and so then he's like i'm gonna need you
to sit over here and i was like oh
where you want me to sit oh you want me
to sit over
in like the pen where you detain
everybody
hey guys welcome back to the girl gun
london channel if you're new here my
name is caitlin
and today i am telling you about the
time i got detained at a uk airport
as well as my tips and tricks for what
not to do when entering the uk
and going through customs and
immigration okay so i
am filming this video sitting at home
talking to you guys because i thought
you know what this is a video i want to
do
but i am not about to bring my camera
and microphone
and entire equipment into the uk
customs and immigration hall um that
doesn't sound like a good idea so
i'll talk to you from home about my
experiences and i find it
kind of confusing if you have never
traveled internationally on
what exactly is customs does immigration
come before when do i get my luggage and
all that kind of stuff so
i'm going to go over the differences
between entering
entering the country via the airport in
the uk
compared to what happens in the us and
i'm also going to tell you
my tips for how to get through smoothly
and things
not to do and like i said at the end of
the video i will tell you about the time
that yes i did get detained at a uk
airport
okay so first things first let's talk
about how it works so
if you are coming to the uk from
abroad you are going to have to go
through immigration
and customs if you're coming from
northern ireland
you are still within the uk so you don't
go through this but if you are coming
from
again another country like the us canada
australia you do need to go through
customs and immigration so how it works
for the uk
is you are going to get off the plane
the next thing that you're going to
encounter before you pick up your
luggage
is going to be immigration so you do not
get your luggage before you go through
immigration
so you're going to go into the
immigration hall and there will be
different lines for you to choose from
depending on what type of passport you
have where it's from whether you're a
british citizen
or elsewhere in uk airports they
usually do have what they call e-gates
and so that is going to mean that you
often bypass
an actual immigration officer but if the
e-gate doesn't work
or if you have a child under 12 or if
there is you know if they just decide to
pull you out of line
then you might have to talk to an
immigration officer
and so i'm going to go into tips on this
on how to be prepared
but just have it in your mind the first
thing you're going to do when you get
off that plane
is go through immigration once you have
successfully gone through immigration
at that point you are then going to pick
up your luggage
and so you're going to go to the you
know the luggage belt that your airline
has told you or has come over the
loudspeaker and you know there will also
usually be like signs saying
luggage belt six or do they call them
luggage belts here
luggage pickup it's been so long since
i've been to an airport but you know
the place where you get your luggage
after that point
you are then going to go through
customs now this is where it differs
from the us which we'll talk about in a
second
but in the uk it's basically an honor
system
so people get really confused because
you basically have gone through
immigration
you've collected your luggage you're
ready to exit into the regular airport
and you're going to see different doors
that say different things on them so
it's going to say
like um go through this door if you have
something to declare
go through this door if you're from the
eu and have nothing to declare
go through this door if you are from
coming in from a non-eu country and have
something to declare
again i haven't been to an airport in a
long time but this is
how it was up until at least 2020 and so
you just walk through the door you don't
actually usually speak to a person there
will be customs officers
kind of hanging around looking at you
and they can ask you to
step aside and open your luggage but for
the most part
you're basically mostly just going to
walk through the nothing to declare
customs door and then you exit into the
airport
now this throws a lot of americans off
guard because of the way it is when
entering
the u.s so let's talk about entering the
us
when you enter the us from abroad
whether you're a citizen or not
you are going to get off the plane
and you are going to go through
immigration first a lot of places in the
u.s now have
an electronic system that you would kind
of punch in some information and get
your picture taken
before then moving on to an immigration
officer i haven't been to a u.s airport
that lets you bypass an immigration
officer
people can apply for like the like
global
travel permits and like special fastpass
stuff but for a regular traveler
you usually still need to speak to an
immigration officer
even if they do have an electronic
system often they'll have an electronic
system
you punch in some information it gives
you a printout and you go to the
immigration officer
and they ask you questions just like
they would in the uk
if the e-gate wasn't working or if you
don't qualify for the e-gate
the next step after that is to get your
luggage so that is the same
but the difference that i found is in
the u.s a lot of times when i'm entering
from abroad you actually will go
to a customs officer and they're not
usually going to open your luggage and
search
or anything but often they will you know
double check have you brought in x y and
z that you're not supposed to
and you usually will speak to a person
that kind of then gives you the pass to
go on into the regular airport arrival
section
so that differs from the uk and that the
american system entering internationally
is definitely
usually not an honor system it's kind of
an intimidating experience where you're
like i know i haven't brought anything
that i shouldn't
but like you just get a little bit
worried that
you know you have to go through all
these layers of humans
whereas in the uk at this point because
of the e-gates you could literally
land go through immigration without
speaking to a person
pick up your luggage and go through
customs without speaking to anybody
so that is how the different
international arrival
systems work but i also wanted to talk
about the things that you can do
to get through customs and immigration
without having a problem
okay tip number one come prepared with
things written down
on paper so you're going to want to
write down the address of the place
you're staying
on paper do not put it in your phone
because what if your phone dies
if you need any printouts maybe you're
on a visa and they want your bank
account
it will not like your bank account
details but your bank statements to show
that you have enough money
maybe you have a student letter from
your university have all of that stuff
in paper form written down as well as
emailed to you and as well as on your
phone
don't just rely on one or the other but
