Any first-hand experience of returning to the UK on a EEA RC, without your EU sponsor during covid / lockdown?

Hi everyone

I'm non-EU with EEA RC and electronic Pre-Settled status. I'm currently in France with my EU partner for family reasons, and we are planning to come back to the UK in the next weeks, which means we will be coming back during lockdown in both countries. For a number of reasons it is not practical for us to travel together, so we have planned I return first, then him, a week later.

But a friend of mine just told me that a friend of hers (so I do not have a first-hand account of this) tried doing something similar, and was prevented from boarding, at the gate, because she was not accompanied by her EU husband. Husband had to come and pick her up, then travel together to the UK.

It is not clear to me what kind of visa she had and where they were travelling from, so I believe it is highly likely this is not the whole story. I have checked both the French and UK relevant travel sites, and on its face does not seem like our plans present any problems, since we are coming back to our legal place of residence, after a temporary stay in France. We just need to quarantine/self-isolate for 14 days when we arrive.

But I just want to double check. Does anyone has a first-hand account of doing something similar (non-EU coming back to the UK on their own) during covid? Did you encounter any issues?

I thought I'd report back:

I just came back into the UK, and I am happy to report I had no issues whatsoever. Not when issuing boarding pass, not when emigrating (in France and Switzerland, for example, you have to pass an emigration official before having access to the gate), not when boarding, not when immigrating into the UK. All usual pre-covid process.

kamoe wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 07, 2020 3:48 pm

I thought I'd report back:

I just came back into the UK, and I am happy to report I had no issues whatsoever. Not when issuing boarding pass, not when emigrating (in France and Switzerland, for example, you have to pass an emigration official before having access to the gate), not when boarding, not when immigrating into the UK. All usual pre-covid process.

I am just reading this thread. I am sorry I didn't see it before. I could've told you as my wife has EEA card.

In our experience:

-> Travelling out of the UK: Systematic 45 to 60 minutes wait at the check-in desk as they never heard about EEA cards allowing visa free travel to Europe when travelling with the EEA sponsor. It has been like that for 14 years but they just don't know and I don't think they ever will.

-> Return to UK: Zero issues returning with or without sponsor. Possible questions from immigration in the UK about the sponsor but that's it

Zerubbabel wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 07, 2020 8:28 pm

kamoe wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 07, 2020 3:48 pm

I thought I'd report back:

I just came back into the UK, and I am happy to report I had no issues whatsoever. Not when issuing boarding pass, not when emigrating (in France and Switzerland, for example, you have to pass an emigration official before having access to the gate), not when boarding, not when immigrating into the UK. All usual pre-covid process.

I am just reading this thread. I am sorry I didn't see it before. I could've told you as my wife has EEA card.

In our experience:

-> Travelling out of the UK: Systematic 45 to 60 minutes wait at the check-in desk as they never heard about EEA cards allowing visa free travel to Europe when travelling with the EEA sponsor. It has been like that for 14 years but they just don't know and I don't think they ever will.

-> Return to UK: Zero issues returning with or without sponsor. Possible questions from immigration in the UK about the sponsor but that's it

Well yes, but I was specifically asking if this would be the same during covid / lockdown.

I asked this because I usually have no issues either way, but... this time round, during covid, I had an interesting experience traveling out of the UK (from the UK into the Schengen area), something that had not happened to me for a while: The British Airways app refused to issue me with a boarding pass.

This usually happened when I was a visa-required national, which I am no longer, and usually means an airline staff needs to see a visa before a boarding pass is produced. So I thought it was strange the app did this to me this time. Bottomline is, that during covid, the Schengen area closed its borders even to non-visa required nationals, and unless you are a resident or a national of one of these countries, or a family member of a citizen of one of these countries, you are not allowed to travel even if in normal times you did not need a visa.

It took us longer than usual, and a bit of a scare (It took a good 20 minutes for the BA lady to understand how to interpret the written rules in front of her, how to determine if I was allowed to travel, how to determine what proof I needed to submit, and that my EEA RC was enough proof I was the family member of my partner, and that nothing else was required ("I can see your card, but do you have proof that you are his partner?" - I am unmarried, the EEA card is the proof...). She phoned her superior, and for a second I doubted myself thinking maybe I was not really allowed to travel, after all, during covid...

So obviously when my friend told me the horror story of someone not allowed to come back into the UK because their EU sponsor was not travelling with her... I panicked a bit and just wanted to double check.

Again, happy to report that there were no issues. If at all, everything went smoother than usual, since there is not a lot of people travelling at the moment. About 1/10 of the usual traffic.

And also, obviously, thanks for your reply!

British Airways check-in agents want to see only non-visa nationals. Anything else, they totally bug and start making calls. They always ruin it for us. Rather than spending time in duty free shops, we spend it waiting a side until our case is decided (pre and post Covid). Comparatively, when we go abroad, most people know about visa free for EEA cards holders. Last time we travelled, it took us 45 min to get the boarding pass (45 minutes watch in hand) and 15 seconds to get into our destination country with zero questions asked.

I think Britain has always been against EU. That reflects in the wilful ignorance of EEA rules and viciously making difficult the lives of EEA cards holders. What I have seen over the years, it's not individual ignorant agents but a concerted action from a system.

kamoe wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 07, 2020 3:48 pm

I thought I'd report back:

I just came back into the UK, and I am happy to report I had no issues whatsoever. Not when issuing boarding pass, not when emigrating (in France and Switzerland, for example, you have to pass an emigration official before having access to the gate), not when boarding, not when immigrating into the UK. All usual pre-covid process.

Hey Kamoe,

Which queue did you use to enter the UK? I have not been to an airport for the whole year so I would like to know what changes have been implemented for the settlement scheme?

Thanks!

lunallena wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:30 am

Hey Kamoe,

Which queue did you use to enter the UK? I have not been to an airport for the whole year so I would like to know what changes have been implemented for the settlement scheme?

Thanks!

Good question.

So, at Heathrow Terminal 5, there are still the same 3 queues as usual:

1. On the left, e-Gates = For people from certain countries (UK plus others), with a modern chip passport
2. In the middle, Families = For EU families with children younger than 14 and and family members of the EU
3. On the right, All other passports = For all other passports

The thing is, the big signs for queue 1. and 2. no longer display the word "EU". e-gates say: "UK, US, Japan, Canda, etc," but does not say "EU" anywhere, even though EU nationals can use them as appropriate. Families just says "See an agent". Because of this, I was a bit confused and was not sure which queue to join (I usually join queue no. 2), so I just asked and was told to still join queue no. 2.

I had not travelled since January this year, and this was my first time seeing the new signs. But my partner, who did some travel after I did, before the month of April this year, told me this has been like this for a while, the signs were changed a while ago.