Kiaora (hi), need help!
Replies: 28 - Last Post: Jun 24, 2012 9:10 AM Last Post By: cloudberries
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Kiaora (hi), need help!
Hi everyone,My boyfriend and i want to holiday in England and Europe for about five weeks. He has a
British passport from his Dad who was born in England and I have a New Zealand passport. He seems to think that when we walk through customs we can go through the same line as long as we are "together".
I hate going through customs and dont want to rock the boat at all but he is insisting that he is right and that because we are in a relationship I automatically can go through the EU residents line rather than the non EU line. Any one know if this is true? We are not married, just partners.
Thanks!
1
no, he is totally wrong and needs to grow up. Who you have sex with, whether married or not, has no bearing on your nationality - this is what you are asking.He joins the EU line and you join the non-EU line. I'm sure you are a big enough girl to go through customs all on your own.
for a five week trip with tickets out there really shouldn't be any problems with immigration as long as you are not carrying or smelling of something you shouldn't.
2
Apparently your beau hasn't traveled much. He's wrong but will he accept that reality. My concern is that stubbornness and ego will win out and when he gets to Heathrow and reality slaps him in the face he'll get angry. Break it to him easily. He goes into the EU line, you into the non-EU line. Show your independence.3
No, he's not wrong actually. If you are in the same travelling party, border control prefer all of you to go through together regardless of which passport you're using. So you can both go through EU or non EU - choose the shorter.I have dual UK/Australian nationality but my OH and stepson do not. We travel a lot together and they come with me in my queue or vice versa. It is partly designed to watch for shifty characters, border control may stop one member of a party if they are suspicious, but not others if they're not in the same queue. This way the will stop everyone.
5
Ok, but you will also piXX off the EU travellers behind who will wait whilst your credentials are confirmed as you are non-EU. If he wants to make a stand, you may wish to invite him to join you in the non-EU queue which I am confident will take longer than that for the EU lineI'm fairly sure that the EU passengers will not take kindly to an extra wait for you especially after a long flight into the UK, the Border Agency is bad enough as it is,
6
Weird thing is, last time we flew to Perth (WA) from South Africa, my stepson chose to be beligerent and not go with us in the Australian passport control. Too tired to argue, his dad and I let him go off on his own. He was outside before we were! So occasionally the non-EU queue may be shorter if the plane is full of EU passengers.But you're probably right.
7
well I never. I would have thought that people should be in the right queue for their nationality, isn't that what the signs say? It will indeed annoy everyone behind if you are in the wrong queue.back in the day there were UK and EU queues at Heathrow, and the EU queue was always quicker. However the UK now seems to be the only country not to fast-track its own citizens.
9
Thanks for all your advice, I really am torn as to what to do, its causing a huge argument and he is not backing down. Last time I was in the UK I was formally processed as they didnt believe I was just a back packer (honest I was! I was just young and didnt have my proof of return ticket to NZ as I had changed the flights back via internet and was VERY unprepared!) They did let me in but I really dont want to go through anything like that for a short holiday!
