Travelling from Germany to Sweden without passport.
 

Hi,

I am an non-EU national with a residence permit of Germany.
I have to apply for a visa to UK for which I will travel to Berlin next week.
But after that I need to travel to Sweden for a few weeks.

Can I fly to sweden from germany with just a residence permit and no passport ? (since that would be under the visa processing )

If it helps I am taking the air-berlin airlines.

Any information is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jyotika

As a matter of practice, as a non-EU/non-EEA citizen, I've flown between Germany and Sweden (or Denmark when heading to southern Sweden) multiple times on non-stop flights to/from TXL where my (US) passport was not checked by anyone. When there is a check, they'd want to see your passport.

With carry-on only, self check-in, the chances of your passport being checked by the airline or anyone else drops tremendously -- and in my dozens of flights between TXL to ARN/CPH in recent months, zero passport checks as a carry-on bags passenger who did self-check-in and did print my own boarding pass or used the Air Berlin mobile phone app.

My European residence allowances/cards haven't generally been sufficient for flying purposes when someone has wanted to check the travel documentation requirements and asked me for a passport. YMMV.

Thank you very much for such a detailed reply.
:)

It's a very YMMV affair. Sometimes even on trans-EU buses they will ask for your passport or ID regardless of your nationality. So, as GUWonder said, better to err on the side of caution.

Hmm, thank you again. I guess i will have to choose between the trip to UK or the one to Sweden. Bad timing !

At German airports normally there are no document checks. AFAIR neither in Sweden. If there is, it's the airline and a driver's licence may suffice (I don't know much about the residence permit - if yours look like this, it might do the job, too)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...haeftigung.JPG

I would do the trip without thoughts, but I'm "at home" within the EU, so my threshold can be lower than foreigners'

Why not make also a photocopy of your passports data page?

Even for NPU country residents of only non-EU/non-EEA citizenship doing intra-NPU international travel, airline reps and non-fixed station national authorities in immigration or customs control positions turn people out sometimes despite having the residence ID card issued by one of the NPU countries. It's really a situation of YMMV for non-EU/non-EEA citizens. Most often it works out fine when within the Schengen Zone. A photocopy of a passport doesn't necessarily change a thing for such travel, and it may help (but not generally with the airlines) but it may hurt (with airline reps or national authorities who may consider it suspect). I keep photocopies of my passport biodata page and it has worked sometimes when not flying.

Agree, it's YMMV - but the odds are it'd be OK. Depends on the OP, what kind of odds are acceptable.

For AB TXL-Scandinavia, the odds are very high that no ID would be checked when flying between the two counties, at least if doing carry-on-only luggage and self check-in on the AB phone app. I'm batting 100% no ID checks by anyone for AB flights from TXL to Denmark or Sweden; and about 100% no ID checks for AB flights from Denmark to Germany. It's Sweden to Germany that is more the wild card, and primarily with what the airline/ground service reps at ARN -- that is where inconsistency in practice would be most evident if evident at all when flying AB.

A sincere thanks for everyone for their suggestions.
I have (mostly) decided that my trip to sweden is more important than the trip to UK.
So dropping visa application to Uk.

Thanks again,
Jyotika

I do not know about Nordic countries, but in Germany, the Aufenthaltstitel is NOT a valid ID by itself even though it has everything that any other national ID would have. So, if asked for an ID in Germany (especially by the agents of the state), this e-residence permit will not get you far. I believe the same practice exists in NPU countries as well.

At least one of the NPU countries has some agents of the state -- police enforcement authorities at that -- which don't accept valid US or Canadian passports as ID for some purposes. Give it to governments for being inconsistent and ridiculous over time.

Jyotika, another thought... flying is no the only way to get from Germany to Sweden. It may take a bit longer, but it's actually fairly easy to get from Germany to Sweden by train (something I am going to to next month, from somewhere not too far from Berlin). There are no ID checks on the train.

Or go to your embassy in Berlin, explain that you need a temporary passport for travel while the real one is at the UK embassy?

I have done that before, butI am a Danish citizen, so YMMV.

DanishFlyer

I love this forum !
You folks try so hard to help :)

Just checked the train journey.
It will take around 17 hours from stockholm to freiburg (which is fine, I am from India and am used to long train rides).
But it will cost me around 2390SEK ~ 200 euros and thats just one side.
That will be one expensive trip.