Traveling to Dublin?

But the previous posts say that if I went through Dublin, I'd be seen as avoiding UK immigration?

Not necessarily - just that it's a risk that you could potentially be seen as trying to avoid UK immigration.

It depends on your personal circumstances and apparent credibility in the eyes of the immigration officers/consular officers processing a future visa application...

A visitor coming to the UK for a 2-week visit just to see the sights, who has no personal link to the UK (no friends, family or partner here) and has a job and a home in the US to return to probably won't have an issue travelling through Dublin.

However, a visitor who is coming to the UK for an extended period of time, who has a partner or family members in the UK, who has no steady job, home or ties to the UK and who has intentions of moving to the UK in the future may have an issue, because by entering the UK through Dublin, they could be seen as trying to evade UK immigration control and trying to live in the UK illegally.

And my question, "I can't imagine Ireland doesn't have immigration, is this true?" hasn't been answered. Don't they require you to go through some kind? I think that'd be the issue, wouldn't it? All this stuff is very confusing for me.

If you travel through Ireland, you will go through Irish immigration and be stamped into Ireland as a visitor. However, because of the CTA, there are no immigration controls between Ireland and the UK, so if you travel on to the UK from Dublin, there will be no record of you entering the UK (this is mainly a problem for visa holders who later on will need to prove what date they entered the UK - not easy to do if there is no immigration record of it).

I am very confused from all the, "Oh you'll be fine just go" and then "NO, No don't do it!" Sorry, I don't mean to make it seem like no one knows what they're talking about or that I'm down playing anyone's advice. I'm honestly not, it's just hard to know whether or not I should shell out my savings or save some and go through Dublin.

The reason there have been conflicting answers is because there is no definite right or wrong here... you might be fine to travel through Dublin, or it may come back and bite you in the bum later on down the line.

There's no way of knowing for sure, so the safest thing to do would be not to travel through Dublin at all. That way, there's no risk of them thinking you are trying to evade UK immigration.

I guess I'll just have to weigh the pros and cons of going through Dublin VS through Heathrow on my own.

Have you searched for flights to any other UK airports? You may find better prices going into Gatwick instead, or maybe Stansted (Stansted is 50 miles closer to Norwich than Heathrow).

Yes, it's good you left when you said you were going to, but it's not great that you were questioned in the first place.
Asking friends or family isn't really going to help you because your situation is the only one that is relevant here.

Uh, I'm not quite sure since no one can get inflection through the internet, but you seem to be coming off a bit snippy. :/
To have someone close to me that I know and trust, that has traveled across the ocean too would be comforting for me, was all I was saying. No need to cut down close to everything I say. All that matters now is I left the country in the time I was allowed. I'm pretty sure most of the time someone with a significant other tends to be questioned more thoroughly. Anyways, I'm done talking about that.

All I wanted was information about Dublin is all and I got it.

Not necessarily - just that it's a risk that you could potentially be seen as trying to avoid UK immigration.

It depends on your personal circumstances and apparent credibility in the eyes of the immigration officers/consular officers processing a future visa application...

A visitor coming to the UK for a 2-week visit just to see the sights, who has no personal link to the UK (no friends, family or partner here) and has a job and a home in the US to return to probably won't have an issue travelling through Dublin.

However, a visitor who is coming to the UK for an extended period of time, who has a partner or family members in the UK, who has no steady job, home or ties to the UK and who has intentions of moving to the UK in the future may have an issue, because by entering the UK through Dublin, they could be seen as trying to evade UK immigration control and trying to live in the UK illegally.

If you travel through Ireland, you will go through Irish immigration and be stamped into Ireland as a visitor. However, because of the CTA, there are no immigration controls between Ireland and the UK, so if you travel on to the UK from Dublin, there will be no record of you entering the UK (this is mainly a problem for visa holders who later on will need to prove what date they entered the UK - not easy to do if there is no immigration record of it).

The reason there have been conflicting answers is because there is no definite right or wrong here... you might be fine to travel through Dublin, or it may come back and bite you in the bum later on down the line.

There's no way of knowing for sure, so the safest thing to do would be not to travel through Dublin at all. That way, there's no risk of them thinking you are trying to evade UK immigration.

Have you searched for flights to any other UK airports? You may find better prices going into Gatwick instead, or maybe Stansted (Stansted is 50 miles closer to Norwich than Heathrow).

Ok, thanks so much, I appreciate it. I finally think I understand how to go about this now, very informative reply and I will look into Gatwick or Stansted (as well as other suggestions I've received), he did complain about having to drive 2 hours to London to pick me up. Just all this stuff is really hard to keep tabs on. Yikes.

Thank god for this site.