Litany of to-and-fro journeys of trip to India

[Saddle Bronc 124]

(note: I'm only going to deal with the to-and-fro flights, not the portion of the trip in India)

Well, I had booked a trip for my wife to accompany her mum back to India on 2009/05/04 with myself following 10 days later (and both Pras and I returning to US 2009/05/23). The following happened.

• Pras had the wrong document (she should have had the I-797 NOA-1 extension letter, but instead had the letter informing of moving case VSC-to-CSC), so was not allowed to fly out on 05/04 (booking was British Airways, BWI-LHR connecting to LHR-MAA). I had to rebook Pras' ticket to 05/14, but allowed MIL's trip to proceed as-was (to avoid complications from USCIS for future US visits by MIL--who had been in US since 2008/11/08)
• on 05/14, I ensured that she had the right document (plus some others such as a copy of our current lease, and the chequebook to our joint account) and we were able to fly to Chennai through Heathrow
• now, we'll fast forward to 05/23. At Chennai, about 15-minute delay due to BA staff having to get info from London as to what to do in situation (expired conditional GC, extension letter)--OK'd
• high-point of journey back occured at Heathrow. Pulling up Randomizer's Heathrow I-551 experience of June 2008 (specifically for his reference),

  http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=137446.

  When we went through the flight-transit at Heathrow, the officer told his colleage "Green Card doesn't expire, it says 'Permanent' Resident card' on it", so neither even looked at the extension letter--and we got through. At transit-connexion security (still at Heathrow), a desi staff member asked "are those mangoes in your bag?" I told her that we did have some foodstuffs for personal usage, but I wasn't sure which bags contained which stuffs, as I hadn't been involved in packing them (truth in this case). OK'd--though I was a little annoyed by her question (we weren't stopping at all in UK, but proceeding on; IMO, whether fresh mangoes were present was/is none of her business)

• at BWI, some complications going through immigration. They accepted the GC and extension, but fingerprinted Pras and sent us to a waiting room--where after 10 minutes, Ok'd to come in
• after baggage-claim, the result was travesty. The fresh mangoes seen by the transit-security-girl at Heathrow (3 kg of Banganapalli variety, the "rolls-royce" of the mango world) were taken despite of our pleadings that they were for personal usage :crying: , along with a jar of mango pickles (chunks too large, the culprit stated that the mangoes should have been ground nearly to paste)

So, in hindsight (figured this out the next day, way too late) I figured that we should have only taken one kg of the Banganapallis in hand baggage (all of our bags were dug through), and then slipped some moneys to staff at one of Heathrow transit-area eateries to cut them for us and enjoyed them in Heathrow's transit area.

Notes:

• for those who wish to suggest, "well you should have maybe married USC instead of Indian citizen (since you could also have then married nicely prior to even 1999)" pre-emptive
• for any Canucks who wish to make the corresponding equivalent suggestion about marrying a Canadian prior to 1999 (at that time, I was on TN-1), pre-emptive :bonk:

[ELW 5]

Gosh! What a journey! Glad that everything worked out in the end though (except no mangoes in USA)

we should have only taken one kg of the Banganapallis in hand baggage

Is there such thing as ONLY one kg Banganapalli?

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Gosh! What a journey! Glad that everything worked out in the end though (except no mangoes in USA)

we should have only taken one kg of the Banganapallis in hand baggage

Is there such thing as ONLY one kg Banganapalli?

Physically, it is possible (the mangoes we had, they were roughly 2 to a kg); admittedly it would not really have been really satisfactory

[atk_721 0]

I miss mangoes too

Every time,I go back home,I literally plan as to what I am going to eat there

[Saddle Bronc 124]

One potential (admittedly costlier) approach would be for us to "transit" through Canada on our next trip off-continent.

I could then tell Canuck Customs (on return journey) that the mangoes are going to US (the ticket would be for same-day departure--they may actually allow such transit) and then brazen them through the airport's US-destinations PFI.