B747-437B

Prior to my one poor experience with US immigration (and my detention by Polish authorities earlier this week which vaults them into number two on my disliked immigration agencies list), the worst experience I ever had was at Heathrow. I must have been about 19 years old and non-revving back to college in Atlanta from India when the immigration officer decided to be a prick and ask me how many times I had visited the UK before. When I told him "many", he insisted on a number. Evidently "2-3 times a year since I was born" was not a good enough elaboration either. He then made me stand off to the side facing the wall like a punished schoolboy and count passport stamps. I finally came up with a figure around 55 and he stamped me through without any more hassle.

Apart from that single incident, the biggest hassle I have had with Heathrow immigration is when I try to talk them into stamping my passport. No luck on that front during the last year or so alas.

Kris Rao

Know about your US experience Sean. But, what happened in Poland?

jongar

I refude to be put of the tourist trail bu terrorism, hell went to bali 3 weeks after the bombing, but this is the first time i am avoidning a place i used to work, because its not worth the trouble. Was going to spend 2 days in SFO, but now just transiting - srill have to go through the malarky though

YVR Cockroach

May it be because you are a citizen of a top tier E.U. member country and the immigration people have no business questioning you other than to verify your identity?

Sjoerd

What is a top tier E.U. member country? Anyway, top tier or not doesn't make a difference.
But you are right of course, the Brits just have to let every EU citizen in and can only refuse entry if you are a convicted criminal or something like that. So they never ask any questions to EU citizens. Until recently they only glanced very briefly at my passport (I just continued walking with the photo page open), but recently they do a computer check via a scan of the passport.
Anyway, I was just responding to the poster who advised British readers to try passing UK immigration with a _non-British_ passport and see how different that experience would be compared to entering with a UK passport.

B747-437B

Nothing major. Was flying into Warsaw last week and the Polish immigration people pulled all passengers with brown skin aside for the third degree of interrogation in a side room. Myself with an Indian passport and the US passport holder were released after 45 minutes of "why you come to poland? how much is your bank balance? where you stay tonight?" questions but the Bangladeshi and the Indonesian were still there when I picked up my luggage and exited.

magexpect

During a visit to the UN in Geneva a few days ago, I had lunch with a few "American officials". One of the subject was of course the topic of this thread. A certain arrogance was felt as these gentlemen were not fearing a possible loss for the tourism industry. They called the revenues from foreign visitors as "negligible". The attitude was clearly: we don't need foreign tourists and no foreigners whatsoever would even be better.

I did not want to start an argument but if this really reflects the mood in the US, I am really worried and appehensive of returning to the US. Has Mc Carthy been resurrected? Are we going to become North Corea Number 2?

djjaguar64

I am not surprised at all. First it was the Cold War and the Communists and now it's the Intifada and theTerrorsists. The Iron Curtain is no more but it is being created here in America. It is a shame.

YVR Cockroach

I was under the impression that citizens of some of the 10 new E.U. members (2nd tier) won't have full residency rights in at least some of the "original" (top tier) 15 E.U. countries for some time.

YVR Cockroach

Somehow that doesn't strike me as surprising. At least until recently, Poles seemed to pride themselves as being anti-judiac.

GUWonder

Racism is alive and well in Poland. Ask a certain soccer star there.

magexpect

This is true. The whole logistic behind such a membership requires many legal and practical adjustments and these require time.
The consequences are that the changes are introduced gradually in time and full membership is achieved only after a few years.
Residence and working rights are delayed somewhat in order to avoid a "run" that might otherwise take place.

Globaliser

To return to this topic, I frequently come through the non-EU queue UK immigration together with my partner, who is a non-EU passport holder. I haven't ever seen anything other than civility and respect - and frequently good humour and jokes - when she is being dealt with.

meiji

How are the immigration people with that? My other half carries a non-EU passport (although probably not for long) and I'd like to be able to queue with her as I'm going to have to stand around waiting at the other side anyway. I know in the US, if they're busy they don't like it but have no problems if they're not.

Globaliser

Immigration have absolutely no problems with it.

The only people you're likely to get hassle from are the queue managers who don't seem to understand the concept that a UK/EU passport holder might want to be in the non-EU queue just to keep someone else company.