Common Travel Area

The Common Travel Area (CTA) is an administrative arrangement between the UK, Ireland and the Crown Dependencies (Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey) which is implemented in UK domestic law in statute.

The CTA was developed to facilitate the principle of free movement for British and Irish citizens between the UK, Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. It ensured that British and Irish citizens continued to benefit from a mutual enjoyment of rights. There are no routine passport controls on routes from within the CTA to the UK. The UK approach, based on the UK legal framework, is for border checks to be undertaken at the first point of entry to the CTA.

Schedule 4 of the Immigration Act 1971 as extended to the Isle of Man, makes specific provisions to ensure that the immigration laws of the UK, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are integrated. In practice, this means that where a person has been granted leave to enter or remain in the Crown Dependencies and then proceeds directly to the UK, or the other way around, that leave and any conditions attached to it is treated as if it had been granted in the UK.