Entering UK after Tier 5 visa.

[Bezzzo]

I am writing to give advice/warning to others who are wanting to enter UK as a tourist after their Tier 5 visa expires as i was nearly denied entry yesterday.

My story.

I am an Australian citizen who was on a Tier 5 visa that ended on July 22nd this year (3 months ago). The day before my visa expired i left the UK to Live with my girlfriend in Lithuania for 3 months (My long term partner for 4 years, shes' a Lithuanian resident, has never lived in UK).

As i was nearing the end of my 3 months in the schengen zone, my partner and i booked flights to Australia and thought it would be nice to spend a 3 days in London to visit as tourists before flying home and from what i have read on forums, as long as you can prove you are there for tourist purposes, there's no actual fixed amount of time you need to be away from the UK before re-entering on a tourist visa.

Long story short i flew into UK with all my documents, proof of flights to Australia in 3 days etc, with the expectation of further question (I wasn't worried about this as i was genuinely coming as a tourist and being very honest, i never overstayed and i had been out of the country for 3 months).

The immigration officer grilled me and basically said, "your visa ended 3 months ago, you have no reason to be here, if you wanted to visit London you should have visited during your 2 years. The only reason i'm not going to deny you entry is because your partner is Lithuanian and i'm going to take it as you have ties in Europe and that you're flying home in three days, but i am going to blacklist you and expect further questioning or denial of entry if you ever decide to return to UK."

Be very careful deciding to enter UK as a tourist after your visa expires, i genuinely thought because i had left UK for 3 months, had proof that my partner and i were only visiting UK for 3 days before flying home that i should be okay to enter as a tourist.

This is definitely not the case, i would advise to go home for at least 6 months before returning to UK as a tourist, or otherwise you risk being denied or having a black mark on you immigration record like i now have.

Hope my story can help someone in the future.

Jeremy.

[sah10406]

Be very careful deciding to enter UK as a tourist after your visa expires, i genuinely thought because i had left UK for 3 months, had proof that my partner and i were only visiting UK for 3 days before flying home that i should be okay to enter as a tourist.

And you were okay!

No disrespect, but you are being a little dramatic here. You were not refused entry, you just had to explain your intentions to a difficult and sceptical border force officer before you were admitted. This happens to hundreds of people every day and is a normal part of immigration control.

[meredec]

Be very careful deciding to enter UK as a tourist after your visa expires, i genuinely thought because i had left UK for 3 months, had proof that my partner and i were only visiting UK for 3 days before flying home that i should be okay to enter as a tourist.

And you were okay!

No disrespect, but you are being a little dramatic here. You were not refused entry, you just had to explain your intentions to a difficult and sceptical border force officer before you were admitted. This happens to hundreds of people every day and is a normal part of immigration control.

Yeah wit hthe little difference that he had a warning for stupid laws

[Bezzzo]

Be very careful deciding to enter UK as a tourist after your visa expires, i genuinely thought because i had left UK for 3 months, had proof that my partner and i were only visiting UK for 3 days before flying home that i should be okay to enter as a tourist.

And you were okay!

No disrespect, but you are being a little dramatic here. You were not refused entry, you just had to explain your intentions to a difficult and sceptical border force officer before you were admitted. This happens to hundreds of people every day and is a normal part of immigration control.

Dramatic?

The only reason i wasn't refused was because my partner lives in the EU, but now i have a mark on my UK immigration record, because as you say, the immigration officer was being 'Difficult'.

Had i been refused, i would have to declare that when applying for other visas, especially since my partner and i are looking to apply for a partner visa soon, it doesn't look good on the application.

Yeah i was 'okay' as you put it, but it could have had long term repercussions had i been refused, even though i did nothing wrong.

My post was not to be dramatic, but be a warning for others who may be in a similar situation. There are many posts from people asking questions about entering into UK after their tier 5 expired.