questioned at Heathrow

My husband was granted british citizenship this year and went on to get his British Passport. We took our first holiday abroad him using his British Passport however on our return I was shocked that he was quesitonned about his previous visa refusals of 4 years ago. I thought that now he as his British Passport he would not be questionned anymore.

Does any one know if this is normal? Will he get questionned on his return everytime we go on holiday?

thanks for any help

linsloolins wrote:My husband was granted british citizenship this year and went on to get his British Passport. We took our first holiday abroad him using his British Passport however on our return I was shocked that he was quesitonned about his previous visa refusals of 4 years ago. I thought that now he as his British Passport he would not be questionned anymore.

Does any one know if this is normal? Will he get questionned on his return everytime we go on holiday?

thanks for any help

Your question has got nothing to do with US immigration. Did you mean to post it in another forum, perhaps?

Moved from incorrect forum.

Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77) wrote:1 General principles

(1)All those who are in this Act expressed to have the right of abode in the United Kingdom shall be free to live in, and to come and go into and from, the United Kingdom without let or hindrance except such as may be required under and in accordance with this Act to enable their right to be established or as may be otherwise lawfully imposed on any person.

It's absolutely outrageous that your husband was held up when he presented a British passport. The IO clearly has little understanding of the law as quoted by Vinny or of their own instructions (IDIs) as under:-

"When a passenger presents a valid document as noted at paragraph 3 (above) he
should, subject to paragraph 2, be accepted immediately as being exempt from control
unless the immigration officer has reason to believe or suspect that the passport has
been forged or falsified or was improperly obtained. The fact that a passport is out of
date does not in itself render it invalid as evidence of nationality and identity, but this
fact may justify the immigration officer in continuing his examination until he is
satisfied on these points. Note that it is for the Immigration Officer to prove fraud, not
for the passenger to disprove it."

Perhaps an overzealous IO had a rush of blood and somehow concluded that because of the previous visa refusals the British passport might have been obtained improperly. If it occurs again, the OP and her husband should ask to speak to a Chief Immigration Officer and ask for the previous refusals to be wiped off the Warnings Index, as they no longer have any relevance and he should not be held up in this way.

Well said, Mr Rusty. Some overzealous Officers do go beyond the line, looking for fraud where it's obvious there's none.

linsloolins wrote:My husband was granted british citizenship this year and went on to get his British Passport. We took our first holiday abroad him using his British Passport however on our return I was shocked that he was quesitonned about his previous visa refusals of 4 years ago. I thought that now he as his British Passport he would not be questionned anymore.

Does any one know if this is normal? Will he get questionned on his return everytime we go on holiday?

What questions did they ask, exactly?

apologies for posting in incorrect forum, but thank you for your responses, i didnt think it was correct.

Mr Rusty wrote:It's absolutely outrageous that your husband was held up when he presented a British passport. The IO clearly has little understanding of the law as quoted by Vinny or of their own instructions (IDIs)

Calm down Mr Rusty Don't blame the IO. If the warnings index flagged up this passenger because of his previous refusals then the IO is duty bound to ask the passenger about it. My guess is the information would have referred to the passenger in his previous nationality and not as a Brit.

I remember once stopping a passenger who had been refused a visa as a visa national. Two weeks later she arrived in the UK with an EU passport which had ostensibly been issued to her several years prior to her visa application. Her name was on the warnings index for the visa refusal. A closer examination of her passport showed it was a forgery, she had altered the photograph in the passport.

Assuming everything was ok with linsloolins husbands passport then I am sure that the IO would have arranged to have the warning deleted and he should in future face no further hassle.

By the way, I am also a naturalised Brit, and on one occasion I was asked by an immigration officer how I had obtained a British passport.

INSIDER wrote:

Mr Rusty wrote:It's absolutely outrageous that your husband was held up when he presented a British passport. The IO clearly has little understanding of the law as quoted by Vinny or of their own instructions (IDIs)

Calm down Mr Rusty Don't blame the IO. If the warnings index flagged up this passenger because of his previous refusals then the IO is duty bound to ask the passenger about it. My guess is the information would have referred to the passenger in his previous nationality and not as a Brit.

I remember once stopping a passenger who had been refused a visa as a visa national. Two weeks later she arrived in the UK with an EU passport which had ostensibly been issued to her several years prior to her visa application. Her name was on the warnings index for the visa refusal. A closer examination of her passport showed it was a forgery, she had altered the photograph in the passport.