often
i really find like maybe the seat back
charger
in your flight didn't work the whole
time and your phone is now dead and the
address you were staying on is there
and you don't remember what it is a
that's going to be a problem
getting an uber or tax you to that place
but also it's going to be a problem if
you need to speak to an immigration
officer and they're wondering where
you're staying
the next tip is don't be on your phone
or giving anybody a reason to question
you or be
angry or tell you stop doing that this
is just like good life advice but also
great advice for when you're trying to
get through customs and immigration
a lot of times you'll see signs that say
do not use your phone like do not call
your mom
from the line of immigration put your
stuff away
get in line like you're almost at the
end of your journey
but you just don't need any extra issues
caused by doing something that the signs
say you shouldn't be doing and it's
better to just focus on getting through
and then
using your phone or technology my next
tip is to head
straight to the immigration line from
the plane
do not pass go do not go to the bathroom
do not wait
for the 18 stragglers behind you like
especially when you're coming in on a
full flight there can be hundreds of
people who also need to go through
immigration with you
if those e-gates are down or if
something happens
you are going to be really backed up
like i've waited in line
immigration for almost two hours before
and the faster you can get there
i'm not saying like you know run through
the airport crazily like you've missed
your flight or something
but you want a pep step you want to walk
with a purpose
do not get off the plane and think you
have all the time in the world and then
like
mosey your way over to immigration just
get there and then
in the line you can you know figure out
your next steps
try and go to the bathroom on the plane
before you land just
get to the line so that you're not
ending up waiting for a long time
my next tip is if you are traveling with
someone who
say you're traveling with someone who is
a uk citizen who enters more easily than
you but you need to go
to the actual immigration officers
because you have a child
under the age of 12 or you're from
somewhere else have that person
go ahead of you to collect your luggage
that's going to make sure your luggage
is safer it's going to save you time and
when the immigration officer
asks are you traveling with anyone you
can simply say
yes i'm traveling with my friend who's
gone ahead they're a uk citizen
blah blah the the the be on end all of
going through
customs immigration is be honest so
whatever your purpose you shouldn't be
coming in if you're not coming in
legally with a valid reason so whatever
the reason is
be up front be honest have the
information ready to show them if they
ask for
and you really shouldn't have too many
problems as long as all those things are
met
again it's not common to you know be
detained at immigration which i'm about
to tell you my story about
i find it more intimidating coming into
the u.s to be honest
coming into the uk is a little bit less
stressful like i said you could go the
entire way without
actually talking to a human but
even when you do they tend to be a
little bit friendlier
not all the time and i'm not saying that
the u.s immigration officers
aren't friendly i'm just saying i have a
u.s passport and i'm a u.s citizen
and sometimes when i come back into the
u.s i still feel like i'm doing
something wrong
and the you know interrogation that you
get
of why are you coming back like why do i
live in england and i'm like having this
crisis of like why do i live in england
um
and it just can get a lot more
intimidating in the u.s
whereas coming into the uk can be a
pretty friendly experience if you're
doing it right
okay so now what you have been waiting
for i promised you i would tell you
about the time
that i was detained at immigration in
the uk
this is a true story so
i had my renewed visa so i'll talk about
visas in another video but basically i
was on
the second of my partner visas and i had
just gotten that
that visa back so it actually looks like
um
it's not just in your passport like on a
page it's an actual
visa that you can hold like a card in
your hands
so i go up to the desk and i was
traveling by myself because i was coming
back from the u.s
and my husband was still in the uk and i
had gone alone or something
and i gave him my visa hadn't used this
particular one before
and he's trying to scan it or like look
at it with this like weird flashlight
and he's not saying anything and usually
it's a faster experience than this and
i'm like
why why is this not working what is
happening
and so then he's like i'm gonna need you
to sit over here and i was like oh
where you want me to sit oh you want me
to sit over
in like the pen where you detain
everybody and he's like yeah
i'm gonna need you to sit over there so
in front of everybody i am that person
that
everybody in the line at the airport is
looking at like what did that person do
they're about to get deported back to
their home country and i'm like
i have no idea what's going on i go over
i sit in this
like glass pen with my luggage and
you're not supposed to use your phone so
i can't tell my husband who's waiting
for me at the airport like what's going
on
and it was like 20 or 30 minutes later
and he finally came back and he was like
okay you're good to go
um but your visa is not attached
electronically
to the information that i needed so
basically they had sent me
my visa but he couldn't read anything on
it electronically
so he had to basically go in these files
or on his computers in the back and like
look me up
in some antiquated system and i never
actually knew if this
was going to be an ongoing problem
because it happened pretty much right
before the pandemic so i never actually
got to travel
and i've since been able to apply for my
indefinite leave so we'll never know if
i would have been detained every single
time i came in the country but he did
seem to think that was an
option but it was definitely a really
strange experience
finally being that person who is sitting
there with your luggage
they have your passport they have your
information everyone is looking at you
and you're just like
am i about to be put back on a plane to
the u.s i mean at the time it was
probably winter and so i was like
honestly if you want to put me on a
plane back to florida i'm not going to
complain
but he ended up letting me in so that is
the time that i got detained at uk
immigration okay so that brings me to
the end of my video on
uk versus us immigration and customs
again this is more of a practical video
for travelers who want to know what the
experience is like
if you have any questions about the
experience if you're an anxious traveler
or you are nervous
comment below and i will be super happy
to explain to you how it works or to
answer your questions
i hope you enjoyed this video and i'll
see you guys next time