Travelling in/out France after the attacks of November 2015

Current situation: As of the third week of December, all extra checks seem to have been lifted (not seen any this week between France and Switzerland, heard similar things from people crossing the border to Luxembourg every day) so it appears that the French authorities more-or-less did what they planned to do for the COP21 summit anyway.

At the border with Switzerland, where border posts have not been dismantled, there are now chicanes on both sides of the border, slowing down traffic even when the police is not present.

Earlier observations: I have crossed the French border many times this month, updating the answer along the way, and the checks are far from systematic. I did see increased police presence at (or near) several major crossings but also some unattended crossings and no noticeable police presence on a train to France. That’s relevant because it shows that the border is obviously not “closed”. If nobody is there, you won’t be asked to justify your citizenship or status…

The police was however present on motorway crossings with Luxembourg and Switzerland, which is highly unusual, and took time to look at people’s faces but did not check documents (so again no systematic attempt at screening out foreign citizens). The radio also reported some unusual delays and traffic jams at other major crossings in the vicinity and a friend told me he lost 3-4 hours to come back to France from Luxembourg on November 17.

During the weeks following the attacks, I had to show my passport/ID card only once. I was actually travelling with a non-EU citizen at the time and she could also cross the border without problem with her residence permit.

General context: Beyond that, as I commented under @phoog excellent answer, the only official statement I have heard is this sentence in the press release after the emergency cabinet meeting in the night between November 13 to 14:

Par ailleurs, le Président de la République a décidé le rétablissement immédiat des contrôles aux frontières. Les services des douanes sont également mobilisés à cet effet.

It means that controls should be increased (which is allowed by the Schengen regulations, incidentally), not that the rules have changed in any way. What the préfecture told you also confirms this. People then started saying that France was “suspending the Schengen agreement” (which is only partially true, even under the most charitable interpretation) and then “closing her borders” (probably a misinterpretation of the previous sentence and prima facie absurd).

Whether anything changes in the next few weeks remains to be seen but actually closing the borders (or even stopping to honor Schengen visas) would be massively disruptive, you can be sure you would hear a lot more about it than a few rumors if that was the case.

Finally, unlike the controls performed by several countries in the wake of the refugee situation earlier this year, these measures are apparently supposed to catch one of the perpetrators of the November 13 attack and possibly thwart further attacks. In this context, it seems highly doubtful that someone would be simply bounced back to Italy/Switzerland/Germany/Belgium if there was any suspicion about them. So the absolute worse that could conceivably happen when coming from another EU country with a valid French residence permit is that you would be detained and questioned, not denied entry.

I will share any information I have. It is far from complete, but I hope it will help anyone with questions similar to the original one. I happen to live an hour from the northern border of France.

1. Truck driver friends were able to enter the country without issues. I have asked multiple friends and none of them reported any problems. They were also able to leave. There is extra security on the borders. How much is unknown to me.

2. Some friends studying in Nice decided to come home after the events of last Friday. I am unaware of their flight details. They arrived without any issues.

Do note, my friend all hold West-European passports and are non-Muslims. I am unaware of any difficulties non-West-Europeans could face. I suspect non-EU citizens might have a harder time, especially if you look Muslim. Nevertheless, the borders are open.

My personal opinion: do not travel to France if you are or look Muslim and you do not need to. Stay out of Christian Europe in general. It is not safe. While no one would dare attack you in the open, I see lots of hostility towards Muslims. So be careful please.

I called the prefecture in the city I live in (Evry) and asked about the situation. They said that as long as the carte de sejour is valid then there should be no problem. Anyways I will be travelling tomorrow and I will also update the answer with what happens.

Update I took my flight from paris (Orly airport) to Venice (Marco Polo airport) and there was no checks even I did not have to show my passport only my carte de séjour was enough to go out of France and I did not have to show any documents entering Italy.

Second Update
When I was in Italy, two soldiers stopped me, searched my bags and asked for my papers. it was done politely and I expected such thing to happen so it did not annoy me at all.

I came back to France today and there was nothing more than passport and carte de sejour check.

If valid your CARTE DE SEJOUR gives you the right to stay in France. Make sure that it is valid until you come back. And that the personal data on the CARTE DE SEJOUR are in line with your ID or passport. And that your ID or passport is valid until you come back. Not sure, but may be it should be valid for at least 6 months. Good luck!

I looked for official information about this from a French government source, but did not find anything. I may not have identified the correct agency, but there was nothing obvious on the web sites of the Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries, nor on that of the Douane.

According to the UK official foreign travel advice (emphasis added):

On Friday 13 November, a number of terrorist incidents took place in Paris resulting in widespread casualties. British nationals are advised to exercise caution in public places and follow the advice of the local authorities. French authorities have heightened security measures due to a risk of further attacks. The advice of the Paris Police is currently to keep movement around town to a minimum. Systematic border control checks have been implemented at all entry points into France. A national state of emergency and a three-day period of mourning have been declared (14-16 November). Public gatherings, the flying of drones and use of fireworks in the Ile de France region (Paris and surrounding area) have been prohibited.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france

This should mean that you are legally free to travel in and around Paris and within France as usual, although you are advised to do so only when necessary. It should also mean that you, like everybody else, are guaranteed to be subjected to scrutiny at the border when you enter (and probably also when you leave) France. (Normally, if you are travelling across a land border, you have only a chance of being asked for your papers in a random check.) I guess that your experience with the border guard should be similar whether you are entering by an air or sea port or crossing the border on land, though if they decide to check you out more thoroughly when you’re traveling by train, they might have to take you off the train so they can get to their data systems.

It would be nice to know from someone who has done it whether any of this is true.

Note that there is no mention of changing the entry requirements. Holders of Schengen visas, residence permits, etc., are therefore not being categorically excluded from the country. I have read news reports of “closed borders,” just as there were reports of “closed borders” in Germany and Austria a few months ago. This is just incorrect terminology that news media are using to describe the situation. In the case of Germany and Austria, I also remember reading about “suspending the Schengen agreement” which is similarly inaccurate, because the temporary reimposition of systematic border checks is in fact something the agreement explicitly provides for. (An article describing this in French can be found at www.lemonde.fr.)

As a practical matter, however, assuming your profile name and picture reflect your real name and appearance, there is probably a greater chance that you would be subjected to unreasonable scrutiny, or, worse, that you might unreasonably be refused entry or otherwise detained at the border. I do not know the French border services well enough to predict how they will behave in the current environment. If I were you, I would try to find actual stories of young Muslims who have crossed the border, to find out how it has gone for them.

My worries in this matter are largely informed by stories I’ve heard from mostly South Asian friends who lived in the US immediately after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and by my own observations of airport security as I flew between Europe and the US several times a year in the years since 2001. I did not travel much in France in the immediate aftermath, so I can’t say whether the blatant profiling I saw occasionally in other European countries also happened there in those days, and I certainly cannot say whether it would happen there now.

Of course, if you’re singled out for closer scrutiny because of your appearance, it could be as minor as an extra question or two, or a slightly longer wait during extra database checking, or it could be more significant.

If anyone has personal experience of these newly-implemented systematic border checks, it will be most helpful to let us know about your experiences in a comment or an answer.