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rotten_tomatoe wrote:it's amazing, what kind of people they hire there in Heathrow...
and not only in Heathrow, I suppose
PaperPusher wrote:If you have not had problems before then they are not all incompetent. You seem pretty rude to me the way you have given the exchange, correct about a residence card but unnecessarily rude.
i hope you know what you r dealing at.for sure they will put a red alert on you passport ,any time you r coming into the uk you wikll be unneccesarily harrassed.giardaella wrote:I'm a NON-EU passport holder. Arrived today on 22 January with a EEA RC. Went to the EU Queue, just as you're supposed to.
A short lady wearing a muslim hijab looked at my passport and went:
Her: "Have you filled out the Landing Card?"
Me: "I'm an EEA Family Member, I'm not supposed to." and showed her the RC.
Her: "it doesn't matter, you still need to fill one out and go to the NON-EU queue"
Me: "I am NOT!!! are you new or something?"
Her: "NO! (rolling back the eyes) you're new, just got your RC recently!"
Me: "Listen, can you at least call your supervisor or someone who is more competent? and give me your name, need to complain"
Her: "No, we don't give names and I'm not calling a supervisor" So she started to shut her booth and just walked away!!!
At that stage I heard another guy shout from another booth smth like, "this is for EU only, go into the middle queue".
I saw another guy on the left, went up to him, he looked like he'd help. He just told me: "you've been dealt with sir, go into the NON-EU queue please."
Me: "are you ALL incompetent!!! I can't believe it!!!, I want to speak to someone, make a complaint"
Him: "after you've been rude, I'm not gonna serve you, you can make a complaint after and if you go through passport control"
Me: "I WILL make a complaint and I'm not being rude, saying that you're all incompetent and had no training is just stating the fact and not being insulting! And in any case, it's not as if I'm in a restaurant, if you guys don't serve me I can't just go to another restaurant, I still need to enter the country and what you're doing is ILLEGAL!"
Anyway, I decided to get through first so was looking at the endless middle queue. As I was approaching the queue I just decided to call one of the immigration officers there. I asked the guy if I could speak to a supervisor and when he'd approached me, explained what had happened.
He knew the law as it was and that I'm not meant to fill out a landing card (Art.24 Directive 2004/38- equal treatment) nor get a stamp in the passport (Reg.11 I think of 2006 Regulations) and got me through without queueing up.
The funny thing was, he wasn't logged in to his computer so asked a colleague to check my passport, that colleague guy checked the passport nd before I managed to say a word (presuming he also knew the rules) STAMPED it )) HAHAHA it's not a biggie, just a stamp, but I also told him that look mate, you're NOT meant to stamp it. He told me that they HAD A CHOICE!!! whether to stamp it, and they can do so on the first arrival?!!! It wasn't even my first arrival and they have NO BLOODY choice! The guy who was helping me (same rank so couldn't have a go at his colleague) also looked stunned, there he was trying to help etc. knows the rules and his colleague just stamped my passport illegally. Anyway, he tried to cover it by saying that people are still confused as to the rules. I told him it's not a new thing and requested to speak to the supervisor.
Long story short, the supervisor came, we went up to the guys at the EU queue to sort out what'd happened. As the immigratino officer girl wasn't there (prob on her break) I first called up the guy who shouted from the side booth.
In front of his supervisor I had a go at him smth like:
Me: "You were not even dealing with me, you never saw my papers and you're making a scene by shouting across the fllipping hall as if we're at a market. Whenever you see this RC in the future, let them through without a stamp or landing card"
He replied, struggling to speak English at all, I started to wonder how he'd got the job and if they employ HIS type, who do they reject???
Him: "I was just supporting my colleague who you'd been rude to, all I said was this is EU queue only"
Me: "Well, I don't have anyone to support me here, and moreover, she should be competent enough to handle situations on her own without your or anyone's intervention."
The supervisor stood there all this time and whenever I'd try to tell the guy off, he'd stop me and tell me to just explain what'd happened and he'd do the ticking off.
When done with this idiot, I asked him to find that short girl in a hijab. He brought her out, she apologised (don't think sincerely). I told her not to treat people with non-eu passports like 2nd class citizens and to call a supervisor if EVER in doubt, and at least listen to what people are telling her. Again, the supervisor stopped my telling off and just said that he'd deal with it. She rolled her eyes back again and walked off... just shows what she thought of all the fuss, but am sure she'd know what to do in the future. I took his shoulder number 2158 and he'd advised me to take Imm. Officers' numbers if I wanted to make complaints.