Assuming everything was ok with linsloolins husbands passport then I am sure that the IO would have arranged to have the warning deleted and he should in future face no further hassle.

Fair comment - in the 'bad old days,' before everybody had to stop to have their passport swiped we were encouraged to develop a skill in chatting to passengers in the "Brit" queue so that those about whom we had doubts didn't necessarily feel singled out. In this case, the chap obviously did feel he'd been singled out. One hopes that the IO will arrange to have the warning deleted, but judging by previous posts on this forum, that doesn't necessarily happen.

I wonder how the pax you caught managed to find a genuine EU passport with the same name as the foreign passport with which she'd been refused a visa.

Mr Rusty wrote:

INSIDER wrote:

Mr Rusty wrote:It's absolutely outrageous that your husband was held up when he presented a British passport. The IO clearly has little understanding of the law as quoted by Vinny or of their own instructions (IDIs)

Calm down Mr Rusty Don't blame the IO. If the warnings index flagged up this passenger because of his previous refusals then the IO is duty bound to ask the passenger about it. My guess is the information would have referred to the passenger in his previous nationality and not as a Brit.

I remember once stopping a passenger who had been refused a visa as a visa national. Two weeks later she arrived in the UK with an EU passport which had ostensibly been issued to her several years prior to her visa application. Her name was on the warnings index for the visa refusal. A closer examination of her passport showed it was a forgery, she had altered the photograph in the passport.

Assuming everything was ok with linsloolins husbands passport then I am sure that the IO would have arranged to have the warning deleted and he should in future face no further hassle.

Fair comment - in the 'bad old days,' before everybody had to stop to have their passport swiped we were encouraged to develop a skill in chatting to passengers in the "Brit" queue so that those about whom we had doubts didn't necessarily feel singled out. In this case, the chap obviously did feel he'd been singled out. One hopes that the IO will arrange to have the warning deleted, but judging by previous posts on this forum, that doesn't necessarily happen.

I wonder how the pax you caught managed to find a genuine EU passport with the same name as the foreign passport with which she'd been refused a visa.

Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead. It was a few years ago.
It may well have been that the passport was suspect anyway
and it was once it was established this was the case,that she
coughed to her real identity that it was discovered she had applied
for the visa and been refused.




As for deletion from the warnings index this doesn't necessarily happen straight away. Backlogs etc can delay. I also believe that a deletion has to be requested by more than one IO on separate occasions. This is to prevent any possible fraudulent deletions.

further to previous posting about my husband being stopped at Heathrow. Well it has happened again. He went home for a family visit over christmas, this time coming back through Gatwick. Again at passport control he was stopped and questionned about the past visa refusals. He was then asked did he have his other passport with him, he did have and she asked to look at it. She then told him to sit in the waiting area as she needed to speak to her supervisor. He sat there for half an hour then she came back and said its fine you can go. My husband asked if this would always happen when he travelled abroad, she said yes it would because of the warnings index. He asked if this could be removed as it was no longer relevant and she said she couldnt remove it only the home office could do that and she suggested we write to them.

Does anyone have an address that we write to to get this warning index removed.

thanks for any help

linsloolins wrote:further to previous posting about my husband being stopped at Heathrow. Well it has happened again. He went home for a family visit over christmas, this time coming back through Gatwick. Again at passport control he was stopped and questionned about the past visa refusals. He was then asked did he have his other passport with him, he did have and she asked to look at it. She then told him to sit in the waiting area as she needed to speak to her supervisor. He sat there for half an hour then she came back and said its fine you can go. My husband asked if this would always happen when he travelled abroad, she said yes it would because of the warnings index. He asked if this could be removed as it was no longer relevant and she said she couldnt remove it only the home office could do that and she suggested we write to them.

Does anyone have an address that we write to to get this warning index removed.

thanks for any help

when he eventually got his visa approved after the refusal, has he travelled out of the uk before he got his british passport? if not, he might likely be stopped by IO to confirm this. it hah happened to me before in the past and i was stopped 2 times but at the 2nd time, the IO said he has removed the warning index on my name that i will not be stopped again.

Hi Just wanted to up date everyone, we did put in a complaint. We have just received a letter giving there apolgies explaining due to admin error file was not updated when he got his citizenship. Hope that is now the end to it!. thank you to everyone for all your advice.

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