Stallard12 Posted August 12, 2018 Report Share Posted August 12, 2018 A young couple, who are family friends of ours, arrived last week at Gatwick airport for a two week UK vacation. As a thankyou treat, they took along their young daughter's part time nanny. At passport control they were questioned as to why the girl had a different name, so they explained that the girl was their daughter's nanny and they were treating her to a trip. The response was " If she's a nanny she cannot come in without a work permit, she will have to get back on the plane and return to America." It took four hours of explaining with phone calls to the states etc. before she was eventually permitted in. What do y'all think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer II Posted August 12, 2018 Report Share Posted August 12, 2018 They should have claimed she was a potential Chess Grand Master, in which case, the Home Sec would have waved her through ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted August 12, 2018 Report Share Posted August 12, 2018 They should have said she was a family friend. Their mistake, and being American they should have realised this, was that Border Control people are not human. They have a set of rules that they stick to, and no amount of pleading will have them deviate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stallard12 Posted August 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2018 If I stretch my reasoning I can just about see some of the official line, but it's hard for me to do because I personally have been the butt of Gatwick officials on a couple of occasions. They were as dumb as fence posts and exceptionally belligerent and officious. They seem to have watched too many cop movies where they scream and shout and allow no questions. Maybe if they had said they were Muslims, the Mayor of London may have stepped in !! Or am I remembering wrong, is Boris still the mayor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted August 13, 2018 Report Share Posted August 13, 2018 No, you're right. Sadiq Khan is the Muslim mayor. I think they're trained to be officious automatons who follow the rules without question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted August 13, 2018 Report Share Posted August 13, 2018 Shouldn't the young couple have checked this possibility first ,before declaring the nanny as a nanny ? A bit of subterfuge ,calling the nanny a family friend perhaps, could have saved them hanging about for hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted August 13, 2018 Report Share Posted August 13, 2018 I, or rather my wife had a similar experience where one wrong word caused a visa refusal. I was on a long business trip and my wife and kids thought it would be good to come out and see me for a couple of weeks, When asked about the reason for here visit she said to visit my husband who is working there (rather than on business) and that was enough to put the mockers on things. it took nearly six weeks to clear this on up! They said on telly this morning that the average waiting time for none EU citizens entering the country at was upwards of 2 hours. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer II Posted August 14, 2018 Report Share Posted August 14, 2018 It helps in entering the UK, if your the mother in law to a Prince; just as in getting citizenship in the US, it helps if your the in laws of the President ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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