or: It’s Always A Good Idea To Check Visa Requirements
I’ve become complacent.
Traveling on the number 6 best passport (for the curious, Germany and Singapore are first) has contributed to this. In most countries, I am able to wander in and stay for quite a chunk of time. This can range up to 6 months in the case of the UK.
That said, sometimes there are additional requirements. I’ve never had any of these before and didn’t consider there may be anything required in this instance.
Silly mistake.
At Border Control into the UK early on Tuesday morning, I handed my passport and immigration card to the Immigration Officer. I had written that I would be in the UK for 4.5 months as my flight out of London is in late November.
My intention was to use London as a base and then to visit other areas of Europe, return to London and fly out to Australia before going back to HK (though who knows, this plan may change too!).
If I had booked some of this online rather than just my final flight out, I may have avoided the conversation I had a stupid o’clock after a 12 hour flight in a time zone that’s three hours behind where I had traveled from.
I was tired, my eyes were sore and I just wanted to lie down and sleep. Or at the least, close my eyes and be away from all the people and the queuing.
I could have avoided the following conversation if I had done some research into any possible visa requirements or restrictions.
After looking at my passport and form, the conversation went something like this:
Border Control (BC): how long are you intending to stay?
Me: about 4.5 months
BC: in the UK the whole time?
Me: No, I’d like to visit friends in the rest of Europe and then return here
BC: What’s the schedule of your visit?
Me: I’m planning it at the moment
BC: Why are you here?
Me: (thinking that’s a very deep question for this hour of the morning and with no red wine in sight) To visit friends and family
BC: So you’re not here to work in the UK?
Me: No
BC: How are you supporting yourself?
Me: Savings
BC: And your employer has just let you leave for over 5 months already?
Me: I’m not working for a corporation at the moment
BC: Show me your three month’s worth of bank statements
Me: I don’t have that on me
BC: Don’t you know you’re meant to travel with those? Show me on your phone.
Me: My bank’s phone system isn’t so great but if you have a laptop with wifi, I’m fine to log in and show you
BC: Just how much do you have?
Me: (gave her a rough idea)
BC: how much is that in pounds?
Me: Just a second and I’ll look that up. (I tell her the GBP equivalent, thank you to free wifi at the airport and the xe.com app)
BC: You should have the bank statements since you’re staying so long. Also a letter of invitation from someone that you’re visiting and that they will vouch for you.
Me: I don’t have either of those so if you would like me to leave the country, that’s fine. I can stay somewhere else in Europe.
BC: (hurriedly and somewhat flustered) No, no, no need. I’m going to write a note on your file so that when you next pass through, you will need to show this documentation. Where are the details of your return flight to Australia?
Me: (showing her the details which also happens to include flying out of Australia again – no surprise!)
BC: Does this mean you don’t live in Australia?
Me: I live in Hong Kong
BC: Show me the documents for that because there’s no visa for HK in your passport
Me: (showed her my HKID card and she took notes from it)
BC: just don’t do this again, you should research all of this before you enter a country and come in prepared. Remember to have all the documents ready next time.
Me: thanks for the reminder. I hope you have a great day (smiling nicely and walking away)
I’ve since gone online to check this all out and it turns out, that while Australians don’t have to apply for a visa for the UK, they do need to bring the same documents with them as those from countries where visas are required irrespective of how long they are staying. There are slight variations depending on the purpose of the visit. Details can be found here.
These documents include, a letter of invitation from someone that lives in the UK, three month’s worth of bank statements (or a proof of earnings document) and clear indication of where I will be staying.
This reminded me of my last trip to Vietnam where I found out at the last minute that applying for a visa on landing is almost impossible. While there were some great unintentional positive consequences, it did also cause a bit of last minute running around.
Perhaps now I have finally learnt my lesson and will check visa requirements in advance…
* Thanks to Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls for the title to this post. If you feel like listening to some old school Australian pub rock (it is from 1988 after all!), and this song in particular, here it is.