Entering UK with Article 10 Residency(Success)

[mav1404]

I have been following different stories on this forum for over a year now. I'm an Indian national married. My wife is a German national and we are settled in the Netherlands for the past 2 years.

I'm a holder of an article 10 residence card for a family member of a EU national. After checking on the Home office website which stated that UK now allows the family members with article 10 cards to travel provided they travel with or will be joining their EU family member to UK, we decided to book our tickets.

Unfortunately, this was done via Easyjet by my wife. I expected trouble and therefore had done my research. I checked their website which stated clearly that the article 10 card holder was exempt of a visa and was allowed to travel, called their call center which confirmed the same.

Reached Amsterdam and deja vu. They refused me boarding the aircraft. The reason for refusal was that I would not be allowed entry and these were the instructions given to them by the airline, and they did not care for what the website stated. They washed their hands off saying they were merely the ground crew and that I should be speaking to the HQ later(which was not possible at 5 am).

I had somehow prepared myself for this and did not bother arguing my case. Walked a few meters across and spotted KLM who confirmed that this would not be a problem after a quick phone call to the concerned person and I bought a ticket with them.

Again at the gate I was stopped and a gentleman confirmed that I would be allowed after another phone call. My wife decided to fly Easyjet and landed in a different airport and decided to travel to Heathrow(airport I would land in) just in case there would be trouble. Fortunately, she left before I did from Amsterdam.

I was a bit naive to think that everything would be fine in Heathrow, when I was confronted with the worst immigration officer one could imagine. This man, obviously was not aware of the rules, started joking around with his peers holding my card and passport in his hand. Accused me of telling him how to do his job, when I pointed out the print out from the home office website stating the rules and then proceeded to detain me.

Fortunately, good sense prevailed and a lady officer who spoke to me after a wait of 2 hours, accepted their mistake and decided to proceed further with helping me. She confessed that they were not aware of this rule till it was pointed out by me . She confirmed to me that she would have to speak to my wife who was waiting outside before stamping my visa.I knew this was a mistake on their part, that my entry should be without a visa, and the fact that my passport was now stamped with an entry visa but decided not bring this to their attention.

Just before I left, I asked her what should I do to avoid a similar situation in my future trips to UK, she had no clear answers besides joking that I should avoid flying Easyjet. I lost Euros 150 and after trying several times for a refund have given up on this as well.

I dread travelling again to UK and I hope this referendum will provide some type of clarity on a situation(travel of EU family members) which I think has been conveniently violated by UK for years. Sadly one doesn't think too much about this till we experience one of these horrors ourselves.

We enjoyed our stay in London for the next 3 days before returning, as I went about abusing the British welfare system. These are my experiences from October 2015.
PS In addition to my passport and the family card I was carrying my Original Attested and Apostilled Marriage Certificate

[noajthan]

Great story. No doubt you will be able to laugh about it one day.

I have added white space to make it more readable.