I think so... I've been with foreigners entering through T3. Frankly once you're at the airport its a bit of a fait-a-complis. If you have an onward ticket within the next few hours its unlikely they would put you on the next flight back - even if you didn't have a transit visa when you should have had one. One of the reasons for the transit visa requirement was because people were turning up in London and claiming asylum rather than taking an onward flight. So this precaution has been defeated once you've arrived at the airport. If your intention was to stay and claim asylum then they can't put you back on the plane anyway. So not much to lose by letting you continue.

In the UK I'm based in Croydon - and work about 100 yards from the Immigration office. Quite often people are let in with all kinds of paperwork deficiencies. Sometimes they are given train tickets to Croydon for further "processing" and just "disappear". (I've met them on trains down from Victoria to East Croydon. Some are quite open about their intentions.)

A Japanese I know was refused a normal visa at immigration. She had come to the UK to look for a job. Immigration realised this and permitted her entry for only 5 days. Basically enough time to recover, meet a friend and then return to Japan. To seek work was not a valid reason for entry, but still they showed some flexibility rather than put her on the next flight back.

As B747 says, a real issue is whether you can board the flight in the first place. He seems to be the oracle on this. I myself have occasionally had to fight it out at check-in when I've been within entry requirements, but check-in staff had an "overly cautious" simplified version of the rules and initially wanted to deny boarding.

One tip on the check-in problem is to phone ahead (the check-in rather than the airline office). Call them around the time check-in opens for your flight but on an earlier day and run your scenario past them. Check how they interpret the rules so you can preempt any argument.

I agree this is probably the bigger concern. Check with the airline and check twice! And bring all the tickets or paper itins for e-tickets with you.

It is the airline that is obliged to bring you back if the country refuses entry so they can sometimes be super strict about visas. I've had some issues with CX and SQ on this and I've had AF refuse to board and refuse to refund the ticket.

****.... look up the information..if it's that important to you, don't rely on other people to do the leg work for you. Plus, you should of checked this information out BEFORE you purchased your ticket.

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Ofcourse i did my research before i came on here. I was just hoping i would get PERSONAL experiences from people who have encountered situations just like mine.

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