How can a passport holder handle a passport with a single-entry visa if they get an entry stamp by entering the lay-over country but have to meet again immigration to reach the other terminal/gate in which there's the other flight?
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Since you mention Canada, let's take Canada as an example.
If you are flying to Winnipeg, but your flight has a 'layover' in Toronto (a pretty frequent occurrence) then you would clear immigration in Toronto. Once you have cleared immigration you go to the domestic terminal and board the flight from Toronto to Winnipeg, along with all the other people who are already in Canada and won't need to clear immigration at all. When you get to Winnipeg there will be no immigration or customs, since the flight has come from within Canada. This will be the same for any two cities within Canada.
Your single entry visa works fine - you enter Canada once, and after that you are just taking domestic flights.
This works pretty much the same for every country. Canada is just an example.
To answer the question in comments, no it is not possible in the above example to stay in the "transit area" in Toronto and clear immigration in Winnipeg. There is no such thing as a "transit area". International transit passengers (meaning those that are leaving on a flight out of Canada) simply remain in the "international" area. But the Toronto-Winnipeg flight will not depart from the international area. Only flights going to international destinations leave from there. You have no choice about how you do this.
DJClayworth
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Thank you for the answer. Is it also possible, as per this example Toronto-Winnipeg, go in the transit area in Toronto and then clear Immigration at Winnipeg? – abdul Nov 19 '19 at 23:17
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@abdul Canadian airports do not have international transit areas (except for transiting to US preclearance). Even so, in this case you must clear immigration at Toronto. You will not see an immigration control when you fly domestically to Winnipeg. – Michael Hampton Nov 20 '19 at 00:04
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2@abdul even with countries that do have international transit areas, it's not possible to get from that area to a domestic flight without going through immigration control. – phoog Nov 20 '19 at 02:57
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Consider all the canadians on your domestic flight - they might not even have a passport. Domestic flights will per definiton never leave in the international area. – Aganju Nov 20 '19 at 03:40
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@phoog, ok, if you tell me that international areas cannot bypassed but through immigration then that's fine, but one question arises though, in a intra-EU schengen flight one, if they want, can they also pass through immigration if they want (whether e-gates or not) or they physically can't because they are in an isolated area of the airport? I'm asking this because I read cases in which people got to immigration wrongly, henceforth they had that span of choice instead of having none. – abdul Nov 20 '19 at 10:51
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1@abdul Please ask a separate question if you want to know about this. – DJClayworth Nov 20 '19 at 13:43
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Any major airport will be structured in such a way that passengers requiring immigration and customs controls will not mix with those who do not require such controls until those controls have occurred. Terminals, floor segregation and other designs are used to achieve this. It is not at the discretion of the passenger when these controls occur, you take them when you are not permitted to proceed further without it. You must be in the given country for a domestic flight, and (typically) no immigration or customs controls take place on domestic flights. – Richard Nov 20 '19 at 13:57
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One possible mistake: When arriving at an airport with an international area, at some point you will have to choose between continuing to another international flight vs leaving the airport or continuing to a domestic flight. The international flight passengers get to an international departures area, but the domestic/arriving passengers go through immigration etc. and get to domestic departures and airport exits. – Patricia Shanahan Nov 20 '19 at 14:25
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@abdul: Basically you can treat the whole Schengen area is if it is one country for passport/immigration purposes. When you fly between airports within the Schengen area you do not pass any passport control. Just like with domestic flights in the US... – Krist van Besien Nov 20 '19 at 16:04
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@Patricia but how is there a chance to choose if the scheduled flight is either in international flights or domestic ones, and the related terminals cannot be run across from one to another without clearing immigration first (otherwise many people would pretend to take a domestic flight and take an internatiinal one)? – abdul Nov 20 '19 at 21:01
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@Patricia Shanahan How can domestic passengers go through immigration? I understand the arriving ones if they come from an external flight but I don't understand the domestic ones. – abdul Nov 20 '19 at 21:03
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@Richard Yeah, I'm asking because on many answers I read advices like "don't go through immigration" but this does not make sense, because how can it depend from the traveler if the scheduled flight is in a gate for which either there's immigration or not? I cannot choose to go through immigration even by mistake if there's only a way to run across to the gate of my scheduled flight. – abdul Nov 20 '19 at 21:07
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1@abdul I should have been clearer that I was talking about international arrival passengers transferring to an international flight. If they take the appropriate path, they get to international departures without going through immigration. There is another path through immigration to baggage claim, domestic departures, and airport exit. – Patricia Shanahan Nov 20 '19 at 21:50
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@Patricia Shanahan so you're meaning that they could, if they want to complicate their lives, go to immigration to exit and then re-enter into international flights by re-clearing immigration. – abdul Nov 20 '19 at 23:01
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@Patricia I was asking whether one can clear immigration by mistake but still arrive to get the same flight, not if he can choose to take another flight altogether or remain there, of course not, otherwise why would they have booked the ticket in the first place? – abdul Nov 20 '19 at 23:06
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1Yes, an international transit passenger could, if they wanted and had the right documents, clear immigration, then exit the country again (in the same way that passengers starting their journey do) and get back on their flight. People sometimes do that if they have lots of time and want to see the country they are passing through. But it would be almost impossible to do by mistake. You can't go through immigration without showing your travel documents, and when people ask for your travel documents you know you are going through immigration. – DJClayworth Nov 21 '19 at 01:10
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2But please, don't ask these questions here. Click the "Ask question" button and write a new question. – DJClayworth Nov 21 '19 at 01:27
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