Why do they ask families questions at passport control when retiring to the uk?

[blackbirdsinginginthenight]

It's usually things like - where have you been? For Xmas? How long were you there for? Where are you going next? Etc- like small talk but today I answered a question for where we had been, and then didn't hear his second question about how long we had been away for and he asked it again very seriously with some more follow up questions.

What sort of things are they looking for or to find out? If you'd smuggled a child back into the country then the questions aren't enough to suss that out, and if you weren't allowed in the country surely that would flag up on your passports?

Always wondered and thought a mumsnetter would know!

DS' first passport photo was taken when he was 9 days old. Within weeks, it didn't look much like him and certainly not as he approached his 5th birthday. Understandably, the passport officers always wanted to speak to him. The fact he had a speech delay then created an extra level of challenge! Fortunately, he is the spitting image of DH.

Worst US immigration we ever encountered was when we were just transiting via Miami. (Unlike in most countries, you have to enter the US to transit, or you certainly used to.).
The immigration bloke evidently took it as a dastardly affront that we weren’t actually going to be staying even one night in the country everyone in the whole world (except us) was dying to come to. So rude and stroppy.

That was years ago now though - the formerly dire reputation of their immigration staff has certainly improved since then.

This has never happened to me and we fly regularly with DS5 to visit my family in the US.

We've had much less friendly reception at security in the US going both ways but I've always found UK security people really friendly. Perhaps it's just in comparison to the US.

At US immigration, early teen DC were asked what job DH does. Followed up by ‘and does your mom do the cooking and cleaning?’.

I caught their eyes, and they managed to turn their looks of horror into polite answers. Though it turned out neither could remember exactly where I work.

Years ago you could have your children added to your passport instead of them having their own. A colleague and his wife went on holiday leaving their son with grandparents. I think they went to Tunisia. Anyway on the way out of Tunisia they were challenged about where their son was, apparently they were worried they'd sold him or something. Took some explaining apparently and they nearly missed their plane.

I feel likei am missing out, reading all these stories! We've travelled a bit as a family but the most we've had to do is make the kids sitting in the back seats of our people carrier look up from their gaming devices so the passport control guys can see their faces. Is it because we are white and all have the same surname that we have been left unquestioned?

I tell a lie. I once annoyed a passport guy for failing to remember which airport I had just flown from.😟

We don't travel much and took the kids abroad for the first time last year. No questions flying out, but immigration coming back did want to quiz us. Dp was still faffing with documents, so I just handed over mine and kids passports. Firstly he asked if the kids were inevitable, but accepted that the names matched enough as the kids are double barrel. Ds2 was totally overwhelmed by that stage, so firstly refused to look at the immigration officer and then stuck his tongue out at him! Luckily we didn't get arrested, but won't be taking up lots more travel just now.

Of course he could answer you

He chose not to.
🤣🤣

I feel likei am missing out, reading all these stories! We've travelled a bit as a family but the most we've had to do is make the kids sitting in the back seats of our people carrier look up from their gaming devices so the passport control guys can see their faces.

Same! My DC are all carbon copies of me though and you can tell at a glance we're all related.

Actually, thinking about it last time we came back from France the UK passport lady did ask us if we had much further to go when we were through, I just said as far as London and assumed she was making polite conversation whilst she was checking our passports. Was this actually some sort of test?

Meanwhile turn up illegally and no papers and the hotel is that way.

I think there is a huge difference to travelling to and from Europe on the ferry and flying in from eg Central Asia.

We have never been stopped and questioned in and out of Europe. But flying in and out from Kazakhstan we were much more closely scrutinised.

I'm white, my younger is white but different surname and we get grilled every time, both ways. That's -with- a letter from the father giving us permission to travel to the UK for a holiday. Without that letter specifying dates and location of travel and reason, I don't think we'd get through. Not by the polite but intense third degree we get.

Not quite the same but when we were traveling years ago, in the US, we were stopped and questioned heavily about the contents of our bags during the baggage scan. My 5 year old DD had taken her favorite stuffed toy (a cat named Marmie) and literally stuffed it (hollow like a puppet) with her metal jewelry box. It showed up like a bomb. After rescanning it and a big discussion with her The agents began teasing each other giddily saying things like “what, you didn’t recognize a cat stuffed with a jewelry box? You see it alllllll the time!”

Last time we flew from Edinburgh to Heathrow my son had a little backpack with his iPad, phone, charger and book in it. We got pulled over for the swab test (normal and happens all the time to us) but something must have been picked up on the bag as they spent ages and ages going over it, looking inside every pocket and then asked us loads of questions about where we had been and what we might have used the bag for. They even asked us what our hobbies were and obviously my mind went blank but my son was like “we play tennis and go to national trust places ALL the TIME” and then my youngest piped up “and castles!”
That seemed to be sufficient but I still have no idea why they were asking about hobbies.

This absolutely annoys me. Well probably not usually but it is does when uv been delayed, u get to passport control at 2am, have 2 young kids with you and have waited ages to get through. I can barely tell u my name never mind where I've come from etc. I was very short in my answers last time, well after I had to think about where we had come from 😂

U always see the police too and they are always looking at everyone like they are looking for someone.

I haven't run into this coming into the UK, but every time we go to Ireland, the guy in the passport box attempts some light-hearted chat with my son (9) to make sure he's there of his own free will. Unfortunately EVERY TIME my son just stares at him like an owl and doesn't say a word. God knows what they think is wrong with him, but they wave us sympathetically through anyway.