Rete

We very much appreciate your telling us what happened at the Manchester airport to your USC when confronted with UK Border Agents.

It is not the first time we have heard of this nor will it be the last. However, it is good to have one more concrete piece of evidence that the UK agents are as strict as those in the US border agency.

It would seem also that the UK agents have the very same discretionary power to say yes or no based on their take of the situation.

Just so you know, having the US Immigration paperwork on hand is not a guarantee that you will be allowed into the UK. Do you have the statistics of how often USC's come to the US with pending immigration applications and remain in the UK and apply for leave to remain? Just as those applications are no guarantee that a British Citizen will be granted entry into the US because an application is pending, the same is true of the UK apparently.

It is good to know that her experience will not hinder your immigration in the future.

meauxna

Where, please.. VJ? Or elsewhere?
If this is indeed a 'policy' there will be word of it elsewhere.


Sounds to me like a typical refused entry except the interview process was way too long.

scrubbedexpat099

Agreed on the timing. I am sure it was VJ.

nmoon83

Im going to add this in because i think its relavant right now but again this is my personal case.

My fiancees mother was just contacted by a paramedic in Charlotte airport saying that my fiancee has no recollection of where she is or how she got there. UK immigration were the last people to see her as she had to collect her passport from them. This shows they were way too harsh on their "questioning" procedure and had no interest in her wellbeing at all.
She has been admitted into a hospital in Charlotte the last i heard as of about 15 mins ago.

So when u say US border control has the same discretionary power they may do but bear in mind UK immigration had my fiancees medical problems on file and look at the outcome!

candy wy.

sorry about your fiancee health problems but i fail to see where this is UK immigrations fault, if she has such severe health problems maybe she should not of been traveling alone. unfortunately she was refused entry this is a risk anyone who is not a citizen has when trying to enter another country..

Mav42

The "fault" lies in the contumelious rigmorol systematically imposed on a woman patently and medically unable to withstand it.

candy wy.

no the fault lies with a person who obviously should not be traveling alone if there medical condition is so severe
If someone claims to be fit to travel they are fit to be interviewed by immigration in which ever country they are trying to enter.. this happens in the USA also and although a pain in the ass it is how the system is.

nmoon83

no she has been mistreated and mishandled ive read up a part on immigration law.
If a immigration officer cannot make a decision due to a medical condition then they should call in a medical inspector to make an assessment which is what should have happened rather than them making a a bad decision.

She was declared medically fit to travel she had no issues the difference is that when she got to UK immigration they took no notice of her social anxiety.
It would be like making a a person with no legs trying to walk and forcing her to do so and watching and laughing ... thats the way that they have treated her

candy wy.

The bad decision in your eyes was not allowing her in.. they took into consideration her anxiety they allowed her entry till the Sat when they deported her maybe they should of been really mean and kept her in detention till they deported her . sorry like i say shit deal they did not allow her the vacation that she wanted but no one who is denied entry is happy about it.. I do not see where she was treated any differently than some people who try to enter the USA.

nmoon83

Ok im going to say instead of bad decision a more accurate decision then and the only reason she was let home was because the word "liability for her to be in the cell" was being flashed around.

Either way im speaking to my fiancee now she remembers speaking to another deportee on the plane and that in fact it was a total of 5 deportees (all women and american applying for theyre UK spouses to immigrate to the US) have occured all for very weak reasons for sending them back within a couple of days.
Im not just highlighting my fiancees case there are others that are there.

scrubbedexpat099

If it is like the US they do not give you a specific reason, from what you have said the medical situation could have been a factor, but not the main factor.

ian-mstm

There is no obligation on their part to do so.


If this is true, then why would UK immigration need to take any notice of her social anxiety? On the one hand, you're upset they took no notice, and on the other hand she's fit to travel. You can't have it both ways.

Ian

Jaxbar

I'm sorry to hear of your awful experience, however one of the things that Immigration officers have to deal with is people feigning illness to avoid being questioned.
When I was in a secondary in the US there was a woman refusing to answer questions and saying she was going to faint. They had her sit down and wait until she composed herself, this was all done in full view of everyone. Then they brought an interpreter and the story began to come out, again in front of everyone. They are always looking for the cheaters and thats why you have to have all your eyes dotted.

md95065

I had never heard of "social anxiety" until it was mentioned here.

According to Wikipedia ...

I am very sorry about what happened to your fiance, but didn't it occur to either of you that the process of going through customs and immigration in a foreign country might be problematic for someone who has anxiety about "interactions with others, and being evaluated or scrutinized by other people" because that is exactly what is going to happen to them.

Unfortunately even mild anxiety or nervousness can easily be misinterpreted as evasiveness and my guess is that is probably what initially raised red flags. While your fiance's subsequent treatment does appear to have been extreme I suspect that much of that could have been avoided if your fiance had the presence of mind to indicate that she no longer wished to enter the UK and was willing to voluntarily return to the US on the next available flight.

jeffreyhy

Thanks for this post. It's a reminder to us all that things do not always go smoothly, and can sometimes get out of control and end badly.

Without trying to assign fault or blame, it seems that your fiancee was not up to handling the questioning she experienced and her inability to do so caused the immigration officials to come to the conclusion that they did.

It also seems that your fiancee was not deported, she was denied entry. She was apparently paroled into the UK for a few days (US-speak, UK-speak may use a different term for it) while immigration officials considered her request for entry. The difference has significance, as the US consular officials told you.

A regretable incident, one wishes that things had gone better even if the final decision were the same.

Regards, JEff