General Declaration (GenDec) forms and Dutch Immigrations

Updated Information [August 2, 2016]

Due to recent terrorist events as well as drugs smuggling activities that took place in Europe utilising small GA aircraft, the Koninklijke Marechaussee (Dutch immigration authorities) is intensifying its border security tasks at airports. With reference to the Dutch Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP), GEN 1.2 Entry, Transit and Departure of Aircraft section, sub 3.2, Immigration authorities can always demand a General Declaration (GenDec) form of pilots. The obligations of the captain related to the GenDec form is for flights from/to countries outside the Schengen area.

The GenDec requirement for pilots flying inbound or outbound between The Netherlands from or to a Non-Schengen country like e.g. the United Kingdom is now more strictly enforced by the Marechaussee. Pilots on non-scheduled or private flights to and from non-Schengen countries are required to submit and/or bring along a Gen Dec form. The GenDec form needs to include specific information on all crew members and passengers including their passport number, nationality as well as the date and place of birth.

The Koninklijke Marechaussee prefers to receive this GenDec form at least two hours ahead of your time of departure for the flight, and for the Pilot-in-Command to bring along a copy on paper or otherwise in digital format. In some cases, such as with a transit through The Netherlands, the GenDec form might have to be stamped by the Dutch authorities on arrival. If you don’t send them a copy ahead of time via one of the methods mentioned below, you at least have to bring along copies in the aircraft. Providing the information ahead of your departure gives the authorities the possibility to screen the crew and passengers in the aircraft, which will speed up the entry process when you arrive.

The Koninklijke Marechaussee is collaborating with several pilot organisation such as AOPA as well as with AeroPlus on how to make the process work as smooth as possible for all the parties involved.

If you are using OnlineGAR.com, then use it to file a GAR form when flying outbound from the UK as well. OnlineGAR will, in that case, send a copy of the GenDec form to the Dutch authorities. The OnlineGAR solution is integrated with our pilot app for iOS.

AeroPlus will be offering a similar feature as OnlineGAR.com and fully integrated with our AeroPlus Flight Plan app, which app you can find in the Apple AppStore.

GenDec Form Send Automatically

AeroPlus Aviation collaborated with OnlineGar.com and the Koninklijke Marechaussee to look for a temporary solution to make it easier to comply with the GenDec requirement for all the pilots using our Flightplan App in combination with the OnlineGar.com system. OnlineGar.com is used to comply with the UK Border Force entry requirements on the UK side. See this blogpost on how we integrated OnlineGar.com’s system with our AeroPlus Flightplan app.

The OnlineGar.com system allows for an easy way for you as pilot-in-command to comply to the UK Border Force requirements for entry into the UK. The system facilitates inviting passengers and crew-members by e-mail to submit their personal- and passport details into the OnlineGar system. The pilot can subsequently submit the required information directly from the flight plan app to the British Border Force authorities. The information gathered on the crew members and passengers in this process is the same as that requested by the Dutch immigration authorities for their GenDec form requirements. Therefore, by submitting the information to the UK Border Force on your departure from The Netherlands to the UK and visa versa, the Dutch authorities will receive this information as well from OnlineGar.com automatically. This works if you file both an outbound and inbound GAR form for the UK through either our Flightplan app or directly through the OnlineGar.com web-system. The whole process is more or less automatic. However, you still need to bring along a digital or paper copy of the GenDec form, which will automatically be sent to the pilot-in-command in PDF format by e-mail.

GENDEC-01 GENDEC-02

Above you see that when using the OnlineGar system from within our flight plan app, the form will not only be sent to the UK Border Force authorities, but also to the Dutch immigration authorities as well.

GENDEC-03 GENDEC-04

Once the form is submitted to both the UK and Dutch authorities, you as pilot-in-command will automatically receive by e-mail a PDF with the completed GenDeC form. You can also manually download this form as seen above from the OnlineGAR.com website using the button “EMAIL ME”.

GENDEC-06

If you are using an Apple Watch in combination with our AeroPlus Flightplan app, we will remind you about the GAR (general aviation report) requirement several hours before your flight.

Please note: this implementation is a pilot-project and thus temporary in nature. You as pilot-in-command are advised to make sure to bring along a digital or paper copy of the GenDec form. Also, be aware that for outbound flights from the UK into The Netherlands, the UK authorities currently do not require you to fill out a GAR form. However, the Dutch authorities will need to receive their GenDec form, so you will have to file an outbound GAR as well from the UK as only then the Dutch authorities will be informed and receive the correct information.

If you do get questions from the Koninklijke Marechaussee (Dutch immigration authorities) officer on arrival or departure, tell them to call their General Aviation Backoffice (Backoffice Luchthavenkamer) as the information and GenDec form was send to their back-office email address. Or show them the copy you brought along.

OnlineGar.com

If you do not use our Flightplan app for filing flight plans, but you do have an account with OnlineGar.com, then you can still use the same setup and inform the Dutch immigration authorities of your arrival or departure. Login to your onlinegar.com account and initiate everything from there.

Dutch-Customs-Email

The same for downloading the Dutch GenDec form from the Onlinegar.com website. Go to your account, and send the Dutch Customs GenDec form to your own e-mail address. Then bring it along with you.

Dutch-GAR-form

GenDec Form Functionality offered within AeroPlus Flightplan App

We already have all of the flight plan data that is needed by the authorities for crossing borders, except we are missing the data of the crew and passengers, such as their passport number, expiry date, etc. It would be easier if we would support the GenDec and GAR form submission natively. That is exactly what we are working on at the moment. We expect to release our GenDec solution in September 2016.

Our flight plan app has a web-interface. Using the web-interface, you add the crew and passenger data once. Then in the flight plan app, you select who is on board for a specific flight. We then file the documents with both the Dutch as well as the British authorities and sent you a copy by e-mail as confirmation. The green bullets indicate that the data is up-to-date. With a red bullet, the data is out-of-date. For example, their passport number expired. We will send you a reminder then the expiry dates are approaching.


Details screen.

When you delay your flight or cancel it, we will send a message to the authorities with the delay or cancel information.

Download generic GenDec form

You can also do it all yourself manually and download an empty General Declaration (Word document) from here: GENDEC-form