So, that was it today at Heathrow, sorry for the long post, got pissed off big time, NOT because I can't be asked to queue up with other people or fill out that landing card, or can't bear a stamp in my passport... No, but because that is how people's incompetence can mess up others' lives in any walk of life. Where they are in the position of authority and can blindly tell you to eff off, without listening. And you'd think this is not a new rule, it's been around since 2006, when UK implemented the Directive...
Anyway, don't know if it's worth to write a complaint to the UKBA and receive an apology AND carry that letter with me in the future...
The funny thing was that I had a copy of Directive & Regulations with me... but in the ckecked in baggage ))) so, I only got to it AFTER I'd passed immigratino control, but I'd never think I'd have to show it, all my previous recent experiences were fine, I always dealt with trained staff who knew what they were doing...
Actually the word Landing Card does not occur in the 2006 EEA regulations at all! I can confirm positively that Residence Card holders do not need to fill in a landing card. This used to be written in the Border Force Operations Manual, but that useful document is offline for some time already. RC holders are also eligible for IRIS and if you pass through the IRIS gates, you don't meet anyone to give your landing card. Therefore only passengers who don't need landing cards are allowed to use IRIS.Mr Rusty wrote:I stand to be corrected, but I believe that the IO may have been correct in asking the passenger to fill in a landing card. The 2006 EEA regulations specifically state that an EEA Family Member's passport should not be endorsed, but does not state that a landing card is not required, nor can that be inferred from the 2006 Regs or the 2004 Directive. Therefore Para 26.1(e) of Schedule 2 to the 1971 Act, which makes it an offence to fail to complete a Landing Card, presumably does apply - unless there's been an Order in Council in the last few years of which I'm unaware.
Perhaps one of the chaps still in harness can elucidate.
What you overlook is that family members have exactly the same rights as (EEA) nationals, see Article 24 of the Directive. Can you ask a British or other EEA national for a landing card? If an RC is held the situation should be clear to the IO. As fysicus has pointed out UKBA staff is supposed to know that.Mr Rusty wrote:I stand to be corrected, but I believe that the IO may have been correct in asking the passenger to fill in a landing card. The 2006 EEA regulations specifically state that an EEA Family Member's passport should not be endorsed, but does not state that a landing card is not required, nor can that be inferred from the 2006 Regs or the 2004 Directive. Therefore Para 26.1(e) of Schedule 2 to the 1971 Act, which makes it an offence to fail to complete a Landing Card, presumably does apply - unless there's been an Order in Council in the last few years of which I'm unaware.
Perhaps one of the chaps still in harness can elucidate.
If you have called someone "new or something" in your 2nd ever sentence, then you seem to me not the nice person.giardaella wrote:Her: "Have you filled out the Landing Card?"
Me: "I'm an EEA Family Member, I'm not supposed to." and showed her the RC.
Her: "it doesn't matter, you still need to fill one out and go to the NON-EU queue"
Me: "I am NOT!!! are you new or something?"
When done with this idiot
Because Directive 2004/38/EC only applies when travelling with or joining family members who are EU/EEA citizens. That would also maybe explain why this person was asked to join the non-EU queue.86ti wrote:Why would that matter?mulderpf wrote:Where was your EEA family member in all of this?
mulderpf wrote:Because Directive 2004/38/EC only applies when travelling with or joining family members who are EU/EEA citizens. That would also maybe explain why this person was asked to join the non-EU queue.86ti wrote:Why would that matter?mulderpf wrote:Where was your EEA family member in all of this?
And the fact that your partner was in India and you were travelling alone pretty much explains it. I think someone should go and read up some more before calling others incompetent...
You can sure find this in the Directive but in a different context. Article 24 still stands.mulderpf wrote:Because Directive 2004/38/EC only applies when travelling with or joining family members who are EU/EEA citizens. That would also maybe explain why this person was asked to join the non-EU queue.86ti wrote:Why would that matter?mulderpf wrote:Where was your EEA family member in all of this?
giardaella wrote:I'm a NON-EU passport holder. Arrived today on 22 January with a EEA RC. Went to the EU Queue, just as you're supposed to.
A short lady wearing a muslim hijab looked at my passport and went:
Her: "Have you filled out the Landing Card?"
Me: "I'm an EEA Family Member, I'm not supposed to." and showed her the RC.
Her: "it doesn't matter, you still need to fill one out and go to the NON-EU queue"
Me: "I am NOT!!! are you new or something?"
