airport immigration, continued

[happycycling]

I posted an earlier entry asking about how to increase my chances of being let into the UK for several months, and several people in the comments told me not to mention that I planned to look at universities while there. (I'm pretty sure that I can do this on my passport, so I'm not concerned about acquiring any special visas anymore

Comments

[imluxionverdin]

My personal opinion about going to the ROI is that you are thinking about it the wrong way. Think of it this way. You are an American Citizen with a US passport, and you wish to visit the ROI for a short stay. What are the rules.

There's been a special relationship between the ROI and the UK for a long time and citizens of both can effectively travel back and forth as they wish. Even if they couldn't there are rules about citizens of countries in the EU being allowed to travel across EU internal borders. Everyone needs some sort of ID, most use passports but some EU citizens use ID cards. (In theory a passport is not required for travel between the UK and ROI for citizens of either ... I know people who've made a point of travelling with just some ID but 99% use a passport.)

So I'm saying you'll need to present your passport to the Irish immigration authorities and get a visa stamp when you enter the ROI. If you fly they'll routinely ask you for ID or a passport anyway, and if you travel via ferry or something and you find they are letting you in without asking to check your possport, then you should seek out the authorities and explain the situation. Otherwise without the stamp you could be in trouble later.

I'm labouring the point, sorry. I've been through this, my wife was staying with me in the UK and she had a stamp in her passport (she did not have permament residence, or ILR), and we needed to go to the ROI. She didn't fill out any visa waiver forms if I remember, but she did show her passport to the immigration officer and he had to stamp her passport to say how long she was allowed stay. (He was very friendly, he said, how long do you need, 1 month, 3 months?)

I don't know if that helps. There probably won't be a problem visiting Ireland, just get your passport stamped on entry. (But check up on the rules yourself, don't rely on my posting in case I'm wrong.)