EU citizens and other non-Irish or non-British nationals who cross the border from the republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland will have to get pre-clearance under new rules proposed by the UK government.
They will require a US-style waiver, known as an Electronic Travel Authorization ETA, to cross the border as part of the new post-Brexit immigration nationality and borders bill.
The scheme is expected to come into force in 2025, but has already been denounced as unworkable on the Irish border, where thousands of people commute in both directions for schools, work and shopping.
The ETA would be a simple authoring and would, unlike the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization ESTA last several years, the campaigner Emma DeSouza, said that it would create new bureaucracy and legal uncertainty for ordinary people going about their daily business and would be a hardening of the border.
Asked if the UK would be checking paperwork at the border, he said: Absolutely not We don't operate routine immigration controls through the common travel area. He said that unique rules and laws allow British and Irish nationals to live, work, study or retire in each other country without immigration controls.
This is going to be a simple process. When the US ESTA was originally launched, you could fill it in at the airport and fly an hour or two later.
Foster said that we don't want to get that type of guarantee yet, but we're looking at how we can make a simplified process as quick and simple.
The issue of post-Brexit borders creates problems in Ireland where EU nationals still enjoy freedom of movement rights, which means they don't need visas to work or live south of the border.
Foster said that he was very conscious of the special circumstances that are being applied around the Irish border and that enforcement of it will be proportionate, and that any non-Irish or non-British national who did not have the right to be in the UK visa-free country would likely get used to the idea that Northern Ireland would be used as a back door to immigration to the UK.
Before the departure of the EU, police on both sides of the border coordinated control of non-EU immigration abuse of the common travel area through a joint scheme known as Operation Gull.
Under the post-Brexit, EU citizens living in Ireland entering the UK via Northern Ireland would not be required to show passports as there was no airline liability on these internal routes, Foster said.
He said that this would not mean that they could circumvent post-Brexit rules on work or residency rights as the Home Office's compliant environment would kick in, which requires employers and landlords to check their rights.