Her: "NO! (rolling back the eyes) you're new, just got your RC recently!"
Me: "Listen, can you at least call your supervisor or someone who is more competent? and give me your name, need to complain"
Her: "No, we don't give names and I'm not calling a supervisor" So she started to shut her booth and just walked away!!!
At that stage I heard another guy shout from another booth smth like, "this is for EU only, go into the middle queue".
I saw another guy on the left, went up to him, he looked like he'd help. He just told me: "you've been dealt with sir, go into the NON-EU queue please."
Me: "are you ALL incompetent!!! I can't believe it!!!, I want to speak to someone, make a complaint"
Him: "after you've been rude, I'm not gonna serve you, you can make a complaint after and if you go through passport control"
Me: "I WILL make a complaint and I'm not being rude, saying that you're all incompetent and had no training is just stating the fact and not being insulting! And in any case, it's not as if I'm in a restaurant, if you guys don't serve me I can't just go to another restaurant, I still need to enter the country and what you're doing is ILLEGAL!"
Anyway, I decided to get through first so was looking at the endless middle queue. As I was approaching the queue I just decided to call one of the immigration officers there. I asked the guy if I could speak to a supervisor and when he'd approached me, explained what had happened.
He knew the law as it was and that I'm not meant to fill out a landing card (Art.24 Directive 2004/38- equal treatment) nor get a stamp in the passport (Reg.11 I think of 2006 Regulations) and got me through without queueing up.
The funny thing was, he wasn't logged in to his computer so asked a colleague to check my passport, that colleague guy checked the passport nd before I managed to say a word (presuming he also knew the rules) STAMPED it )) HAHAHA it's not a biggie, just a stamp, but I also told him that look mate, you're NOT meant to stamp it. He told me that they HAD A CHOICE!!! whether to stamp it, and they can do so on the first arrival?!!! It wasn't even my first arrival and they have NO BLOODY choice! The guy who was helping me (same rank so couldn't have a go at his colleague) also looked stunned, there he was trying to help etc. knows the rules and his colleague just stamped my passport illegally. Anyway, he tried to cover it by saying that people are still confused as to the rules. I told him it's not a new thing and requested to speak to the supervisor.
Long story short, the supervisor came, we went up to the guys at the EU queue to sort out what'd happened. As the immigratino officer girl wasn't there (prob on her break) I first called up the guy who shouted from the side booth.
In front of his supervisor I had a go at him smth like:
Me: "You were not even dealing with me, you never saw my papers and you're making a scene by shouting across the fllipping hall as if we're at a market. Whenever you see this RC in the future, let them through without a stamp or landing card"
He replied, struggling to speak English at all, I started to wonder how he'd got the job and if they employ HIS type, who do they reject???
Him: "I was just supporting my colleague who you'd been rude to, all I said was this is EU queue only"
Me: "Well, I don't have anyone to support me here, and moreover, she should be competent enough to handle situations on her own without your or anyone's intervention."
The supervisor stood there all this time and whenever I'd try to tell the guy off, he'd stop me and tell me to just explain what'd happened and he'd do the ticking off.
When done with this idiot, I asked him to find that short girl in a hijab. He brought her out, she apologised (don't think sincerely). I told her not to treat people with non-eu passports like 2nd class citizens and to call a supervisor if EVER in doubt, and at least listen to what people are telling her. Again, the supervisor stopped my telling off and just said that he'd deal with it. She rolled her eyes back again and walked off... just shows what she thought of all the fuss, but am sure she'd know what to do in the future. I took his shoulder number 2158 and he'd advised me to take Imm. Officers' numbers if I wanted to make complaints.
So, that was it today at Heathrow, sorry for the long post, got pissed off big time, NOT because I can't be asked to queue up with other people or fill out that landing card, or can't bear a stamp in my passport... No, but because that is how people's incompetence can mess up others' lives in any walk of life. Where they are in the position of authority and can blindly tell you to eff off, without listening. And you'd think this is not a new rule, it's been around since 2006, when UK implemented the Directive...
Anyway, don't know if it's worth to write a complaint to the UKBA and receive an apology AND carry that letter with me in the future...
The funny thing was that I had a copy of Directive & Regulations with me... but in the ckecked in baggage ))) so, I only got to it AFTER I'd passed immigratino control, but I'd never think I'd have to show it, all my previous recent experiences were fine, I always dealt with trained staff who knew what they were doing...