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So the following conversation took place at Gatwick Airport in April 2015, around 10:30PM, as I was entering the UK on a Swedish ID card. I was dressed in jeans and a plain red t-shirt (it was warm outside), had a laptop bag for hand luggage and was sober.

(I look southern European, perhaps Bulgarian, and speak Estuary English - basically like Gordon Ramsay accent-wise)

IO: Where are you arriving from?

Me: Zurich

IO: Where are you headed to?

Me: London

IO: What will you be doing in London?

Me: Just visiting

IO: For how long?

Me: A week

IO: Where will you be staying?

Me: At a hostel in Dollis Hill

IO then looks at my ID and scans it with a UV lamp. After 30 seconds…

IO: Do you have another document?

Me: Er, such as?

IO: Dunno, bank card, library card, driving licence, anything.

Me: Nothing with a photograph I’m afraid, but here’s my debit card (handing in my Maestro card)

10 seconds later...

IO: How come you’ve got a Swiss bank card!?

Me: Because I live and study in Switzerland, in Zurich

IO: Since when?

Me: Autumn 2014

IO: What do you study there?

Me: Computer science, at the federal institute of Technology

IO: Towards what degree?

Me: Bachelor

IO scans the ID, and 30 seconds later...

IO: Alright, have a good evening.

The question in bold is among the weirdest questions I've received from immigration anywhere, although thinking about it, I suspect the officer had her doubts about me actually being an EEA national.

Is this the likely reason for the unusually long landing interview (for an EEA national)?

On some previous occasions I've cleared immigration at the same airport, under identical circumstances, without a single question.

Crazydre
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  • I think the interview is fine. Can you add how you were dressed and approximate time of day and if you had been drinking or stoned, some general info that goes in to your overall personal impact. There is not enough info to answer why the landing interview was lengthy. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 14:33
  • @GayotFow Added some Details in the first Paragraph. I don't drink or smoke – Crazydre Dec 16 '16 at 14:36
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    You can consider yourself extremely lucky, if the was the weirdest question you ever got at immigration. Immigration officers are supposed to ask some off beat questions to gauge your reaction. See http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/jan/uk-ho-immig-decision-making-study.pdf – Hilmar Dec 16 '16 at 14:42
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    Good, so the combination of hostel and debit card kicked it off. And it's a natural question to ask given your ID was Swedish. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 14:43
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    "the combination of hostel and debit card kicked it off"? Why is that? – Crazydre Dec 16 '16 at 14:45
  • @Hilmar that's a great report! And extremely relevant to this question. I emphatically suggest you wrap your comment into an answer! Indeed they will come out with a zinger on occasion, but I have it in mind this landing interview was plain vanilla. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 14:45
  • @Crazydre wait for Hilmar's answer, he has a controlling reference. The Home Office report. You have a great question by the way. Nobody gets a reliable transcript of their landing interview. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 14:47
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    @GayotFow that report concerns non-EEA nationals. How or why is it relevant here? – phoog Dec 16 '16 at 14:49
  • @phoog the attitudes and insights are overarching and are cross-cutting. Nothing has changed in the 15 years since that report was published, except the IO's did not wear uniforms, just street clothes. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 14:51
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    Obligatory question: are you white/Caucasian looking? – JonathanReez Dec 16 '16 at 14:52
  • @JonathanReez nice one! And his accent when he speaks English. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 14:53
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    @GayotFow You can see my face in this question (on the Russian visa I uploaded) http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/68646/do-russian-border-guards-usually-stamp-on-the-visa-or-on-a-separate-page/69153 – Crazydre Dec 16 '16 at 14:57
  • @Crazydre given what you provided to Jonathan I would suspect your English is comfortably fluent. Can you add that comment to the question please? In theory Hilmar is composing an answer for you. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 14:58
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    No way I can see a face in that image... – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 15:01
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    @GayotFow In fact, I'm having trouble understanding any of the IO's questions in light of the freedom of movement directive. (face/image: scroll down to Crazydre's answer) – phoog Dec 16 '16 at 15:03
  • @phoog AH thanks, he's a box standard European. In that report by the way, the main sponsor went on to set up the 'Life in the UK' test. It's now standard for ILR and naturalisation. I know her from that commission. Trivia tidbit :) – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 15:07
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    Who voted to close such a wonderful question? Please step forward and explain. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 15:10
  • @GayotFow I didn't vote to close, but I did see that the vote is on the ground of "primarily opinion based," which seems a reasonable assessment. – phoog Dec 16 '16 at 15:13
  • @phoog I hope it's not a drive-by. I hope the voter can explain the rationale. Now that you mention it, I think it's mildly opinion-based also. – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 15:18
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    @GayotFow I voted to close the question even after reading your question. The only person able to answer is the immigration officer. Anything else will be pure speculations. – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo Dec 16 '16 at 16:15
  • @Tor-EinarJarnbjo thanks for coming forward and owning it. It turns out you were right because the question is on the verge of being closed. Well done! :) But still interesting :) – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 16:22
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    @GayotFow Interesting, yes, I agree, but still impossible to answer. If I had to guess, I would suppose that the IO assumed the id to be counterfeit or that Crazydre was not the genuine owner. Swedish national id cards are quite rare (most Swedes use their passport, even for intra-EEA travel), within the EU, Swedish travel documents are most commonly counterfeited or misused (source: Dagens Nyheter) and combined with a south European appearance it was perhaps enough to ring the IO's warning bells. – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo Dec 16 '16 at 16:52
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    @Tor-EinarJarnbjo that comment is worth tarting into an answer. It would be a shame to lose that knowledge if the mods cleaned up the comments. Recommend making an answer, then ping me so I can up vote it :) – Gayot Fow Dec 16 '16 at 17:15
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    The first time I had any landing interview, upon my first visit outside Europe and to the USA, the first question I got asked was: Are you an ophthalmologist? Turns out there was a major ophthalmology conference going on and he had been processing dozens of Europeans of my page, with poster tubes like me, who were all ophthalmologists. – gerrit Dec 16 '16 at 17:25
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    You look like you come from the Balkans, sound British, have a Swedish ID card and a Swiss bank account. My money says the immigration officer felt that was an unlikely combination. – David Richerby Dec 16 '16 at 19:45
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    Also, I'm surprised that you remember so much detail about this incident from more than 18 months ago... – David Richerby Dec 16 '16 at 19:46
  • Struggling to see what's abnormal about that. The ID is Swedish but the bank card is Swiss, the question seems unsurprising to me. – A E Dec 17 '16 at 11:24
  • @AE I've entered the UK in identical circumstances, same time of the day, same clothing style and everything, without a single word being exchanged with the IO. Which is not strange considering I have an absolute right to enter the UK (provided my docs are genuine and I don't pose a security threat) – Crazydre Dec 17 '16 at 12:07
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    @Crazydre, yeah, there's definitely a random element - or more charitably, a subjective judgment by the officer - in there. I think some of that unpredictability is intentional, I visit the US frequently and the questions I'm asked at immigration vary (though I always look the same and have the same documents). Remember that although you have a right to enter the UK, what they're checking is that you are who you claim to be - someone else claiming to be you wouldn't have that right. – A E Dec 17 '16 at 12:20

