sarett
Traveller
5 comments
Posted 14 years ago
So, I've been thinking a bit about this country of residency (CoR) thing, read some Forum threads and have come up with a question about experiences of a possible loophole, regarding the specific situation of living in one EU country but having a passport from another (which must happen often for European exchange students, for example).
My situation: I'm currently living in the UK (6+ months) but have a Danish passport. I recently made a trip from the UK via France / Spain / Portugal / Germany to Denmark using an Interrail global pass. I now know I should have gotten an Interrail pass with the UK as my CoR, but I used Denmark as my CoR without even thinking about it or reading the rules, as I still see myself as being in the UK temporarily and that Denmark = home = CoR. It's only now that I've looked into it more that I realised that I mis-used (abused?) the system and that maybe I was lucky I got away with it. On this whole trip, I was never asked for my passport or to explain my CoR, even though I was travelling from the UK with a friend whose Interrail CoR was the UK.
The loophole I see: If I was a long-distance commuter in the UK, what would stop me buying an Interrail pass with a CoR of Denmark to cover all my commuting expenses? Or, if I have a month where I'm traveling every weekend (which IS actually likely for me), what's stopping me buying an 8 travel days in a month one-country pass to cover it?
It seems that as long as I bring out my Danish passport (which has no stamps in it, whatsoever) and claim that I'm just in the UK on holidays, there is nothing they could say.
Does anybody have any experience of using this system this way? Has anybody whose passport country and CoR on the ticket matched up ever met suspicious 'controlleurs' and been asked for other proof of residency or a ticket to indicate when they left their CoR?
It seems it would be difficult for them to question it as many people must use this legitimately. I.e. interrail throughout Europe for a few months and just hang around in one country for a long time during the trip. On the other hand, there must also be a reason why you can't use the pass in your own CoR (i.e. a high risk of commuter fraud). So how can they tell the difference for people with a situation like mine?
Hoping that this makes sense to somebody, I'd be curious to hear thoughts and experiences.
