Today's Immigration "adventure "

pastafreak | 21:05 Mon 13th Nov 2017 | ChatterBank

10 Answers

...not.
I have permanent residency in the UK ...every trip I carry a photo copied letter of permission. I've never had the original...and have never had any trouble.
This morning I got questioned by THREE immigration officers...WHY did I have a photo copy...WHERE was the original passport that was stamped with permission ( lord knows...it's 28 years since permission to stay was granted)...afterall, I could have been living in the US for 15 years, and was telling pokies about my residency. All this because I was carrying a brand spanking new passport that had not been stamped when I left last week. Aarrgghhh...I almost started crying. What saved me was my daughter coming looking for me as she'd already been thru passport control on her UK passport. It was as if she was the proof I was telling the truth. I had visions of being packed onto the next flight out. :-(
I know controls have become tighter...but it would've been nice to know beforehand. I'd even googled a few weeks prior to my trip and found nothing to give me cause to worry.

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DTCwordfan

Bad luck, Pasta, it works the other way around too....thank goodness for your daughter being there.

-SharonA-

Oh Pasta, what an ordeal for you. They always seem to stop the wrong ones!!!
Glad you're back with us.

Jackdaw33

Were these UK or US immigration officers?

pastafreak

Question Author

This was entering the UK.
On leaving the US, I'd stupidly put a large bottle of cologne in my carry on. What WAS I thinking? I was stopped and US officials were nice and very polite.

ummmm

Do you still have a strong American accent?

gness

Hi, Pasta......something similar bringing babyG back to the UK from Canada........
Her papers weren't acceptable so I had a choice....fly back to Canada or fly to Dublin.....she was registered there.
Luckily she needed a feed and worse....a nappy change so I handed her over to the official.....I was tired.. ;-)
He sighed......told me he hadn't seen her and let us into the country.......
Took an age to get this little illegal sorted with permission to stay here......and she's never forgiven me for dumping her on an immigration official...... :-)

zebo

Sorry you had a problem and glad it's worked. The US immigration get such a bad press but my experiences have been the reverse. I'd packed in my hand luggage a BLT sandwich in case I got hungry on the flight but forgot about it. At Minneapolis dogs were sniffing hand luggage and 'found' it, I was mortified, this was a flight from Amsterdam and everyone thought they'd found drugs but the officer with the dog then the TSA guys found it so funny.