:D!

If you need to take out a loan to pay for your visa then you don't meet the financial requirements and should be refused. If your life is genuinely at risk then you may qualify for asylum (though loan shark threats probably don't count for very much).

The UK doesn't require its citizens to use a British passport to enter the country.

If you wish to naturalise but continue to maintain access to the Fast Track immigration queue, you can use your foreign passport and a citizenship certificate, or a Certficate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode, which is a sticker in your passport. I haven't tried this myself, since I've never had a long wait in the EU/EEA queue (but I've waited for 30 mins in the fast track queue previously)

:D!

These questions are not designed to catch previously unknown terrorists or people who have committed genocide. They are designed to refuse visas and naturalisation to known undesirables either by discouraging them from applying in the first place, or by getting them to lie on the form and then applying a ban from the UK for deception/fraud.

FOI requests have revealed that prior to 2015, applicants for naturalisation were all assumed to be telling the truth about not having any foreign criminal records. This was not verified with the country of origin. Whereas anyone who has applied for (e.g.) US or Australian settlement visas knows that those countries require British citizens to prove a lack of criminal record before even being granted the first visa.

LondonTed

The questions are not meant to do that. What they do instead, is make it easier to deport someone at a later date who has lied on the form.

flatlander

The enormously disproportionate [1] cost of UK settlement visas is a significant additional burden above the income requirements, and is also a significant burden on maintaining an established family life (a fundamental human right). It raises the actual wealth requirements significantly above the officially stated income requirements, since it requires significant disposable cash.

[1] Disproportionate to the cost of providing the service, and even to the cost of other UK Immigration services, and compared to cost of many other countries' settlement visas.

csutter

If it makes you feel better, JFK yesterday had one CBP officer manning the entire visitors queue. Took me well over an hour after I was the last off BA173 (the downside of staying behind to chat with the crew). The machines can't come soon enough!

Weirdly enough, my favourite London airports to travel through purely in terms of immigration are STN and LTN - lots of families so the e-Gates are rarely very busy. LHR on the other hand...

papyPiHi

So it was you who put the tent last night in the middle of the highway to slow traffic down and attempt a crossing?

LupineChemist

I love immigration at T7. That's because I have a US passport, though.

CKBA

Well, not really.

Having a UK passport and a US green card and global entry (which isn't global), while it is sometimes annoying coming back into the UK, the US is almost certainly longer.

In particular, the US customs adds another dimension to the problem. In the UK/Europe it's essentially transparent to the majority of the passengers. In the US it's another hurdle. Oddly, at work (in the US) I need now need to register my laptop when I travel abroad in case I get stopped at customs; the only place I ever have been stopped (and probably am about 50% of the time) is the US!

StingWest

Just curious why you have to register your laptop. Is it to prove that you're not avoiding paying the duty for something bought in the USA when you return to the UK? Or the other way around?

Also, the global entry queues in the USA (SFO anyway) move really quickly, and I'm wondering about the additional delay that you're experiencing. Perhaps it's the new requirement to (briefly) speak to CBP after you've completed the automated bit. Again, just curious.

lotus918

Global Entry is a god send in the US. ~15 minutes from jetway to car at LAX a few weeks ago (hand baggage only)