I have posted on here before in regards to a cat and mouse approach to returning to the UK with my ILTR. I was satisfied and appreciative with the answers I received already, but have more nuanced questions that keep lingering in my mind. I suppose I am looking more for the inside scoop: chances of probability, ultimate consequences of not crossing a T, etc.
I am a U.S. citizen and have been out of the UK long enough that I am supposed to obtain an entry clearance first, according to what I've read here on "the internets." If I enter into Northern Ireland, bypassing immigration control without an entry clearance, is it considered a serious crime? What if I were oblivious about it? I was never given any instructions or guidelines about my ILTR status when I received it decades ago. How am I to know all the hoops I am supposed to jump through if immigration people don't even bother interrogating me or informing me about it at any point along the way?
What if I entered the U.K. multiple times since living outside the UK and was never asked about my status? Shouldn't they know all about me whenever my passport was scanned? Seems the computers don't really tell them much at all. I was passing through the UK in transit to other countries, which is always what I told them. I never said I had a ILTR stamp in my other passport, because I honestly had no idea that I was required to show it or offer that information unless I was actually returning there to live. If they asked, I would have been truthful about it and showed it to them. And if I intended to return permanently, I would have stated so when asked about the purpose of my "visit."
Or wait a minute, my memory is so hazy. Maybe I DID show the ILTR stamp to them?! Oh yes, now that I think about it, I am certain I showed it to them and they never questioned me about it. And just by coincidence, the passport I used during those trips expires this year, so I will need a new passport. That new passport with empty pages in it, along with my ILTR stamp in a much older passport should be all I need to enter the UK via Northern Ireland, start working again, and hire an immigration lawyer to help sort out the pesky little detail about an "entry clearance", which I don't know about officially anyway...
And so I am very curious to know if a holder of a ILTR, which is legal residency status, would be treated like an illegal immigrant if found not to have neglected to obtain an entry clearance? From all the news specials I've watched about illegal immigrants in the UK, officials seem more prone to turn blind eyes if anything... It seems to be one of the easiest countries to remain in (apart from the U.S.A.) if you just manage to successfully hop the fence.
In my case, I will be legally entering from Ireland with permanent resident status. I would hope to be treated like a legal immigrant should this ever come up in conversation with an immigration officer. If I simply drove over the border, started working again, and "confronted" immigration in several years from that time of entry, would my mysterious years of absence really come up in conversation?
I seriously doubt it, but stand to be corrected if I am wrong. I would think immigration officials have way too many important cases to track down than to go after someone who obtained his ILTR legally and one day, out of the blue, started contributing to the tax revenue again...
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