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A deportation at the UK border

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Re: A deportation at the UK border

#71

Post by 0xfaded »

growt wrote: post #12

Just a small remark: If you're visiting the USA your fingerprints get taken every time (at least thats my experience). So that part of the story (an american complaining that their fingerprints got taken in the UK) is kind of skewed perspective.

Photo and 10 prints every time I enter the US, and probably stored for eternity.

My favourite is a receipt I have for "Alien Flight Student", which required even more screening and fingerprinting. I'm still waiting for them to bring out the flying saucers...

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#72

Post by reitanqild »

ajdlinux wrote: post #44
bluehazed wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird, I've literally never had this happen (Canada -> USA). I totally believe it, but now I'm wondering about in what cases this policy is applied.

Australian, can confirm they fingerprinted me on the one and only time I visited the US in 2009 - and I was a minor then as well.

Me too, 2010 or 2011 I think. I think that was on the same terminal where they later started hassling me for lefse or akevitt until I missed my connection (came from Scandinavia.)

To be fair: my best modern airport experience was US as well. Denver was just awesome, really surprisingly quick and amazingly effective (that's where I lost my key-tool with a 12mm blade I thought was legal and that went with me through several airports prior to Denver.)

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#73

Post by forgottenpass »

throwawaysocks wrote: post #28
CaptSpify wrote: post #5

I do often think that we should get rid of special treatment for "important" people going through these types of systems. If politicians, executives, etc had to go through the same thing, I think a lot of the inefficiencies would get fixed. As they stand now, there's no reason to make them efficient, because anyone who has the power to do so bypasses the system entirely. Imagine how fast things would change if the pr…

> Imagine how fast things would change if the president had to go through the TSA. I don't think they would change at all. 30 minutes or an hour of time is inconsequential compared to the political (and non-political...) calculations that are made by someone in an office like that. People tend to be far more conservative when given actual decision-making power, and care much more about the big picture calculations th…

More-over, lots of congress people do fly commercial and yet support the TSA (either politically or actually).

Because they use pre-check. And congresspeople get access to the top of the tiered justice system in America so they don't care about the liberty implications of Pre-Check.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#75

Post by blibble »

gov.uk might look pretty, but often the language used on it is imprecise and often inaccurate. directgov (the previous site) was terrible to use and look at, but the information on it was unparalleled in its accuracy and comprehensiveness, which is what I really want from the government.

sadly gov.uk have stated that they are more interested in making the information easy to read, rather than accurate.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#76

Post by [deleted] »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #41

Stepping slightly back from this particular horrible experience, I don't understand _why_ this particular set of institutional rules are in place. Was there a thought that foreign speakers who were subsidized by foreign governments were inciting rebellion? Are there tax issues? Was this some big money laundering loophole or something? Is there a concern that people were using this as figleaf to immigrate illegally?

[deleted]

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#77

Post by pjc50 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #41

Stepping slightly back from this particular horrible experience, I don't understand _why_ this particular set of institutional rules are in place. Was there a thought that foreign speakers who were subsidized by foreign governments were inciting rebellion? Are there tax issues? Was this some big money laundering loophole or something? Is there a concern that people were using this as figleaf to immigrate illegally?

Foreign paid speakers fall, by definition of the words into immigrants who are entering the country in order to work (paid employment). The law does not special-case people who are going to leave immediately afterwards.

This is, sadly, not a new problem. It's been a problem for touring musicians for decades.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#78

Post by tt123123 »

Singletoned wrote: post #22

I can't imagine a circumstance where I would be entering a country like the UK or US, and when asked what my visit was for, I would say anything except for "I'm on holiday". Being out of the ordinary is very dangerous. That said people shouldn't be subjected to such unnecessary unpleastantness.

Even when I came to the US to move there on a valid working visa I told them I was on holiday. I was too afraid to say otherwise. They were skeptical, had to defend myself to 3 different agents. I'm pretty sure they knew I was lying, but lying to authority is something you do by default to not look suspicious. I told them I was on holiday to see the city, and to look at neighborhoods to live in.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#79

Post by Grue3 »

jbob2000 wrote: post #16

This was her mistake: "..where a young man somberly asked me what brought me to the UK. “I’m giving a talk at a conference then traveling to see a bit of England. I have a letter of invitation,” I replied, confidently handing over the requested documents." Just say "A short vacation", whether it is or not. Don't give the agent any more information than they need. Throughout her entire encounter with the agents, she w…

When I visited UK for the first time I did say I was giving a talk at a conference (which was true). I didn't know you're not supposed to say that. Granted that was many years ago, but they let me through.

I think the important part is that she visited for a second time. They already had her in the database and flagged her for some reason.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#80

Post by robk »

fhood wrote: post #10

As much as I enjoy feeling superior to the British (spelling color with a 'u' is nothing short of pretentious) I would love to know if people from the UK suffer the same sort of troubles entering the US. As a US citizen I have found traveling to Canada and Australia to be a relatively pain free experience, but then Australians and Canadians are, in general, a whole lot nicer than Brits or Americans.

I'm often crossing all those borders and can say unequivocally that Canada and Australia have some of the absolutely most nasty border guards.
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