FF: Unrestricted Travel Between UK and Canada??

[pipdowns at etchells0.demon.co.uk]

Steve wrote:


> I have a fan fic that is still very much in the planning stage in
> which Harry and Ron are in the USA illegally. They are at the 
> airport trying to get a airplane ticket back to England, but don't 
> have their passports with them. 

Steve, I think you are going to have to have them travel to the USA 
by magical means, or alternatively have them lose their passports en-
route. I cannot imagine *anyone* traveling (legally) by plane from 
UK to Canada without a passport. 

There is one possibility; that is that the UK authorities somehow 
think Harry and Ron are *Canadian*. They might well do an emergency 
repatriation for two minors stuck in a foreign country.

[ie, the Canadian Consulate would provide some emergency paperwork 
to get them on the flight. *However*, this would only work if Harry 
and Ron are underage. Or if they're being deported from the UK.]
> 
> So, I need a plausable explaination for how they ended up in the 
> USA. It would serve me extremely well if travel between Canada and 
> England was unresticted. That way they could arrive in Canada, and 
> on a whim cross the border into the USA to have a look around.
> 
> Part of the problem is getting them through Canadian Customs 
> without passports. The lords of poor writers would smile on me, if 
> they could do that with just their UK national ID's. 

Err.. No. As others have pointed out, the problem is getting them on 
the *flight* to Canada without a passport. You will not get onto a 
(foreign bound) plane in the UK without showing your passport. Last 
time I traveled abroad I not only had my passport checked, I had a 
retinal/facial features scan as well.

Airports in the UK are very security conscious. Very, very security 
conscious.

The other problem is that the passport *is* the unofficial UK 
national ID.

There are approximately 58 million people in the UK. 44 million of 
them hold passports. More people hold a passport than hold a driving 
licence (41 million people hold a driving licence).

I use my passport all the time. As ID. 

> 
> Even if that isn't exactly possible, I may have a alternate cover
> story, but even that alternate story need very loose restriction on
> travel between the two countries (they claim they enter Canada on a
> private plane landing at a small airport in the alternate 
scenerio).

Still need a passport. A private plane would have to file a flight 
plan and would be expected to go through Customs and immigration 
like everyone else. 

If Harry and Ron claim they entered Canada on a private airplane, at 
a small airport, where no one asked for their passports, they might 
as well just add 'and our pilot kept offering us Coke, but we told 
him we weren't thirsty.' ;-)

> 
> Even under the best of circumstances, I'm going to have to do a 
>  lot of 'fast talking' to pull this off.

Accidentally hitching a lift with international drug smugglers 
sounds your best bet...

Pip!Squeak