Wildclawdia

I'm flying out to England June 25 from Chicago. I am a us citizen going to visit my boyfriend and stay til the end of october. I am smart enough not to mention a boyfriend at emigration and intend on showing them an onward ticket to Poland where I have family and plan on staying (a total lie since I don't plan on leaving England). Let's say my onward ticket would be a week after I arrive and I flew into manchester to visit some friends. Would I have any trouble getting through emigration? My polish ticket will not have a return flight on it so it would prove in a sense that I'm not coming back to the uk. would I need to show proof of funds? If so what's a good amount?

Thanks
My biggest fear is being sent back to the us but how likely is it with this scenario?

adrienne

This is a baffling thread.

1. What is a one-way passport?
2. You say you're staying in England until October and then say you don't plan on leaving England. Which is it?
3. What is your point? Is it to break the law and remain in England indefinitely?
4. There must be something you're not saying that leads you to believe you won't be allowed into England.

sheila

If you are a US citizen and you want to visit your boyfriend you can come into the UK and stay for up to 6 months without a visa.

If you mean to come for more than 6 months, get a flippin' visa, and don't piss about with breaking the law.

Alec

My take is:
The OP has a one-way transatlantic ticket to UK (passport was a misprint).
She wants to stay with her boyfriend till October, i.e. 4 months, well within the 6 months allowed as visitor.
But she fears that mentioning boyfriend will be like a red rag to a bull and will be pounced upon by UK immigration. So got herself a one-way ticket out to Poland, and is going to tell them she will only stay in UK for a week visiting friends before flying out to Poland to visit her family.
Hopefully this will sastisfy the immigration and she will get admitted for 6 months (the normal procedure), allowing her to stay with her boyfriend as planned.
She is asking whether this will work and how much money she should have available in case she is asked.

My answer is it will probably work, unless they find something not quite right in her demeanour, answers etc that makes them think she may not be telling the truth and she is taken aside and gets grilled, and her luggage examined. If they then find a tell-tale sign of staying 4 months in UK with a boyfriend, she will be denied entry for lying to an immigration officer and sent back. Remember immigration officers are trained to spot those with something to hide and have a lot of power at their disposal to find out the truth.

adrienne

If she's only staying for 4 months why is she buying a one-way ticket to England and then buying a fake ticket to Poland. Why not buy a round trip ticket if she intends to return.

I think there's something else going on here.

travelgourmet

Since you are under the 4 month limit, just say you are visiting friends and touring the country, if asked what you are doing. Fooling around with the ticket to Poland stuff is uneccesary and risks you being caught in a lie. I don't see the problem.

travelgourmet

That should read 6 month limit.

bilboburgler

seems like a complicated way to do a simple thing.

Alec

Trouble with a 4-month return ticket is that the immigration will ask what exactly she will be doing in UK for that length of time, where she is going, whom she is visiting (names, phone numbers so they can phone up and ask their side of story) and does she have enough money to pay for all her expenses, which will be considerable. One-way ticket and a flight out to Poland a week later may sound convincing enough and there will probably be less likelihood of denied entry, unless of course they suspect she may be telling a lie and get serious.

adrienne

If Clawdia doesn't get more coherent than she is on this thread it won't take a beagle to sniff her out.

kerouac

An onward ticket is all you need to enter a European country, and Europe is a bigger place than one thinks in terms of exiting it -- a lot of people fly into a place like London and out of Casablanca, and that's just fine. The immigration authorities have heard about trains and boats.

No need to get a ticket as far as Poland, though. A ticket to Paris is quite sufficient.

PatrickLondon

Except that the UK is not in Schengen, so runs its own immigration arrangements. The question is about the likelihood of a UK immigration officer smelling a rat, irrespective of the paperwork the OP might be carrying. That is their profession: if (with all due respect) non-expert Fodorites can sense something odd about this, then it's much more likely that an immigration officer will. They're even more likely to do so if there's an onward ticket for the following week and paperwork suggesting enough money to last for a lot longer, or any sort of correspondence, notes, diaries, appointments in a phone calendar, whatever, suggesting she might be in the UK after she's supposed to be in Poland.

