what i am curious of is this.....when you go through customs with all these extra bags, do they check to see if you have a visa yet? My biggest fear from a prior experience is that they will accuse me of trying to live there illegally even though im engaged etc. Any input on this would be greatly appreciated!
Both of my trips were made after I had the visa in my passport, so I can't say for sure that you won't have any problems...but for what it's worth, baggage claim is located after passport control, so you won't have all those checked bags with you when you're actually speaking with the immigration officer. Unless you explicitly show them all your baggage claim tickets, there's no way that they'll know how many bags you've checked. As far as customs officials go, nobody gave me a second look when I came through with four suitcases and a carry-on, either in Manchester or at Gatwick.
It all really depends on whether or not you *are* actually trying to live there without a visa.
I was originally planning to apply for my fiancee visa to start as of October 1st, as I was planning to leave the US for good on October 3rd, but when I decided to make the additional trip in September to move things over and knew I'd be travelling with all those bags, I decided to ask for the visa to start on September 17th, just to make sure everything was legit. The number of bags is a moot point when it comes to passport control. You could be travelling with one bag or ten, and it wouldn't really matter - the IO could still refuse you entry if you don't have a proper visa or entry clearance.
