<p>My DD is traveling to London for a semester abroad. She and her friend are flying on Aer Lingus through Dublin. Her friend’s mother called me yesterday to discuss a potential snag: because they are entering the UK from Ireland, they will not go through immigration in the UK and this will affect their student visitor visa status (or that’s what I understood her to be saying).<br>
I thought I could get info via the British consulate, but I haven’t had any success with that. My DD is checking with her university’s study abroad advisor and the friend has emailed the university in London, but neither has yet replied.
I’ve learned so much about so many topics from the wise and experienced parents on CC and I thought someone might be able to shed light on this.
Thank you very much!</p>
<p>Does she actually have a visa? or will she be arriving in the UK without one and requesting to stay for up to 6 months?</p>
<p>US citizens don’t require a visa if studying for less than 6 months. If she has an actual visa, she will be fine, as it will serve as her authorization to stay without being stamped in at immigration. If she does not have a visa, and will be staying longer than three month allowed for a tourist, she needs to either apply for a UK visa in the US or leave the UK (and not to Ireland) before her three months are up. At re-entry she can request to be admitted as a student staying for up to six months. </p>
<p><a href=“UKCISA - international student advice and guidance”>UKCISA - international student advice and guidance;
<p>I believe they will still go through UK immigration once they arrive in London. I know that when I flew from Amsterdam to London I still had to go through immigration even though with EU passport I was going from one EU country to another.</p>
<p>Thank you, @meow15 and @justforthis.
She does not have a visa and was using the second option, requesting to stay for up to 6 months. Her actual stay will be just over the three months. Yesterday was the first we heard of the entering-through-Dublin problem. I’ve looked at the website of the university at which she’ll be studying and didn’t see any advice against traveling through Ireland (although I did find the info linked to above).</p>
<p>I’m wondering if it is possible for them to go through immigration at Heathrow, even though it isn’t normally required.</p>
<p>She does have plans to travel outside the UK, so that might be the solution.</p>
<p>I know that my child did summer program in England and they were told specifically not to come in through Ireland by the travel abroad program. Now she spent a week in Dublin afterwards and flew directly home from there and that was fine. It was odd that she went through customs in Ireland before getting to USA. She was not there long enough to need visa but she did have paperwork confirming she was a student and the program she was in that she had to show.</p>
<p>Definitely talk to the travel representative of the the program they are studying through.</p>
<p>I would have your daughter look out for immigration or an immigration officer upon her arrive. But most likely, she will arrive in a domestic terminal and be out of the secured area before even realizing it. </p>
<p>I highly doubt she will encounter problems as her stay is barely over 3 months. When she travels out of the UK, make sure she carries all her documentation for the student visitor permission and then request the 6 month stay when she re-enters. If she is stopped or questioned, be honest with the immigration officer and clearly explains the situation. Not a bad idea to save records of flights and dates of entry in case it is requested. Also have a paper record of the booked return flight handy. Officers are usually on the look out for those who will over stay; no firm plans, no booked plane tickets, and lack of funds are red flags. </p>
<p>I would try and get a response from either the London university or the study abroad adviser and see what they say. </p>
<p>Thank you, again, @meow15. I just spoke with her and shared your suggestions. She has a roundtrip ticket and a letter from the University confirming her enrollment for the semester. She’s still waiting for a reply from the study abroad advisor and while we were talking thought of another resource she will contact.</p>
<p>It never occurred to me that the layover in Dublin would be anything other than an “in-transit” type of situation and that the necessary immigration activity could happen for somewhere other than the final destination.</p>
<p>The UK has much tougher immigration controls than other EU countries. They are not a Schengen member, so all most all international flights most pass through immigration, even those coming from other EU countries. Ireland happens to be a special case. What will likely happen is your daughter will pass though immigration and customs in Dublin and then leave the international area and transfer to the gate for the UK flight. Very similar to the procedure for connecting though another US city on an international flight.</p>
<p>Do you think it would be useful for her to mention to the immigration officer in Dublin that she is going to London to study, or would that just annoy them or cause confusion?</p>
<p>My daughter studied in Scotland (UK) and was advised by her study abroad office not to travel through Ireland. It is complicated. Basically if you do not get a Student Visa ahead of time and travel through Ireland you can only stay in the UK for 3 months with no extension allowed from within the UK. If you travel directly to the UK you can get a student visitor visa upon arrival for 6 months. I am surprised the study abroad office didn’t make this clear to the students. Here is a link explaining better that I can.
<a href=“http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/student-advice-support/AGs/pdfs/Immigrationadvice/Ireland.pdf”>http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/student-advice-support/AGs/pdfs/Immigrationadvice/Ireland.pdf</a></p>
<p>Contact Aer Lingus. They will answer your questions.</p>
<p>Is she just switching planes in Dublin? If she’s not passing through immigration, i.e. “passport control”, when she switches planes in Dublin, then she will not technically enter Ireland. She’ll just be transiting. </p>
<p>I think if a foreign flight arrives in Dublin all the passengers go through customs. Once you are on the “local” flight from Dublin to London you will not pass through customs.</p>
<p>This actually happened to me back in the day as a student. We flew into Shannon to visit the Irish relatives and then went on to London to visit the British relatives before my semester abroad in London. So we/I told the Irish officials that I was only staying for a week or so, and then when we got to London, they confiscated my passport. Fortunately, my British uncle (god rest his soul) made the time to go over to the bureaucrats so I could get my passport back in time to travel for spring break. This is worth being very careful about!</p>
<p>MaOnemom, one of my Ds lives in London and I can confirm what NewEnglandMother has posted here. Schools advise foreign students not to plan to enter through Ireland. I, too, am surprised that whatever school your D is headed to has not advised her of this.</p>
<p>Again, thank you all for sharing your advice and experience. When I was imagining all the things I would worry about during the semester abroad, this was not on my list.
@alwaysamom and @NewEnglandMother - You can probably imagine how surprised I was/am at getting this news yesterday.</p>