ajax

Actually the OP doesn't make it clear where he/she was connecting to.

If the ultimate destination is in the UK (or Eire, I think), then of course immigration would clear UK immigration.

The W is weird, I do admit.

ajax

I'm confused, too.

I have a US and a UK passport. Once upon clearing immigration in a very long EU queue (next to a very short non-EU queue) I asked the immigration officer if I could go through on my US passport instead. She said that unles I had right of abode in my US passport (which I don't) then I would not be allowed.

Please, do tell us how you got this to work. I'd love to try it next time if the queue for EU citizens is longer than non-EU citizens.

bensyd

If the OP had right of abode in their passport then there would have been no entry made in the passport anyway.....I'd like to know how they got what they did too

Christopher

Many countries (e.g. the USA, Australia, South Africa) require that their citizens use that country's passport to enter and leave the country. However, there is no such requirement for British citizens to enter the UK using a British passport if they are also citizens of another country. They merely have to present documentation that is adequate for the purpose of their stay. Therefore, if you are entering the UK as a short-term visitor, not intending to work, etc, there is nothing to stop you using your US passport to do so — you would, of course, be treated as a US citizen, not a British citizen, and so would have to fill in a landing card, pass through the non-EU queue, and satisfy the immigration officer that you were admissible as a visitor.

I wonder if the person to whom you spoke misunderstood your question (hearing what she expected to hear rather than what you said)? The point is that it would be possible, if you are both a British citizen and a US citizen, to have a "Certificate of Entitlement of the Right of Abode in the UK" placed in your US passport — though now only if you don't also actually hold a British passport — which would confirm your right of abode and enable you to pass through the EU channel.

But there is no reason at all, in the circumstances you describe, that you couldn't have used your unendorsed US passport to enter the UK through the non-EU channel if you wanted to.

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In answer to the original post, I have no idea what "W" means!

Captain Schmidt

I still don't understand why you would do this though. As an American citizen they have to use the US passport to enter/exit the US but that's it. Why would they not enter the UK as a British citizen. Something to hide perhaps?