The writing style is truly terrible - I'm not sure the author understands full-stops (/periods).
However, I read enough to discover how the deportation started, and I can understand why an official would have difficulty believing that a professional singer would be performing publicly for no comercial gain, if not for a charity gig.
Yeah, I think she probably tripped over the no-work stuff. So you're a professional singer? Going to be doing any singing? You are, but you just said you're not going to be working over here...
There's really no need for the whole thing to be so damn Kafkaesque (shut in empty rooms, not told what's going on for hours), but in all likelihood that's more to do with the sheer incompetence of UK airport staff than any actual malice. And they really are incompetent.
I saw a fight break out in the passport line at heathrow airport one day, over a racist slur. I was amazed how far the staff let it go, they seemed compltely disinterested. In fact other civilians had to restrain the two fighters and the staff still did nothing until some of us started shouting "Aren't you going to get off your arses and bloody do anything?"
I've realised a good analogy would be if a golfer was going somewhere on holidays and was going to play a few rounds of leisurely golf with friends while he was there.
The thing with the woman officer who stopped my friend and then interviewed her was that woman lied saying that she phoned music venues and they told her how many thousands of pounds my friend was going to be making. Completely. Ridiculously. Fabricated. Just started making stuff up to back up her case.
I think the style is appealing: conversational, casual, stream-of-consciousness. He's using full stops to indicate longer pauses, not normal sentence structure. I'm sure it's a choice; the guy's first book has 100 Amazon reviews, most very positive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1905483902
That said, it's terrible for the typical HN purpose, which is to extract maximum information in minimum time. I skimmed a bit, said, "Wha?" and moved on.
I have more than a folder full of paper work for visa applications that I have done over the years, mostly just to let me into countries for a visit, let alone work. Apart from that the paperwork I had to do to actually allow me to work in various countries. I am extremely careful about not breaking any immigration laws in any of the countries, e.g. not do anything that resembles paid or unpaid work except what's explicitly allowed in my visa. Once you get caught breaking immigration rules in one country, it becomes really hard to travel to other countries with strict immigration controls.
I tend to read about people who travel and casually break immigration rules with a certain level of schadenfreude, whether it's singers just casually lining up some gigs or people who overstay their 3 month visa waiver to the USA.
Some people think filling in an ESTA is effort (man I have to spend weeks preparing paperwork to be able to be granted a visa that allows me to fill in an ESTA in the first place), but events like these make me realise that at least some people get a small taste of what it's like for the rest of us who spend part of our lives having to deal with ever changing rules and paperwork and being at the mercy of the mood of an immigration official.
There is no ESTA to fill in going to the UK from the US (that I'm aware of anyway). No rules were being broken either. Just being too honest and excited coupled with not fully realising she should've just said on holiday and nothing else. I get to deal with changing rules and paperwork and being at the mercy of the mood of an immigration official all the time too, so I don't think it's just you or a certain kind of person.
Not to take away from the subject, but these EU-mandated cookie notices are really starting to get annoying. How long until you have to consent to the entire T&C of a site and verify your age to get in? </rant>
My dealings with government officials is never give them more information than they ask and always tell the truth. If you need to lie believe the lie until it is the truth ;).
If you are in transit, quite common for Heathrow, don't mention you have family in the UK unless they ask for family in the UK. If they do ask know where they live. If you have a tourist visa don't mention work you plan to or might be doing in the near future in the UK.
They are there to try and trip you up in a lie so they can question you further. You know how you can tell someone is lying by the way they go into too much detail on some aspects of their story but not others, don't be that person.
They showed that Britain had experienced such massive immigration in the past ten years that native Britons are now a minority in their own capital city. Given that, it's not surprising if immigration officials are becoming a little over zealous.
The take away here, and this is really true of any country, not just the UK, is that it's a bad idea to suggest you're doing anything that could be construed to be paid work. I can virtually guarantee that if I turned up at the US border on a visa waiver and said I was a musician playing a few gigs they'd send me off for a secondary questioning at the very least. I wouldn't be surprised if I was refused entry.
The return ticket doesn't really factor into it: whether you're entering the UK, US, wherever - generally if you're going in on a tourist visa / waiver you can't work. And unless you have some documentation indicating your gigs are unpaid, you've only got your word...which isn't worth much.
NLips|13 years ago
However, I read enough to discover how the deportation started, and I can understand why an official would have difficulty believing that a professional singer would be performing publicly for no comercial gain, if not for a charity gig.
Nursie|13 years ago
There's really no need for the whole thing to be so damn Kafkaesque (shut in empty rooms, not told what's going on for hours), but in all likelihood that's more to do with the sheer incompetence of UK airport staff than any actual malice. And they really are incompetent.
I saw a fight break out in the passport line at heathrow airport one day, over a racist slur. I was amazed how far the staff let it go, they seemed compltely disinterested. In fact other civilians had to restrain the two fighters and the staff still did nothing until some of us started shouting "Aren't you going to get off your arses and bloody do anything?"
Useless bastards...
objclxt|13 years ago
eloisant|13 years ago
trickaduu|13 years ago
I've realised a good analogy would be if a golfer was going somewhere on holidays and was going to play a few rounds of leisurely golf with friends while he was there.
The thing with the woman officer who stopped my friend and then interviewed her was that woman lied saying that she phoned music venues and they told her how many thousands of pounds my friend was going to be making. Completely. Ridiculously. Fabricated. Just started making stuff up to back up her case.
teffen|13 years ago
[deleted]
wpietri|13 years ago
That said, it's terrible for the typical HN purpose, which is to extract maximum information in minimum time. I skimmed a bit, said, "Wha?" and moved on.
kokey|13 years ago
I tend to read about people who travel and casually break immigration rules with a certain level of schadenfreude, whether it's singers just casually lining up some gigs or people who overstay their 3 month visa waiver to the USA.
Some people think filling in an ESTA is effort (man I have to spend weeks preparing paperwork to be able to be granted a visa that allows me to fill in an ESTA in the first place), but events like these make me realise that at least some people get a small taste of what it's like for the rest of us who spend part of our lives having to deal with ever changing rules and paperwork and being at the mercy of the mood of an immigration official.
trickaduu|13 years ago
theorique|13 years ago
redact207|13 years ago
1337biz|13 years ago
yardie|13 years ago
If you are in transit, quite common for Heathrow, don't mention you have family in the UK unless they ask for family in the UK. If they do ask know where they live. If you have a tourist visa don't mention work you plan to or might be doing in the near future in the UK.
They are there to try and trip you up in a lie so they can question you further. You know how you can tell someone is lying by the way they go into too much detail on some aspects of their story but not others, don't be that person.
billyjobob|13 years ago
They showed that Britain had experienced such massive immigration in the past ten years that native Britons are now a minority in their own capital city. Given that, it's not surprising if immigration officials are becoming a little over zealous.
kevbam|13 years ago
objclxt|13 years ago
The return ticket doesn't really factor into it: whether you're entering the UK, US, wherever - generally if you're going in on a tourist visa / waiver you can't work. And unless you have some documentation indicating your gigs are unpaid, you've only got your word...which isn't worth much.
unfed|13 years ago
trickaduu|13 years ago
Alaskan005|13 years ago
sorry for being off topic but it annoyed the hell out of me.