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]

I think the issue here is that I presume the OP would come in on a tourist visa, something that effectively says, "This person is here for a holiday and will definitely be going back to the US". If however the immigration office knew they were going to look at universities, they would suspect that they would register on a course and apply to change their status to be a student, in other words not leave the country.

(In practice I see nothing morally wrong even with coming as a tourist then looking at universities, or even looking at the job market. I could certainly go on holiday to a country, look around, then come home and think about going back on a different type of visa.)

To be honest I wasn't going to mention this because the OP has confused me. I gather that originally the advice was not to mention universities, but that the OP has actually got university interviews and is planning to USE that as a reason for entering the country. It confuses me because someone might either enter as a student, OR as a tourist. I don't see how having interviews and the potential to be a student would help the visa process?

To the OP please ignore all of this if its not relevant or if I'm too confused.

[happycycling]

i'd be entering as a visitor, not a student - i'm not currently enrolled in any educational institution, and i would be visiting universities as a prospective student. am i missing something?

and no, if i'm admitted to a postgraduate program i wouldn't just stay in the UK; i'd be returning to the states to get my student visa. that's how it works, right?

[imluxionverdin]

I think so, yes.