Please help! Border control important questions....

[Mr S]

Hello all,

I am writing to see if anyone here can help. The situation is this: my polish girlfriend who has lived, worked and studied in london for the last 3 years has just had a 5 day holiday in Poland visiting friends and relatives, and she was due to fly back to gatwick on tuesday morning just gone. However, 4 hours before the flight she was mugged in the street and her passport and national ID card (amongst many other things) were stolen. She obviosuly missed her flight, and to cut a long story short she is being told that she will not get a new ID card or passport until the 1st February at the earliest!!!!!!!!! We have tried everything possible but it seems that there is going to be no way of getting her home until she gets this new ID card.

The predicament is this: she has a sister who is 1 year older and looks very similar to her. I am considering getting a car ferry to calais and then driving (as airport security is much stricter) all the way to Gdansk to pick her up, and then driving her back to England with me, with her using her sisters passport at border controls. I know the idea is illegal but we feel that the risk of getting caught is so small that it is worth it. If she did get caught out at the french or english borders what would the likely outcome be? Would she be refused entry to england for life? would they imprison her for such a crime? And would us saying that it was a genuine mistake - 'she picked up her sisters passport by accident' or something, pass with them? Would the authorities call the officials in poland to see if a passport application had been made by her which would therefore prove our 'mistake' story to be a lie?

I know these questions will be quite hard to answer, but i thought i would try this board to see if any users had any knowledge relating to immigration rules and laws that might help us decide if its worth the risk. We really really want to spend christmas and new year together, and if she stays there she will almost certainly lose her accounting job in england and also miss vital accountancy exams in January, not to mention losing over 6 weeks pay. You can imagine this has been a pretty devastating week to say the least!

Thankyou in advancce

[SYH]

I don't understand how you can't get another travel document and you have to wait to february.
I think you need to weigh the risk of is it worth jeopardizing being banned from entry in to the UK by using the wrong passport.
Will you get caught, probably not but you do have to get her correct passport. What are you going to say to them when its ready, can you send it to us in the UK because I skirted the principle of the reason of having the passport in the first place.

[Wanderer]

Is Jeremy Beadle about?

[Dawie]

It's pretty simple: if you don't have a national ID card or national passport, you can't enter the UK.

You mention that her sister looks similar to her, however the fact that you have doubts indicates to me that perhaps they do not look so similar after all. If you were 100% sure she could get away with using her sister's ID, why come here and ask such silly questions?

To answer your question, passport fraud is a serious crime in all European countries and most courts in the UK punish it with a custodial sentence at the very least.

Furthermore, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that your girlfriend cannot obtain an emergency passport to travel.

[jimquk]

Just to add to what others have said, fraudulent use of a passport is a quick route to prison - six months is a typical sentence. The risk of being caught may be smallish, but the consequences...... simply not worth it.

[davidm]

Just to add to what others have said, fraudulent use of a passport is a quick route to prison - six months is a typical sentence. The risk of being caught may be smallish, but the consequences...... simply not worth it.

It is upto 15 years in prison in Poland for using fake Polish travel documents. So if caught, the name of the person will be entered into Schengen database, deportation to Poland and lots of explaining to do with a long jail sentence if not satisfactory.
Definitely not worth it.

[SYH]

Just to add to what others have said, fraudulent use of a passport is a quick route to prison - six months is a typical sentence. The risk of being caught may be smallish, but the consequences...... simply not worth it.

It is upto 15 years in prison in Poland for using fake Polish travel documents. So if caught, the name of the person will be entered into Schengen database, deportation to Poland and lots of explaining to do with a long jail sentence if not satisfactory.
Definitely not worth it.

SH#T
Thats serious

[Mr S]

Thanks for the info... we have made the sensible decision to wait for the new id card - by your responses it seems that the risks are certainly too high.

In poland you need your ID card to get a new passport. At the moment everyone in poland is applying for new id cards as the whole format is being updated / revamped (or something along those lines) so there is a massive backlog for the officials to get through. There doesn't seem to be any fast-track system in place for emergency situations like my girlfriend's, unless of course you know the right people in the right places.

She has since managed to speak with the local ID office's director who has written a letter to the ID application headquarters in Warsaw to try and get her application fast-tracked, but it seems that it won't be done for at least a few weeks yet. In Poland things move slowly, they aren't top of the efficiency or helpfulness charts.

Hey-ho, sh*t happens. And before anyone says it Ill say it for you - she was a wee bit stupid in keeping the passport and ID card in the same bag. You've got to be philosophical though and say it could have been much worse, at least she wasn't hurt etc etc.

Cheers for the advice / info.
Enjoy Chrimbo!