BootsnAll Travel Community

So, I fly into Heathrow from the US via Dublin. I have to go through passport contol in Dublin which I wasn't really expecting. They give me an I/T (in transit) stamp in my passport. I hop on my Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow. On arrival I walk down the hallway, out the door and straight to a luggage carousel. No immigration, signs for immigration, nothing. Grab the bags, no customs, and out another door.

On the one hand, it only took me 5 minutes to get out of the airport from exiting the gate. On the other, I have no immigration stamp. I ask security, I ask airport information, everybody is telling me no worries, no problem. There isn't any immigration on flights from Ireland and I won't need it.

At the time, I think fine. Now, I am thinking, maybe not so good. If I had a 90 day visa stamped from Ireland, I could just head back and no big deal. But, all I have is a transit stamp. Normally, I wouldn't care and just risk getting blacklisted by the UK. But, I could be spending a significant amount of time here over the next few years and a black spot on my record isn't going to help any return visits if this does turn out to be a problem when I leave.

Anybody see this before? Any ideas?

Don't worry about it. For one thing, nobody will check your passport for stamps, thus no black mark. On future visits, they won't even know you were in the UK on this trip. For another, you've done nothing wrong...you entered perfectly legally. There just aren't border controls between the UK and Ireland.

Agreed--no worries. Even if you don't have a stamp, you have a visa Prior to 2002, the UK used to be very sloppy about stamps and would stamp my own passport only 50% or so of the time. Now they stamp 99%, but still not 100%. So, my point is, the immigrations folks are used to this.

If you are legitimate, have your narrative down, and have the overall documentation (onward travel tickets, etc.), then the only thing you have to fear is me saying "hey, I know this fella who is up to no good..." next time I visit.

We get so many immigrants I can't see that one more is really going to make anyone to upset, especially as you got here on a plane and not holding onto the bottom of truck.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xQVoNWAar_k

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Well, I guess I've really just learned two things.

The first is the easiest way to get into the UK with no questions asked is through Ireland. So no need to come in under the bottom of a truck.

The second is when I come back in again later in the fall (theoretically on a non-traveler type visa) it will not be through Ireland. Not worth the headache.

quote:

then the only thing you have to fear is me saying "hey, I know this fella who is up to no good..." next time I visit.

I am not sure you want to do that. If the UK thing falls apart, there was always that opportunity in Zurich we were looking at...

Coming into/from the UK via Dublin is not a bad idea, especially by air. Flights departing the UK have hefty UK depature taxes on them. It's not uncommon for people to book their flight to/from Ireland, with a stopover in the UK. OR, to book their flight TO the UK, but from somwhere else, say Dublin, & on a separate ticket buy an el cheapo flight from LHR to DUB.