Exit and Entry Stamps

I'd like to say a big thank you to all the contributors on this forum. You're are doing such a very wonderful job!

I will be applying for naturalisation in Dec 2006 (Married to a BC and sorted out the Life in the UK Test in June 2006).

I haven't travelled out of the UK since the last 2.5 years I have been here but will be visiting Ireland next week on a 3-day visit.

It is imperative to state that I'm a Visa National and already got a 3-month visit visa from the Irish Embassy in London.

My question is: With the view of Ireland and UK been a Common Travel Area, will my passport be stamped on 'Exit' and 'Entry' back to the UK? so it clearly shows I was only away for a number of days.

I do not want to face any problems with the IND when it comes to the 3 years residency test.

Hope someone will help.

Cheers!

No, it won't be stamped because you won't go through passport control. (Sometimes passports are looked at on arrival in Ireland, but I doubt that they will stamp it.)

In reality, I don't think that you are likely to face problems on this account, however.

How are you travelling to Ireland? Although not absolute proof, things such as ferry tickets with your name on or aeroplane tickets are prima facie evidence of time spent away. Another option would be to get a letter from your employer (if you are in employment) to the effect that you have been at work except on such-and-such dates.

In any case, though, as the Irish visa is only valid for three months, it would seem unlikely that you would be in Ireland for more than that period, and I think three months out of the UK would be allowable anyway given that you haven't been away at all apart from this time in Ireland.

They will defiantly ask to see your passport when you leave and re-enter the UK. I tried it 2 weeks ago. You will not get on that eurotrain without showing your passport !

Whether they stamp it or not I am not sure. Most countries in the EU no longer put stamps in passports. Generally they should’nt even have immigration control, but the UK is so insistent on it. With the terrorist i guess i dont blame them.

Uk is the hardest country to get in out of all the EU countries from what i have heard.

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Anastasia

Anastasia wrote:They will defiantly ask to see your passport when you leave and re-enter the UK. I tried it 2 weeks ago. You will not get on that eurotrain without showing your passport !

Whether they stamp it or not I am not sure. Most countries in the EU no longer put stamps in passports. Generally they should’nt even have immigration control, but the UK is so insistent on it. With the terrorist i guess i dont blame them.

Uk is the hardest country to get in out of all the EU countries from what i have heard.

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Anastasia

Yes, but the original poster is going to Ireland, so he or she won't be going by train. Ireland and the UK form together the Common Travel Area (so called) and there are not routine passport checks between the two countries.

If the original poster is flying, the airline might want to see photo ID or even a passport, but that is not the same as a passport check performed for the purposes of immigration control.

Point taken

If you get into Ireland by train or road they may not check or stamp but they will definitely check and stamp on yr passport if u fly to Dublin. and same when you come back to UK, no check when you leave here though.

Most EU countries still stamp but many are not strict if you do or do not do a landing card. apart from swizterland I don;t know any other countries do not stamp, but swizterland is not EU.

supertiger wrote:If you get into Ireland by train or road they may not check or stamp but they will definitely check and stamp on yr passport if u fly to Dublin. and same when you come back to UK, no check when you leave here though.

Most EU countries still stamp but many are not strict if you do or do not do a landing card. apart from swizterland I don;t know any other countries do not stamp, but swizterland is not EU.

But you don't go through passport control if you're flying to Ireland, do you? It's treated as if it were a domestic flight.

It is domnestic if northern ireland, but if Republic of Ireland u need go through immigration control.

My work partner had to fly to Newcastle from London he said he got checked out.

The Home Office accepts that passports dont always get stamped so would not assume a missing return stamp means you 'stayed there'.

When I applied for naturalisation my own passport showed trips to Italy and Turkey from which I seemingly never returned, but I had no queries from the Home Office about it.

I guess they'll only be concerned if a passport has masses of stamps leading them to think you werent actually living in the UK.

Anastasia wrote:My work partner had to fly to Newcastle from London he said he got checked out.

Security check maybe, but there is no immigration control on domestic United Kingdom flights.

Yes, but they both check your passport is in order, dont they?

On domestic flights, they are concerned with photo-ID, which need not necessarily be a passport; it could be a driving licence, for example.

JAJ wrote:

Anastasia wrote:My work partner had to fly to Newcastle from London he said he got checked out.

Security check maybe, but there is no immigration control on domestic United Kingdom flights.

That's right. And certainly until recently there was no immigration control on flights between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Perhaps that has changed recently, I don't know. Latterly, passports have sometimes been looked at on arrival in Ireland, but not routinely and, even when they are, not as systematically as when arriving in Ireland from outside the Common Travel Area.

Its like that in most places now, sometimes you get checked other times you dont, is it worth a risk though?

But i guess it is different when you are travelling from UK to Ireland as most here said is it a domestic flight.

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Anastasias