>>I bought currency for my trip last time, so I truly didn't know it would be an annoyance<<

It isn't an 'annoyance' (except for the safety/security of carrying that much cash), it is an extra expense. Just for your future trips -- don'y buy currency ahead of time because you get a worse exchange rate. A few £ fine -- but on £3000 you paid an awful lot extra. For example the travelex desk in my local USBank charges nearly 20¢ more per £ than the official exchange rate so if you had bought the currency there you would have paid almost $600 too much. If your bank uses a better exchange rate -- you still will have paid a few hundred dollars.

Just be careful carrying all that money . . .

I think everything will be fine, Enig and I do think it is good advice to have some/most of the cash attached to your body under your clothes, to be on the safe side. Going thru airports, one is easily distracted and having the money in a secure spot will be helpful.

You remind me that when my husband and I were 23, we moved halfway across country to Boston, arriving on a Sunday, with all of our belongings in a rental truck that needed to be returned on Wednesday. NO PLACE to live and we were confident that we could find a new home in time to return the truck….never occurred to us that it was not a great plan (in fact it was not a plan at all, in retrospect) but it all worked out. I think you will be fine!

"When are you getting married" is a legal question US immigration must ask if they suspect it because if it is on that particular TRIP, the person entering, even if from a Visa waiver ( ESTA approved) country, they would have had to have got a FIANCË VISA.. which many people don't even realize because they don't know about it.

So.. heads up to all future spouses of inter-county marriages! Do your research to avoid surprises.. and.. the fiancé visa for the uSA takes several months.( from what I know of last year)

I am going to approach this from a slightly different angle.

I am a U.S. Citizen currently living in the UK ( married to my UK citizen husband).
I have been through the whole nine yards with regards to coming to visit him, then immigrating here to live.

OP, you are not being paranoid. UK immigration has recently cracked down on illegal entry and overstays. They will definitely look at you closely at the border, because 'young, female and has a UK boyfriend' is going to set off bells.

So, you are doing the right thing by coming prepared by showing you know and understand the rules, that you have no intention of overstaying, that you can support yourself. Try to stay calm, answer honestly, do NOT lie about anything.

Now, if you are still worried and are going to continue to worry until you're across the border, you can always apply for a visitor's visa in advance. That means you will know before your trip that you have been approved for the visit, rather than leaving it to the Immigration Officer on the day you arrive.

Good luck, and if you're near Oxford, let me know and we'll get a coffee!!

I will not lie, nor will I overstay. I think what I am worried about is that I will get an officer who woke up "grumpy", if you will, and they will still turn me down despite all the proof I have that it is only a holiday simply because I an young and female..

make sure you are logged out of your account on your usual device, if you try to login on a second unknown device you can be denied access to your account

wrong post!

anyway <<Am I letting anxiety get the best of me?>>

yes

That is exactly why I suggested a visitors visa ahead of time.

Hi,

Nobody here can guarantee you that you are not going to an ***h*le when you land in the UK. Seems to me your choices are (a) get a visitor's visa (b) cancel your trip (c) stop worrying and go and deal with what happens.

While I am at it, I want to take issue with something said much earlier in this thread, which is that UK procedures are shared by all countries with "serious' immigration issues. The UK is having an immigration hysteria, and not all countries -- some of them with an actual migrant crises on their hands -- are behaving like the UK.

Sandralist I have no desire to provoke an argument but do you live in the UK? If not I find your comment about having an immigration Hysteria unwarranted.

no, tipsygus, sandralist does not live in the UK.

Whether the UK has a migrant crisis on its hands is a hot political potato here, though personally I've never heard the phrase " immigration hysteria" before. [can you "have" an immigration hysteria? I suppose you might be suffering from it].

What we do have is an immigration policy which for good or ill is rigorously imposed on those who wish to enter the UK, the ones we know about, that is.

The distinction that sandralist is alluding to, I suspect, is that countries like Italy and Greece, which do have serious immigration issues as a result of the refugee crisis in the Med, are rather less rigorous.

Whether they would less searching with their questions to someone like the OP trying to enter at an airport is irrelevant anyway, as it is the UK which she wishes to enter.

but ann, on a good note I quiet like the term " immigration hysteria" and shall be using at the next opportunity :-)

Enimatic, you'll be fine (advice above is all ok)