Ancestry Visa

[movingtoUK2014]

Hi

We are from Australia and have been in the UK since Feb 15 on an Ancestry Visa. In December my son went to a Christmas market in Lille on a day school excursion. When they returned via Calais in the evening he was detained by immigration and told that I (the main visa applicant -its my grandfather who was born in UK) had to accompany him back into England. Fortunately the immigration officer ended up letting my son back into the country with a warning on his passport.
On the visa it says number of entries - multiple and then it says Type To Acc Parents and my name. We were told when we applied for the visa this meant that my husband and 3 children had to all enter the UK together to initiate the visa. I have been trying to contact immigration about this but i just keep getting advised to contact another department because no-one seems to know the answer. Has anyone else encountered this problem. The school wont let him go on overseas trips now and my daughter has one coming up next year as well. If anyone knows anything regarding this would be so grateful to hear back from you.

Would be fantastic if I could speak to someone who is also on an ancestry visa about things pertaining to ancestry visas as where I live there are no Aussies (hard to believe but true)!!!

No advice I'm afraid, but it's probably worth asking for this thread to be moved to Legal where you may find specialist advice.

Your son has leave to remain in the UK as your dependent. He can make day trips independently (with your permission) but he will need a visa to the country he's travelling to.

My guess would be that he was stopped not because of his visa in the UK but because he did not have a visa to go to France and technically therefore had entered France illegally.

I'd recommend going to an immigration solicitor and asking them to fax the Chief Immigration Officer at port to ask what the issue was and to confirm that with the right French visa, there would be no problem in the future.

Hi thanks so much for taking the time to answer my question for your however we are Australian and Australia passport holders do not require a visa for France. The teacher also told me that it was the English immigration official that flagged this not the French. I have raised this with an immigration solicitor and he quoted the Schengen agreement but we do not participate in that arrangement.
Will keep trying to find the answer......

Ah, I'm a UK immigration specialist not a French one, I didn't realise Australians had visa-free entry to France!

It may well be that the immigration official was simply in error. I've checked the Immigration Rules and I can't see any restriction on a dependent going for a day trip as long as they're resident with the main visa holder.

I'd make a subject access request for your son so they send you the file and you can then find out what they were thinking: www.gov.uk/government/publications/requests-for-personal-data-uk-visas-and-immigration

Dear LauraMipsum
Your professional advice is very much appreciated. Thank you so much. I will check out the link immediately and do as you say. Wow mumsnet really works!!!

Hi Laura Mipsum

I am currently filling out the subject access request form as you very kindly advised and it is asking for both mine and my sons home office reference number. I have entered this in the search engine of the UK.gov website but nothing comes up. Are you able to advise me regarding this as well? I have used our Ancestry Visa numbers.

many thanks in advance if you are able to help with this request.

You won't have a HO reference number unless you've made a previous in-country application and received an acknowledgement. It would be first letter of your surname followed by about seven digits.

Leave it blank if you don't have one: they should be able to find you by name / nationality / date of birth.

I will forgive you because you are Australian OP but I'd like to point out that the officials were British immigration (or U.K.), not English.
A common but very annoying to the non English British amongst us mistake.