Infos available when scanning the passport

[Rena]

Hi,

When I returning from holiday If i just present the passport with landing card to the I/O can he find out automatically that I have I.L.R by scanning my passport? If not, I want to show him I.L.R vignette page beforehand to reduce the questions & answers?

Thanks in Advance

Rena

[SYH]

huh, what kind of scenario are you talking about?/
You have to show the ILR sticker, he is going to shuffle through your passport even if you dont bother telling him upfront.

[jazbaati99]

I don't think your immigration status can be revealed just by scanning your passport, the officer need to see your visa sticker. What I always use to do was to keep my landing card on the same page as the visa to avoid the officer shuffling through my passport.

[jes2jes]

I don't think your immigration status can be revealed just by scanning your passport, the officer need to see your visa sticker. What I always use to do was to keep my landing card on the same page as the visa to avoid the officer shuffling through my passport.

The above is wrong. They can tell just by scanning the bio page if it is a machine readable passport. I have just come from the US and my wife's ppt is scanned as normal and just stamped. At LGW it was the same process but since my passport is not machine readable, they had to turn to the visa page.

[goldfish]

Mine is machine readable and they always shuffle through the pages to find my HSMP visa - maybe it is different for ILR? I put the landing card in the same page as the visa to reduce questions...

[SYH]

I don't think your immigration status can be revealed just by scanning your passport, the officer need to see your visa sticker. What I always use to do was to keep my landing card on the same page as the visa to avoid the officer shuffling through my passport.

The above is wrong. They can tell just by scanning the bio page if it is a machine readable passport. I have just come from the US and my wife's ppt is scanned as normal and just stamped. At LGW it was the same process but since my passport is not machine readable, they had to turn to the visa page.

What visa does your wife have?
I dont think the machine tells them about visas. I think it only tells them if you are on a watch list.
If it told them the visa, then why are they implementing IRIS. It seems to me if machines were telling that info, they would just make us swipe in at the border and have a camera take our picture when we did it.

[whirly]

I always put my landing card in the page with my Spouse Visa and hand it to the Immigration Officer open to that page. Inevitably, they close the passport, re-open it to the photo page, flip through, find my expired Student Visa, grumble, then notice that I have a valid Spouse Visa a few pages after that, and give me (yet another) entrance stamp. I find it all highly amusing and I now have loads of UK stamps in my passport...

And yes, my passport is machine readable.

[Dawie]

It doesn't matter where you place the landing card, or how you present your passport to the immigration officer, they are always going to take a long look at the bio page, scan it if it is machine readable, page through your passport until they find your valid visa and then stamp it. And in between doing that they might ask you a few questions too.

It doesn't matter whether you have ILR or a time-limited visa, the IO can ask you whatever questions they deem necessary. I remember when I used to have a work permit, the only question they ever asked me on re-entering the UK used to be, "Have you changed jobs or employers?" and "What is your occupation". After I got my ILR, the questions actually got worse! On entering the UK with ILR, I used to get asked "How did you obtain your ILR", "How long have you been living in the UK", "Where have you arrived from", etc.

[SYH]

It doesn't matter where you place the landing card, or how you present your passport to the immigration officer, they are always going to take a long look at the bio page, scan it if it is machine readable, page through your passport until they find your valid visa and then stamp it. And in between doing that they might ask you a few questions too.

It doesn't matter whether you have ILR or a time-limited visa, the IO can ask you whatever questions they deem necessary. I remember when I used to have a work permit, the only question they ever asked me on re-entering the UK used to be, "Have you changed jobs or employers?" and "What is your occupation". After I got my ILR, the questions actually got worse! On entering the UK with ILR, I used to get asked "How did you obtain your ILR", Crapshoot would be what I am thinking of as a response, you can see why I have trouble at the border. "How long have you been living in the UK", "Where have you arrived from", etc.

It gets worse. Oh boy, something to look forward to. Whenever they asked me who do you work for and I said myself, then they would say what is the name of your company and I said the company's name is my name. And because I was getting all wound up, they would start laughing at me.
Now you say they ask even more irritating questions, I need to prepare myself and start chanting OMM to find my inner peace or there will be bedlam at the border.

[goldfish]

I find it frustrating that I get "work permit" questions like have you changed employer. I'm on HSMP, I'm allowed! Doesn't help that the HSMP is issued by WPUK at Moorfoot. Once when I arrived the immigration officer had a work experience student at the desk with him and explained, "See, this is her Work Permit". Bleh. On the other hand, that last one was great: "Do you live here?" yes "How long were you away?" 5 days "Somewhere nice?" yes, new york. STAMP. 30 seconds