What Does It Take To Get A Freaking Passport Stamp Around Here?

Part of the motivation in my trip to Switzerland, in addition to hiking in the Alps, was the opportunity to take advantage of Switzerland's status as the lone holdout from the Schengen Agreement and collect a whole bunch of passport stamps from land frontiers. To my disappointment (but not really my surprise), border formalities between Switzerland and its neighbors are, shall we say, less than formal. Here's a rundown of what I went through during my various frontier crossings.

Martigny, Switzerland to Chamonix, France (train)
We needed to switch trains at the Le Chatelard station, near the French-Swiss frontier. It would have been a perfect place to post a customs officer, but none was there. The second train continued into France, unchecked. There was a border post a couple hundred meters up the road that ran parallel to the train tracks, but it would not have been possible to get up there, get the stamp, and catch the train in time.

Chamonix, France to Martigny, Switzerland (train)
On the return trip, we did not switch trains at Le Chatelard. There were no customs officers in sight, either on the platform or on the train.

Brig, Switzerland to Domodossola, Italy (train)
When the Cisalpino train stopped at Brig, the last station in Switzerland, I was delighted to see men clad in the navy blue uniform with red trim of Italian customs. They boarded the train and walked down the aisle, checking passengers' passports. One of them was carrying a stamp -- a rarity for an on-train passport check. After inspecting my passport and handing it back, I asked the officer for an entry stamp. He took down my passport details in a memo pad, presumably to enter it into the computer later, and gave me the stamp.

Domodossola, Italy to Locarno, Switzerland (train)
On the Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi (a picturesque train line with unfortunate acronym FART), we crossed from Italy back into Switzerland at Camedo. A border post on the road was visible on the train, but no passport control was carried out on the train. A frequent passenger on that line explained that there is never any passport control.

Zurich, Switzerland to Schaffhausen, Switzerland via Germany (train)
The train from Zurich to Schaffhausen passes through German territory. The train did not stop in Germany before reentering Switzerland, so no passport controls were necessary. There were stations in German territory at which local trains stopped, but they were operated by the Swiss Federal Railways. It was unclear what the customs arrangements were.

Schaffhausen, Switzerland to Waldshut, Germany (train)
I did not actually take this train, but took note of the fact that Germany-bound trains departed Schaffhaused from a special platform, on which there were Swiss and German customs offices. However, you did not need to actually pass through customs to get on a train. If you walked onto the platform from the main station through one tunnel, you'd be on the Swiss side; from the other tunnel, you'd be on the German side. Therefore, as best as I could tell, passport control from Schaffhausen was a Mexican's dream -- the honor system.

Basel, Switzerland to St. Louis, France (train)
Trains to France depart from a segregated platform area in the Basel train station. You need to walk through a door and pass separate Swiss and French customs counters. When I walked through, however, both were unmanned. Once onboard the train, plainclothes French customs officers (some of whom were wearing orange "Douanes" armbands, some of whom looked like they just graduated high school, some of whom you wouldn't possibly believe were customs officers had they not been flashing their badges) made their way through the train. While they inspected passports, they seemed more concerned with whether people were importing anything into the country.

St. Louis, France to Basel, Switzerland (foot)
There was a border station on the road from France to Switzerland, with inbound and outbound booths on each side. There were no signs or barriers directing pedestrians to report anywhere. Three of the four booths were unmanned. A single Swiss customs officer sat in the entry booth for Switzerland. I crossed the street, got his attention, and stepped inside the booth. He took my passport, typed some details on the computer, and gave it back. I requested an entry stamp, which was given, and I was sent on my way.

Basel, Switzerland to Weil-am-Rhine, Germany (foot)
The road from Basel to Weil had a customs barrier set up. Maybe one of every four or five cars actually stopped at the barrier -- the rest were waved through. There was a booth along the sidewalk with an officer sitting inside (I thought he was German, but in retrospect, I wasn't really sure). Some pedestrians (the ones carrying shopping bags) stopped by the booth while others just kept walking. I attempted to hand my passport to the officer. He said something in German I didn't understand and gestured for me to keep walking into the country, which I did.

Weil-am-Rhine, Germany to Huningue, France (foot)
As Germany and France are both members of the Schengen zone, there are no passport controls on the footbridge over the Rhine between the two countries.

Huningue, France to Basel, Switzerland (bus)
I boarded the public bus back to Switzerland. The bus slowed down and peered inside the customs booth at the border post looking for an officer to wave the bus in; however, it was unoccupied and the bus just continued into the country.

Romanshorn, Switzerland to Friedrichshafen, Germany (ferry)
There were no outbound controls at the Swiss port. In Germany, four customs officers stood on the dock, inspecting passports. I asked for an entry stamp and was directed into the customs office in a nearby building, when an officer took my passport and stamped it, without scanning it or entering data into a computer.

Friedrichshafen, Germany to Romanshorn, Switzerland (ferry)
The German customs officers were standing on the dock from which the ferry departed, but passengers could just walk onboard without showing a passport. I might have considered getting an entry stamp, but I left on the 8:37 p.m. ferry and the sign on the customs office earlier said it closed at 7:45 p.m. Once in Switzerland, three customs officers wearing flourescent vests met arriving passengers. They only stopped passengers with luggage, and most everybody else walked by. One officer just saw the cover of my American passport and waved me past.

The bottom line is that Switzerland is not quite the passport stamp paradise I hoped it would be. It really shocked me as an American that international borders were so porous and that people could come and go into a country without the government keeping track of them. Then again, it's not like there are a lot of Swiss who want to illegally immigrate into France. If you're allowed into the EU, you'd probably be allowed into Switzerland, and vice-versa. While Switzerland may officially be in a customs zone separate from the EU, in practice, they're pretty much the same.