to ask how to get a job as an airport border agent/customs officer?

[honeyblossomtea]

my absolute dream jobs are to work at an airport as a border agent or customs officers, or to work in a visa office where they process people's immigration and visa docs

does anyone work in these fields that can give me some tips, or anyone have any advice on the route to get these jobs, what experience/qualifications i would need etc?

i have googled but i'm still not sure - i work in an office based role in the non profit sector, so very different!

i'm early 30s and worried about starting from the bottom again but these have been my dream jobs for years (i really don't know why!!) and the past year has really made me evaluate what i am doing with my career and how happy i am - so thought i may as well look into it!

Well, I suppose somebody's got to do it and it's good that you feel you have a vocation.

Have you tried the Civil Service jobs site?

What is it about the role that appeals to you, OP?

@Butchyrestingface

Well, I suppose somebody's got to do it and it's good that you feel you have a vocation.

Have you tried the Civil Service jobs site?

honestly can't explain it and i know i would probably hate the shifts

i've been having a look this morning, i can't understand though if i need to have some kind of police experience/training, or are these two completely different things with no relation?

From what I have seen, you just need a strong desire to rummage through Chinese people's suitcases.

Keep an eye on civil service jobs. I worked at a major airport for 12 years, before immigration and customs were merged. When I started it was an interesting and varied job with scope to specialise and move around. Over the years I was there it was dumbed down, lots of the variety got centralised and taken away from airports. Now immigration and customs are merged, maybe it's more interesting again I don't know. It's not a bad job, if you like talking to people, are inquisitive and can take the general public being abusive towards you then go for it.

@Ileflottante

What is it about the role that appeals to you, OP?

i love that it seems like everyday is different - constantly dealing with new people and dealing with different situations. i'm very inquisitive and a really good judge of character and i'd love to be able to use that!

i've also applied for working/residency visas for other countries myself and would love to be on the other side of that. i know how much info you need to provide to them and i imagine on the other end it's like putting together all the puzzle pieces, which really appeals to me

nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/border-force-officer#HowToBecome

Definitely no police experience necessary, though the few ex police we had tended to be very good at the job. Just A-levels or equivalent.

Go for Civil Service jobs website and have a look. They were recruiting shed loads of customs officers last year. Don’t rule out other Civil Service jobs either as you might like those too.

Nothing to do with police, my friend became an immigration officer straight out of uni.

There are lots of different paths. You can be the person stamping passports at the airport, or you can be a caseworker at UKVI processing the applications.

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration/about/recruitment

It'll be on CS jobs, you can set up alerts for specific agencies if they aren't recruiting right at this moment

For Border Force you need to search on Home
Office. There is, for example, a dog handler post at Dover. Salary not massive of course but the allowance (for shift disturbance and keeping the dog) is good. Qualifications for that one maths and English GCSE A to C. Don’t feel you might be overqualified. I know AOs with masters
degrees.

The job title is Border Force Officer.
Various routes in. You can get any Civil Service job and become an internal applicant for individual vacancies. Otherwise frontline immigration take on large batches in big recruitment campaigns. The last big campaign was 2019. We do need staff though so I’d expect another campaign before too long.
Most applicants have degrees. You should have minimum 2 A levels.
You need to be able to work at a major port. If you can work at Heathrow it may be easier as they can struggle to recruit in such an expensive area. Generally London jobs are the easiest way in.
Salary for full shift working frontline is mid - high £30ks. Under £30k if no shifts.
The visa caseworker jobs are in UKVI and a mix of shifts and standard office hours. Main hubs are In Sheffield and Vauxhall and other smaller units. Most of the visa work is paper (computer) based and you rarely meet applicants.
If you want to work on the frontline you need to be able to do ALL the shifts including nights. No fixed rosters but can be pretty flexible. Sounds to me that you want to work with people so should focus on the Immigration side rather than customs.
It’s an interesting job. You do have to put up with a lot of ignorance about the role!