OMG! Nearly turned away on visit to UK!

[michellek1976 0]

Its not like the UK has a high rate of illegal immigrants from the US!!

I've visited my fiance over a dozen times on the VWP and I'm surprised I haven't been scrutinized more. Now I'm going through K-1 process I make sure I have plenty of documentation to show my ties to back home.

Man, I would be PISSED if they tried to send me back home. It takes me 24 hours of flights and layovers to get from my home to his - I think I would make a run for it before they'd get me back on the plane!!!

[Sockmonkey 0]

Why is it ok to expect to get a tough time at POE into the US but people are angry and upset when the same thing happens to an american trying to get into the UK....

Sorry you feel you were treated unjustly.... but people entering the US are treated like that and worse every single day....

This was my response as well. Whenever I travelled to the US - from Canada - I made sure I had substantial proof of my ties to Canada. I crossed at the land borders but still got grilled twice and was able to reassure them that I did indeed intend to leave after my visit. Every country is concerned about protecting their own immigration regulations - Americans are not excempt just because they are Americans.

I certainly don't think I'm in any way a special exception because I'm American (and I resent the implication), but as michellek said I doubt there's a big problem with Americans emigrating to the UK illegally. The immigrations process for moving to the UK is almost insanely simple (I know someone who applied for and received a visa from start to finish in a single day just by going to the embassy in New York), so why be so strict about a simple visit with a very reasonable explanation?

This has been bothering me so much that I rang Manchester airport today, and I was told that under their current guidance my return itinerary and the NOA-1 should have been fine, and there is "no good reason" why my passport wasn't stamped for the usual six months. The supervisor asked for a description of the individual and said that if a similar situation arises with an agent in the future that I should "respectfully ask to speak to his or her superior".

And I do know how people are treated by our own Passport Control ... that's why we aren't making any attempts for my husband to visit me here in the US. I do expect intending immigrants to get a hard time at our border, however, because they have already demonstrated a desire to come and stay. The NOA-1 I carried into England proved the exact opposite intention, and even if I was intending to come to the UK and wait with my husband for a while, it seems ridiculous that this woman would go out of her way to limit my visit the way she did when the customary allowance is six months. It's almost like she was pissed off at me for luring an Englishman away (maybe she does need to get laid).

I'm not mad at this woman for questioning me. I'm mad at her for being unnecessarily nasty about it. The supervisor I spoke with today was entirely sympathetic, even commenting that after my little encounter my husband and I must have felt terrible to think that neither one of us are welcome to see each other. Yep. We sure did.

Edited October 4, 2006 by Sockmonkey

[PsychoKat 0]

Actually my husband had a similar experiencing coming here to see me from Canada once. I had been up visiting him and he wanted to come here for a visit so he could spend some time with my daughter. We did have all of our paperwork in order, and we were by then only waiting for the first packet to arrive from Montreal so logically speaking by the it would be incredibly idiotic of us to endanger the process by him not returning.

Although a permanent resident of Canada since he was young, he still holds UK citizenship and as such was eligible for the VWP, if they would allow him in. It took us 2 hours to get through customs that day as they inspected everything in our car and verified every document we presented to them. Eventually they finally decided to let him visit (we think they got tired to listening to me explain all the details of our journey so far and how there was no way in hell we'd screw it up now)....Anyway when they did finally decide to let him come home for a visit they restricted his time to 3 weeks despite the VWP and amended that green slip they put in his passport to show 3 weeks.

[dani_christine 0]

on our last visit to Ireland, instead of the usual stamp that said "permitted to land for 3 months", i was only granted 3 weeks.

i'm not sure what the difference was, except that i said i was visiting my in-laws.

next time, i think i'll just say "pleasure"

[Melo 1]

Such things are reciprocal in nature; if there have been many Brits denied entry into the USA - well the UK would be prone to do the same to US citizens. Not everyone is like our esteemed poodle Tony B Liar.

[homesick_american 1]

Why is it ok to expect to get a tough time at POE into the US but people are angry and upset when the same thing happens to an american trying to get into the UK....

Sorry you feel you were treated unjustly.... but people entering the US are treated like that and worse every single day....

This was my response as well. Whenever I travelled to the US - from Canada - I made sure I had substantial proof of my ties to Canada. I crossed at the land borders but still got grilled twice and was able to reassure them that I did indeed intend to leave after my visit. Every country is concerned about protecting their own immigration regulations - Americans are not excempt just because they are Americans.

I certainly don't think I'm in any way a special exception because I'm American (and I resent the implication), but as michellek said I doubt there's a big problem with Americans emigrating to the UK illegally. The immigrations process for moving to the UK is almost insanely simple (I know someone who applied for and received a visa from start to finish in a single day just by going to the embassy in New York), so why be so strict about a simple visit with a very reasonable explanation?

This has been bothering me so much that I rang Manchester airport today, and I was told that under their current guidance my return itinerary and the NOA-1 should have been fine, and there is "no good reason" why my passport wasn't stamped for the usual six months. The supervisor asked for a description of the individual and said that if a similar situation arises with an agent in the future that I should "respectfully ask to speak to his or her superior".

And I do know how people are treated by our own Passport Control ... that's why we aren't making any attempts for my husband to visit me here in the US. I do expect intending immigrants to get a hard time at our border, however, because they have already demonstrated a desire to come and stay. The NOA-1 I carried into England proved the exact opposite intention, and even if I was intending to come to the UK and wait with my husband for a while, it seems ridiculous that this woman would go out of her way to limit my visit the way she did when the customary allowance is six months. It's almost like she was pissed off at me for luring an Englishman away (maybe she does need to get laid).

I'm not mad at this woman for questioning me. I'm mad at her for being unnecessarily nasty about it. The supervisor I spoke with today was entirely sympathetic, even commenting that after my little encounter my husband and I must have felt terrible to think that neither one of us are welcome to see each other. Yep. We sure did.

Hey, at least now you know for sure that you were right and they were wrong. That counts for something, right?

[Kathryn41 3,205]

on our last visit to Ireland, instead of the usual stamp that said "permitted to land for 3 months", i was only granted 3 weeks.

i'm not sure what the difference was, except that i said i was visiting my in-laws.

next time, i think i'll just say "pleasure"

Hey, maybe they thought they were doing you a favour - after all, not every one enjoys visiting inlaws and perhaps they thought they were giving you a way out of the obligatory longer visit :-) "Gee Ma, we would really LOVE to stay longer but immigration won't let us, shucks"! (You know I am teasing, right?)