Immigration Nightmare

Of all the possibilities I've imagined, not being allowed into the country was not one of them. After the 9hr sleepless plane ride and the hour it took to arrive at the front of the border line, the idea that I'd soon be sitting with the other few questionable travelers was no where near my thoughts.

I'd decided ahead of time that I would most definitely not speak of a whole 6 months in the UK (which is the maximum time allowed), I would instead say three. I really should have thought about it for longer.

 

It's been over a week now, so clearly I didn't get sent home. I'd definitely say it was a somewhat traumatic experience I had with immigration and not entirely something I want to write about at this point. What's more, there's so much to tell it would take too long. I would like to have some of it in writing though, so let me try...

Let me tell you (whoever happens to read this) now what you do not say to people standing between you and your lifelong dream of traveling in another country – I don't care how nice the girl interviewing you is.

1. Do not say you are staying for three months unless you have strict plans.
2. Do not say you have no plans.
3. Do not say you have no return ticket.
4. Do not say you are recently unemployed.
5. Don't for any reason tell them the small amount of money you have on you, but that you'll have more when your car is sold soon.
6. Don't say you sold your car.
7. And heaven help you if you mention a possibility of marriage.

They may ask lots of questions depending on answers to the initial ones. Why are you here? How long? You have a return ticket? How much money do you have? I didn't want to lie if there's a potential to be questioned and caught in the lie later, but by the time I was being questioned I wasn't really thinking about how my answers sounded like I'd made plans to stay in England forever and ever.

To be fair, I didn't quit my job and sell my jeep for the sole purpose of coming to England. My reason was just making changes that freed me up in general. It doesn't sound so great, however, when you're entering into another country with no return ticket. And there was no return ticket because I didn't yet know what county we would be going back to the states from. I didn't think it would be England.

It didn't seem so bad however until I mentioned the possibility of getting married. That was the last straw. The girl seemed very concerned and began telling me all I needed to have that I clearly didn't. Basically she was telling me that we could not legally get married the way we'd gone about it...so I responded with “well, okay, we can't get married then. We weren't going to have a ceremony anyway, so it's not a big deal.” But then she said that it wasn't the marriage part as much as the no return ticket that was the problem. I was told to have a seat and, “don't worry, it won't take long, I just need to speak with my supervisor and someone might have to question you a little more.” I had no idea that I wouldn't be released for another 8.5 hours.

Mark and I were out of sync with our flights, so he had flown in some hours earlier and had been waiting for me on the other side. He didn't have a cell phone and wasn't planning on buying internet until I was with him, so there was no way for me to tell him that I'd been left sitting for 2.5 hours and didn't know what was going on or when I'd be released.

Finally, infuriated, I asked a random employee to find someone to talk to me. Not too long after, miss high on power supervisor sat down next to me and asked with raised eyebrows, “so what's your question?” as if I were really interrupting her day. What isn't my question? What the fuck. I'm left sitting without a word for over 2 hours and she wonders what I could possibly have to ask her?! She told me that it wasn't the no return ticket, but my plans to get married when I didn't have the proper documentation that caused them to question my intentions for being there. (Seriously, guys, get your stories straight.) I told her that I didn't have “plans” to do anything but travel around, visit Mark's family, and the rest was just a bonus if it had been able to happen. She responded with “see, you're changing your intentions again.” She was the worst person I spoke with that day, thankfully. Apparently it's madness to intend to explore parts of the world unless you're bound to a tour group. Stupid.

They were in contact with Mark somewhere toward the beginning of this thing too, which helped ease me.

A man named Chris was assigned to my “case” and I am so thankful for him. He was clearly genuinely on my side and frustrated for me. I found out in our last conversation that his wife is American, so he was not at all for sending me home. As horrible as the whole process was, being interrogated, thoroughly searched, fingerprinted, photographed, locked up in a holding room, and questioned some more, I feel it would have been a lot worse had he not been there.

From what I gathered, there was a whole room of people who I'd never met deciding whether or not I should be sent back. There was even an immigration officer brought in especially for my case. Chris had to question Mark several times, call his mom, Betsy, and question her... So much... By the end Chris said it was 50/50, but somehow the vote tipped in my favor. He said there were even people ticked off that I was getting to stay?! What the hell? I was told that I'm not allowed to get married over here this trip though... Why would you tell someone they're not allowed to get married when you've already told them it's impossible to do it legally anyway because they went about it incorrectly? They didn't explain and I didn't bother to ask, I was so sick of being there. 

Mark spoke to a policeman, after they'd had me for 5 hours, who said that it's very unusual for anyone to be held for that long. I can't help but wonder how many truly sketchy people were allowed through while all their attention was focused on me.

 It was quite possibly the longest day of my life. I'm so happy to be typing about it from the kitchen table in Churchhill Cottage located in Hessenford, Cornwall, UK.