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I'm planning a trip to Italy and Croatia around Nov 2024.

Can someone please help with understanding Immigration checks when traveling from Venice to Zagrab by bus? I will be on multiple entry Schengen visa

I will be entering Schengen area on Rome Airport, after 5/6 days of stay in Italy, i'm planning to use Bus transport(cheapest option i could find) from Italy to Zagreb, Croatia. I saw that bus goes from Venice, Italy -> Ljubljana, Slovenia -> Zagreb, Croatia.

Will there be any immigration check while crossing these counties border's? If not, is it allowed to transfer through bus and how much time it takes to clear these immigrations?

2 Answers 2

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All three countries, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia are in the Schengen area. There are no regular immigration checks on the borders between those countries. I have often seen 'random' immigration checks by Italian police on the Slovenian/Italian border, which seem less random and more permanent, but they only check persons travelling in the other direction. You do not have to expect any immigration checks in the direction you are travelling.

As long as you stay within the Schengen area, you can travel between the countries without each border crossing to be counted as an 'entry' on your Schengen visa. Even with a single entry visa, you could have done this bus trip without issues.

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    Just one aspect that could clear a possible confusion: Croatia joined the Schengen area recently (2023-01-01); they did have land border posts with checks and passport stamps (at least for non-EU passports) before that. Same date they also adopted Euro for payments, so if you have their older Kuna or Lipa monies, they are likely souvenirs or numismatic tokens now (not sure if there is a way to exchange them if you really wanted to).
    – Jim Klimov
    Commented Aug 17 at 10:17
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    @JimKlimov the border posts are no longer operating, but Slovenia seems to have "temporary reintroduction of internal border controls" for traffic arriving from Croatia, as Italy does for traffic arriving from Slovenia (as mentioned in this answer). I drove across both borders a couple of days ago. But there would be no passport stamp at an internal border check as crossing an internal border does not constitute entry into the Schengen area.
    – phoog
    Commented Aug 18 at 17:39
  • Interesting about the Italian checks from Slovenia. The only Italian internal check I've faced is at Chiasso coming from Zurich by bus (back when I lived there). They weren't satisfied with my ID somehow and also wanted a driving licence, so I offered my photographic bus/rail pass which they swiftly chceked with a magnifying glass
    – Crazydre
    Commented Aug 19 at 10:39
  • @Crazydre Italian immigration checks are also quite frequent when entering from Austria over Brenner, both by train and by car. The last time I travelled by train to Italy, quite a few passengers (5-10) were escorted off the train by Italian police. Commented Aug 19 at 10:44
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If your bus is subjected to an internal border check (whether officially notified or otherwise), the bus will stop at least long enough for everyone who has no immigration trouble to be checked and (if the checks happen off the bus) get back on the bus. If anyone is removed from the bus because of immigration problems, there should be some additional delay to ensure that they retrieve all of their luggage from the vehicle.

As a short-term visitor with a valid type C visa, you would almost certainly be in the "no immigration trouble" group. If you're not, it would be for some exceptional reason such as doubt that the visa is authentic or suspicion that it was obtained under false pretenses. Another possibility would be generalized suspicion that you are involved in something illegal that isn't related to immigration (drugs, terrorism). Most people don't have to deal with suspicions of that nature, of course, but there are several factors that could make it more likely; these are beyond the scope of your question, but I mention them in the name of being thorough.

As noted in the other answer, the chance of this happening in this direction is almost zero. If you return by bus, the chance is much greater. I drove past Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Venice two days ago, and there were border controls on both borders, and there were a couple of buses stopped at the Croatia/Slovenia border (I don't remember seeing any from Slovenia to Italy, but the delay for automobile traffic was less, so I had less time to look).

When I drove past Venice and Trieste into Istria three weeks ago, there was nothing happening at the borders at all. I didn't notice any controls for traffic in the other direction, but you can see from the traffic indications on your favorite map service that traffic moves very slowly in one direction and quickly in the other.

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  • (+1) In my experience (on other routes, a few years ago), checks in the Schengen area typically happen on the bus, not necessarily at the border but also at the next scheduled stop or on a random resting area after intercepting the bus on the motorway. On one occasion (in France), there was an issue that took an hour or more to resolve (not sure what) and the police let other passengers leave and find other means of transportation but still didn't release the bus.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Aug 18 at 17:56
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    @Relaxed on Friday, there were definitely two buses stopped at the border between Croatia's A3 and Slovenia's A2 (the infrastructure hasn't yet been removed). Of course, I have no definite knowledge of what was going on. I don't think they were having everyone get off the bus, but I have heard of border checks where they do, so I wanted to indicate that it might or might not happen. For an internal check like this (many drivers if not most, certainly including me, were simply waved through without any actual checking of any documents) I'd find it surprising if they didn't do it on the bus.
    – phoog
    Commented Aug 18 at 19:01
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    @Relaxed When crossing the CH/DE border in Konstanz, German checks take place at the Döbeleplatz bus stop, Swiss checks at the border checkpoint itself. Equally, buses LU -> DE are checked at the Trier bus stop
    – Crazydre
    Commented Aug 20 at 15:42
  • @phoog When the Norwegian border was totally shut to foreigners due to COVID, everyone had to get off the bus at the Svinesund crossing and was lined up with a 2-metre distance and processed one-by-one. I usually delayed the bus by 30-40 minutes as I had to argue my way in by referring to the Nordic freedom of movement which, unlike the EEA equivalent, does NOT provide for exceptions due to public health.
    – Crazydre
    Commented Aug 21 at 18:26

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