My friend has a Pakistan passport and has been in the UK on a T1PSW visa, which expires in a few months. Several weeks ago, he applied for (within the UK) and was given a two-year T1G visa. The accompanying letter with the T1G visa said that his T1PSW visa was now null and void, although this was was not marked as such on the T1PSW visa in his passport.
The last time my friend passed through immigration control at LHR (a few weeks ago), the border guard asked him some strange questions, including "Have you ever had trouble with immigration before?" (He had not.) She also was looking at his T1PSW visa (its expiry date had not yet arrived but it had been superseded by the more-recent T1G visa) until he corrected her.
She gave him a slip of paper and told him she was temporarily suspending his leave to remain and that she was detaining him, and asked him to wait in the little waiting area over to the side. She said that there were some "technical issues." After about half an hour, she came back and said "Thanks, we just wanted to check that you are not somebody we are looking for," and returned his passport with a stamp and with entry granted. He then proceeded through to baggage claim.
Is this is something he should worry about? He is quite perplexed about what happened. Is this likely to happen again? Will it affect my friend's ability to clear immigration controls the next time he enters the UK? Should he take any precautions before he enters the UK again?
FWIW, all of his documents for the T1G visa were completely genuine and there was no suggestion of forgery or fraudulence in the application process.
Many thanks.
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