You might recall that when we arrived on Aug 1, we flew into Dublin, Ireland and took a bus to Belfast, N. Ireland (UK). Well...we assumed that once in Belfast, we'd we able to go to some immigration office in Belfast and get our Visas activated so that we'd be legally in the UK. Wrong. It turns out that the only way to get your Visa activated in Belfast is by arriving by air from outside the UK to the Belfast International Airport (note that there are 2 Belfast airports). Duh. We were now in the country technically illegally. Great...
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Funny how with Watson he didn't look like this until his 1st bday...
With Jamie it is a pretty regular occurrence! |
We asked for help at the QUB human resources office and were told that our best bet was to fly somewhere in Europe for a weekend, that we should do so soon, and were given a letter to show that we were, indeed, at QUB and had arrived early in Aug - sort of a letter of support. I spent hours in queue on the phone before I got through to the US Embassy and they agreed that this was our best course of action (alternatively we could mail our passports to London, but then we'd be without passports). I also called and emailed with the UK immigration office in Belfast trying to find out how soon we needed to do this, what the repercussions might be, etc... They basically said that we couldn't get paid for working in the UK without the Visas being activated (not actually a problem since we aren't getting paid here), and that we should bring our Dublin to Belfast bus tickets with us when we travel as proof that we came in Aug. Oh, and they said that this was our only option, that we couldn't mail passports to London. Scary! Seriously, hours of worry and time spent trying to figure it all out. It isn't like it is easy or cheap for a family of 4 to 'just pop over to Europe for a holiday'!
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| Cooking together in the kitchen... |
During September, I was on an NSF panel in DC, so we decided that I would be the test case. I flew in and out of Belfast and thru London Heathrow. My Visa was stamped without even a blink or query in London. Phew. One down, 3 to go.
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| Yep, I really was in DC in Sept! |
Next, all of us went to England to see Emilia and her family. We flew from Dublin Airport to Birmingham, England and back - 1 non-UK to a small, regional, UK airport. So, there should have been immigration in England, and in fact the stewards handed out landing cards for us to fill out (yippee!), but upon landing, we strolled right past a closed, unmanned UK immigration booth....no stamps.
Finally, we decided that we had to deal with this issue once and for all. So, even though it was more expensive to fly out of Belfast International to go to Malaga, Spain for mid-term break, we booked our tix for that airport rather than Belfast City or Dublin. Upon our re-entry to the UK in Belfast, we filled out landing cards, and Jubin and the boys were registered and stamped. They didn't ask us why we hadn't been stamped earlier, didn't ask to see a letter from QUB or the bus tickets, nothing. Just read the guys fingerprints, filled out the p'work, and wished us good day!
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| Jamie LOVES this little kitchen set that was given to us by Bob's family. |
Phew! But, what an anti-climax really! I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but what was all the hullabaloo about? I suppose if we were supposed to be working for pay here, we would have had more of an issue. Or, maybe if there had been a 6 month lag between when the Visas started and when we entered legally? Biggest lessons learned? 1) If immigrating to N Ireland, fly into Belfast Int, regardless of cost. 2) Don't fret. Relax. Worry doesn't get you anything or anywhere! End result? We are LEGAL! :)
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