3 Answers3

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The officer might have wondered if your documents are genuine or a (good) forgery. That can sometimes be gauged by asking a couple of rambling questions and see if the answers are coherent. That starts with "what is your birthdate" even if they have the passport directly in front of their eyes and goes from there.

In that sense yes, he questioned your nationality.

o.m.
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    True. I've been asked what's my name while the IO was holding my passport, and whether I lost weight singe the passport was issued. Valid questions, because my passport photo doesn't look much like me anymore :( – George Y. Dec 16 '16 at 21:50
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    @GeorgeY. "I've been asked what's my name while the IO was holding my passport". LOL, I had just that happen to me in July at the ferry port of Alat, Azerbaijan. The guy, who basically looked like a fat Mr. Bean, likely wanted to establish if it was possible to use English with me. – Crazydre Dec 18 '16 at 22:59
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You stated you were arriving from Zurich. The officer asked you a destabilizing question: why do you have a Swiss debit card?

Such questions are meant to gauge your reaction and the consistency of your story. A legitimate holder would react, naturally, just as you did: "uh, because I said I live/study in Zurich, Switzerland." A non-legitimate holder (one who is just repeating a story and not familiar with geography) might stammer, hem-and-haw, or try to talk the question away, like: "oh my brother is Swiss."

This kind of non-sequitur probing is common. Just proceed as normal.

bishop
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Turned comment into answer per @Gayot Fow suggestion

You can consider yourself extremely lucky, if the was the weirdest question you ever got at immigration. Immigration officers are supposed to ask some off beat questions to gauge your reaction. See http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/jan/uk-ho-immig-decision-making-study.pdf

Hilmar
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    The report, however, concerns non-EEA nationals. Crazydre is Swedish, so has a legal right to enter the UK. In fact, he is in the category of people who are legally "not subject to immigration control." His right of entry can be denied only for certain very limited reasons. So the questions can only be understood as proper if there was some suspicion about the authenticity of the ID or of Crazydre's being a threat to public safety, health, etc. – phoog Dec 16 '16 at 15:27
  • Actually, IO are not supposed to do that in this case and this answer entirely fails to address the real question, which why they might do it nonetheless. – Relaxed Dec 16 '16 at 16:04
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    I'm British with matching passport and typical accent and appearance and I've been asked weird questions by UK border force at Gatwick too, about my work, about seemingly random details about how I spend my free time, why I do what what I do... I airways assumed they just automatically suspect people traveling alone of possibly transporting drugs or something and are looking to catch people out – user56reinstatemonica8 Dec 16 '16 at 16:29
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    @Relaxed but surely they can ask questions if they suspect something is amiss, can't they? (US immigration inspectors ask "improper" questions of US citizens seeking entry, but I've always accepted this because they are also evaluating the customs declaration before they notate it and return it to the traveler for presentation to the customs inspector.) – phoog Dec 16 '16 at 16:30
  • @user568458 "I airways assumed they just automatically suspect people traveling alone of possibly transporting drugs" Isn't that the job of customs rather than immigration? I realise that in the US (for example), you do the customs declaration at immigration, but in most places, customs is about whether your stuff gets in, immigration about whether you do – Crazydre Dec 16 '16 at 16:34
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    @Crazydre "customs is about whether your stuff gets in, immigration about whether you do": that's true in the US, too, but the immigration inspector has responsibility for processing the customs declaration, and therefore has multiple functions. IIRC, this was true even when the INS and the customs service were separate departments. – phoog Dec 16 '16 at 17:23
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    @Crazydre Immigration inspectors may learn something during the interview that makes the traveler a more likely target for customs. After returning to the US from Europe after my father had passed away, and the immigration inspector learning of this during the interview, my customs form was marked up such that it prompted customs to do a bag search. My hypothesis is that the immigration officer suspected that I might have inherited a valuable item that I failed to declare. – njuffa Dec 16 '16 at 18:23