Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A deportation at the UK border

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 329 posts

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#101

Post by enraged_camel »

icebraining wrote: post #54
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…

Isn't it illegal to work for money while claiming you're just doing tourism? Seems like it could get her denied from future visits.

This is correct. That's why there is a distinction between vacation vs. business visits.

Whoever is reading this: don't take advice you read on the Internet regarding these types of things. Just this thread alone contains a ton of misinformation that can get you in big trouble.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#102

Post by prashnts »

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.

Your fingerprints (all 10), iris scan, and photograph will be taken each time you apply for a UK Visa. Same goes for USA, so it did not come as a surprise, too. (I have an Indian Passport)

What my worry is, though, that all of the application processes are outsourced to VFS Global[0] for both USA and UK, and I can't help but be skeptic about it.

[0] http://www.vfsglobal.com/

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#103

Post by gravypod »

DanBC wrote: post #84

I'm sorry she had a terrible experience. But the visa requirements are pretty clear, and she needed a standard visa. Here's the "do you need a visa" website. https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa Walk through it. She's from the USA. She's travelling for work, academic or business. She's planning to stay less than six months. Here's the result: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/usa/work/six_months_or_le... You don't need…

That site seems fairly clear. Where was the site that the author posted a photo from?

It seemed to be less informative. Are there two conflicting sites maintained by the government?

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#104

Post by BjoernKW »

Unfortunately, I suppose this is exactly what we (meaning the electorate who voted since 2001) wanted. By allowing politicians to pass bills like the Patriot Act (which started this whole mess and quickly brought about similar security and surveillance laws in at least every other country that's on friendly terms with the US) we brought this kind of treatment on ourselves. How can one establish organizations like the TSA or the Border Force - its UK counterpart - and seriously not expect things like this to happen?

Unfortunately, the majority likely doesn't care at all when some 'snotty' designer gets held up at the airport and sent back to her home country. "Probably deserves it anyway in some way, doesn't she?" In fact, resentfulness towards people who get to 'live the life' and travel for 'work' might play a role here, too.

The aspect of a German company paying her in British pounds. shouldn't be a problem at all. After all, that's what the EU single market should be about. Theoretically, that is ... It seems as if the EU can't get anything right anymore these days, though.

Just claiming VAT you payed in another EU country has become so ridiculously complex I have given up on it. Fortunately, in my case it's just things like the occasional conference fee so the loss is minimal but I can't imagine how anyone could run say an eCommerce business in Europe and sell in more than one EU country these days without having to resort to founding a company in each of those countries.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#105

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

omonra wrote: post #96
moon_of_moon wrote: post #11

Human rights in immigrant detention centres is something everyone should get behind. Unfortunately this exact kind of treatment is common at the US border. Search for: denied port of entry nightmare. e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3545548 I guess when you see scores of people trying to scam the system you get hard nosed about it in time.

Yep. It's human nature - if the people she faced deal with people who are trying to scam the system 90% of the time, they will be conditioned to deal with such individuals. Then when the 1 out of 10 comes across who is genuinely NOT trying to pull a scam, it will be very hard for them to turn their attitude 180 degrees.

Sorry, although I buy the human nature argument there, from a government organisation point-of-view, that kind of behaviour is utterly unacceptable. If it's too difficult for people to do their jobs properly the way the system is set up, change the system. This isn't an impossible problem; we have many state bodies that have to deal with similar situations - police - and they simply should not be able to get away with this.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#106

Post by js8 »

tomp wrote: post #88

> They are now in a database for ten years where they will be shared with all members of the EEA, which is most European countries. Given that she's an American, I really have no sympathies for this. I've had to give my fingerprints to the US border agents every time I went to the US.

I do have sympathy for her, but I absolutely agree that Americans need to recognize that they are doing the same thing to others.

If you don't want to live in a world like that, start petitioning your own government to change standards for foreigners that come to your country. Positive example is the only reasonable way to convince other countries to follow it.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#107

Post by daenney »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #100

This is a horrible experience that she went through, but one quote stuck out: > The room’s only other occupants were men. I do not feel comfortable in rooms full of men I do not know with the door closed. Why? This doesn't make sense. What does she think is going to happen? Are most men really presumed to be rapists or something?

To be perfectly honest, as a man, I don't feel comfortable being in rooms full of people I don't know regardless of gender but I feel more uneasy when it's only men. Somehow it feels more threatening to me. Being regularly beat up by a group of boys in school probably didn't help. Some of those feelings stick around.

With regards to the rest of your question; I don't think most men are presumed to be rapists and I don't think that is what the author means. There are also many other forms or perceived threats of violence that can make people uncomfortable.

There are multiple studies on the topic of male/female group dynamics that you might find interesting to read on this topic.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#108

Post by varjag »

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.

Both the UK and the USA border authorities share their biometric databases like gossip girls. Even when there's (5, 10 year) limit on the records, the safe bet it's been shared with rest of the globe and make endless circles via law enforcement cooperation.

I figure my fingerprints will be in the system decades after I die.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#109

Post by gsnedders »

prashnts wrote: post #102
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.

Your fingerprints (all 10), iris scan, and photograph will be taken each time you apply for a UK Visa. Same goes for USA, so it did not come as a surprise, too. (I have an Indian Passport) What my worry is, though, that all of the application processes are outsourced to VFS Global[0] for both USA and UK, and I can't help but be skeptic about it. [0] http://www.vfsglobal.com/

However, the majority of foreigners entering both the UK and US do so without a visa, as far as I'm aware. In the UK case, typically no fingerprints are taken, whereas in the US they are.

Re: A deportation at the UK border

#110

Post by lucozade »

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.

If you're not caught flouting their laws or being rude then, in my experience, they're all fine. The US is the most intrusive - fingerprints and photo every time you enter, but it's only a problem if you find it a problem (if you see what I mean).

What probably didn't help this lady is that she was being really quite rude. I don't know any country where low level officials take kindly to that. You REALLY don't want to be rude to US border agents. I mean, they have signs that say not to make jokes as they won't take kindly to that sort of behaviour.

For some reason my spellchecker thinks I've spelt behaviour incorrectly (and spelt). How colonial.

Post reply on HN