods in their personal baggage up to the value of 430 Euros.

Passengers under 15 years of age have an allowance of up to 150 Euros. 

Be warned that some goods are subject to quantity allowances, such as tobacco and alcohol:

  • Tobacco and alcohol allowances: Click here.
    The rules are different for tobacco bought in the European Union: Click here. 
  • Counterfeit goods :
    Counterfeit goods often put the health and safety of consumers at risk (sunglasses, medicines, beauty products, toys). Counterfeit goods are therefore completely banned: it is forbidden to bring any back to France, whatever the quantity.  On arrival, the Customs services seize any counterfeit goods and the Customs fines are calculated based on the value of the authentic products which have been counterfeited. Their amount can therefore be quite high. Click here.

 

ON THE DAY OF YOUR DEPARTURE FROM LILLE TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY:

As well as the formalities for entering and staying in your destination country, it is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the country's Customs and health formalities too.

Before your departure, we suggest you find out about the formalities for entering and staying at the destination country's embassy and consulate.

You can consult the Advice to Travellers put together by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Consult the France Diplomatie website: Click here.

For further information about Customs, please consult: 
Customs Service website  
"Customs Info Service" call-centre      
 0811 20 44 44 From France        
+ 33 172 40 78 50  
The Customs mobile app available from all major mobile platforms

Duty-free Sales

Duty-free sales are on offer from shops in the Customs-controlled area of the airport, only if you are bound for countries outside the European Union or an overseas territory.

You are not eligible on domestic flights, including to overseas departments. The same applies for flights bound for a member State of the European Union.

For the quantity and value allowances you are entitled to when purchasing duty-free goods on extra-Community trips, please see the Customs section.