Tell the truth and shame the devil. It's likely to cause a lot less trouble in the long run.

SloJan2

?? Immigration isn´t going to ask a thing except why you are there...(visiting friends and holiday) and an address. They won´t ask to see tickets etc. The only snag is if your passport is close to expiration.

adrienne

<< Immigration isn´t going to ask a thing except why you are there >>

Don't bet on that. Britain is the only country where I've been thoroughly questioned before being allowed to enter. I've had to produce a return ticket, show I have enough money for my stay, asked where I'm going, what I'll be doing, etc. The only thing that stopped the questions was a secondary ID from a major US company showing that I was employed.

Alec

It may well be that the OP isn't a typical Fodorite with secure employment, middle-aged, staying in comfortable hotels and just doing a tourist visit in UK. Immigration officer can spot such a traveller a mile away, and there will be minimum fuss before stamping passport for 6 months. But if you are young - I'm guesing here, with not much money and visiting a boyfriend, the immigration will be a lot more thorough in interrogating and doing checks to see if they really are what they claim to be.
It's exactly the same for young Europeans going through US border control.

Wildclawdia

thanks for the answers guys. Alec was most spot on in his answer of what I am trying to do. I figured emigration would raise some serious eyebrows if I had a roundtrip ticket for 4 months because I flew into Manchester a month ago for only 5 days and I got grilled. I figured a roundtrip ticket with a 4 month later departe date would give me more hassle. I found a very cheap one way ticket where I go from Canada to Manchester and an equally cheap ticket from Manchester to Poland a week from my departure. my boyfriend will be flying back with me end of October so we will just find something cheap together. does this help clarify things?

gwan

But then if you will have a return ticket within 4 months (supposing you get to stay 6 months with a Canadian passport) then I still don't really get what the worry is. Yes, I suppose they might suspect you have other intentions if you mention a boyfriend, but if you're honest and you have a ticket back from the UK to Canada, I don't know what the problem would be really (I'm also the type who immediately looks guilty when questioned by authority types even though I have nothing to hide, so I understand if that's your concern).

Perhaps it might help if your boyfriend books his ticket back before you return & gives you a copy and you can say "I'm coming to visit my boyfriend, staying for 4 months and he's coming back with me. Look here's his ticket." It just seems like lying would be more trouble than it's worth, and have serious consequences if they do somehow figure out there's something up - who knows what they can do these days - stick a note on your file that you should have left after a couple of days and then catch you on the way out? Seems unlikely, but why risk it when you'll be sticking to the rules anyway?

gwan

Oh, I think I got a bit confused with what stage you were at buying tickets. I guess you got a one way over and no return at this stage, but surely you and your boyfriend can book one-way tickets back on the same flight before you leave for the UK. And then if you have to, you could show both of those as proof of departure, as I suggested.

flanneruk

Alec:

In your admirable explanation, you appear to be suggesting Wildclawdia does the "I'm going to Poland" thing.

But it's completely legal for her to stay with her boyfriend for 4 months - and, frankly she doesn't come across to me as being a very good liar. With Immigration people's famous noses for wrong 'uns, isn't it likely she'll get the "let's go through the diary and computer" treatment?

What's wrong with:
a) telling the truth, and
b) going on to admit Mr Blogs, with whom she's staying at 44 Acacia Ave, M32 5JG, is indeed her boyfriend - but of course she's no intention of marrying him here, doing any medical tourism or being any kind of charge on public funds.

Isn't this one of the rare occasions where honesty is the best policy?

And if so, what does she need to have with her (like adrienne's company ID card) to convince them she really is going home in 120 days' time?

Wildclawdia

I am afraid because I know I do fluster. and maybe I should have just bought a round trip to England that shows me leaving in a week but in reality I would stay til october and book another roundtrip that way. In the end it will just have cost me more money but it would than at least be a guarantee that I would get in