

Friend is deported. What now? LonDumb - Part II - trickaduu
http://trickaduu.com/2012/12/11/londumb-part-ii/

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NLips
The writing style is truly terrible - I'm not sure the author understands
full-stops (/periods).

However, I read enough to discover how the deportation started, and I can
understand why an official would have difficulty believing that a professional
singer would be performing publicly for no comercial gain, if not for a
charity gig.

~~~
Nursie
Yeah, I think she probably tripped over the no-work stuff. So you're a
professional singer? Going to be doing any singing? You are, but you just said
you're not going to be working over here...

There's really no need for the whole thing to be so damn Kafkaesque (shut in
empty rooms, not told what's going on for hours), but in all likelihood that's
more to do with the sheer incompetence of UK airport staff than any actual
malice. And they really are incompetent.

I saw a fight break out in the passport line at heathrow airport one day, over
a racist slur. I was amazed how far the staff let it go, they seemed compltely
disinterested. In fact other civilians had to restrain the two fighters and
the staff still did nothing until some of us started shouting "Aren't you
going to get off your arses and bloody do anything?"

Useless bastards...

~~~
wpietri
I don't know how the UK does it, but the rule in Mexico is that people without
work visas can't do anything people normally get paid for. I think that's to
minimize shenanigans. "No, officer, I just wait tables here for fun. Nope, no
pay. Why would they pay me?"

~~~
unwind
So if I go to Mexico, I can't code for fun on my laptop? I hope that's not the
case.

~~~
wpietri
You can code for fun, but my understanding is you can't do it for a Mexican
entity. E.g., if you're hanging out at cafe and say, "Hey, let me make a
website for you guys," that would be illegal. Actual enforcement varies, of
course.

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kokey
I have more than a folder full of paper work for visa applications that I have
done over the years, mostly just to let me into countries for a visit, let
alone work. Apart from that the paperwork I had to do to actually allow me to
work in various countries. I am extremely careful about not breaking any
immigration laws in any of the countries, e.g. not do anything that resembles
paid or unpaid work except what's explicitly allowed in my visa. Once you get
caught breaking immigration rules in one country, it becomes really hard to
travel to other countries with strict immigration controls.

I tend to read about people who travel and casually break immigration rules
with a certain level of schadenfreude, whether it's singers just casually
lining up some gigs or people who overstay their 3 month visa waiver to the
USA.

Some people think filling in an ESTA is effort (man I have to spend weeks
preparing paperwork to be able to be granted a visa that allows me to fill in
an ESTA in the first place), but events like these make me realise that at
least some people get a small taste of what it's like for the rest of us who
spend part of our lives having to deal with ever changing rules and paperwork
and being at the mercy of the mood of an immigration official.

~~~
trickaduu
There is no ESTA to fill in going to the UK from the US (that I'm aware of
anyway). No rules were being broken either. Just being too honest and excited
coupled with not fully realising she should've just said on holiday and
nothing else. I get to deal with changing rules and paperwork and being at the
mercy of the mood of an immigration official all the time too, so I don't
think it's just you or a certain kind of person.

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redact207
Not to take away from the subject, but these EU-mandated cookie notices are
really starting to get annoying. How long until you have to consent to the
entire T&C of a site and verify your age to get in? </rant>

~~~
1337biz
I noticed them so far only on UK based websites. Is this a EU wide phenomenon?

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yardie
My dealings with government officials is never give them more information than
they ask and always tell the truth. If you need to lie believe the lie until
it is the truth ;).

If you are in transit, quite common for Heathrow, don't mention you have
family in the UK unless they ask for family in the UK. If they do ask know
where they live. If you have a tourist visa don't mention work you plan to or
might be doing in the near future in the UK.

They are there to try and trip you up in a lie so they can question you
further. You know how you can tell someone is lying by the way they go into
too much detail on some aspects of their story but not others, don't be that
person.

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billyjobob
Yesterday the census results were published:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20677515>

They showed that Britain had experienced such massive immigration in the past
ten years that native Britons are now a minority in their own capital city.
Given that, it's not surprising if immigration officials are becoming a little
over zealous.

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kevbam
Interesting read,still cant believe they deported your girlfriend even though
she had a return ticket. That is incredible!

~~~
objclxt
The take away here, and this is really true of _any_ country, not just the UK,
is that it's a bad idea to suggest you're doing _anything_ that could be
construed to be paid work. I can virtually guarantee that if I turned up at
the US border on a visa waiver and said I was a musician playing a few gigs
they'd send me off for a secondary questioning at the very least. I wouldn't
be surprised if I was refused entry.

The return ticket doesn't really factor into it: whether you're entering the
UK, US, wherever - generally if you're going in on a tourist visa / waiver you
can't work. And unless you have some documentation indicating your gigs are
unpaid, you've only got your word...which isn't worth much.

~~~
trickaduu
The problem came because on the visa form it said occupation and singer was
put down. When asked why she was there, she said holiday. Then being too
honest when asked, she said she had some small non-paying gigs. I can
understand how this might lead to secondary inspection but after phoning the
venue (who told her they were non-paying, small and promotional) the
immigration official went off on a lie claiming she knows how many thousands
of pounds my friend was going to be paid and that they were big events (small
open mic at a pub where my friend could do a few songs for London friends).
The woman even admitted to me hours later that she made a mistake but claimed
she couldn't reverse the paperwork.

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unfed
Too. Many. Full. Stops.

~~~
trickaduu
My. B. Ad.

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Alaskan005
I am sorry she got deported but between the fonts, short sentences and colors
I already have a headache...at maybe 20% of the article.

sorry for being off topic but it annoyed the hell out of me.

