scot47

John Smith, born in London ? ie mistaken identity.

archie159

I'll say it again... unless you have ever done anything illegal over here (or connected with here), it is highly unlikely that there is any reason whatsoever to prevent you from transiting, stopping-over or holidaying here. Though people get them confused (including in some of the earlier posts), security clearances and visa applications are not the same. If your job requires you to be security cleared, the employer will get that done before any visa application is done. I know security clearances for some sectors (especially government related) can be a slow process, but I think if you work in less sensitive areas it can be just a few days, hence why some people confuse it with the visa process. And as lots of people have said, failing security can happen for all sorts of reasons which are unconnected to anything you have ever done or been in the past. I believe that if you are really nervous you can ask someone based here to check with the police if there is anything obvious raised against your name (court orders, loan defaults etc) - not, from what you say, there should be, unless your name is the same as someone else's.

By the way, I disagree with the comment earlier that your lack of any UK address/temp SE Asia visa matters... I don't know about O&G, but it is the sort of thing which might get you rejected where I am. It all depends upon the job you are applying to do, but I can well imagine that O&G security clearances are getting much more serious, and the lack of a direct connection to your home country might make them twitchy.

The mother's maiden name question is normal.

Standanista

:good post:

My money would be on that as the issue, if the job means working with critical infrastructure for example.

Worried Noodle

Thanks Archie, your replies are most helpful.

** I finally got a small reply out of the UK agent from their UAE agent with a link to the Ministry Of Labor web site (وزارة العمل - دولة الإمارات) and my application number to see the status. The result was simply that I was rejected as a "suspected person". This told me TWO things:

1. It wasn't immigration visa but the labor office that blocked me. Therefore I no longer have any concerns of travel via UAE for other reasons in future.

2. I suspect I am a suspect because as you point out I am a UK national without a home in the UK. Without a home in fact as I live in the wife and kids in SE Asia. This is the only reason I could think of. My history is 100% clean, but the job would have been in a highly secure offshore oil field. Perhaps I should have used a proxy UK address?

* You mentioned before that normally applicants sign documents? Should I question this as I signed nothing and the application was all done by UAE agent without my knowledge of what info they applied with. The UK agent only communicated with them.

mission

i work in the freezone (which is gvt run) and we are a british private oil & gas company - we have a handful of 'consultants' (who in theory are employees with UAE visas) a couple of them reside in SE Asia and couple of them are canadians/americans...and so i am not sure you were blocked just cause you have no residential address in the UK. But then again this is the freezone and so i don't know how the legalities work outside of the freezone.