Info to provide to immigration officers/office upon entry

Lovely to find a forum that meets my needs here!  First a short background is in order, I suppose.

My name is Meg and I came into the country on a unmarried partner visa on March 28 of this year (just shy of 2 wk ago).  When I flew in, I didn't take my usual route direct from Chicago, USA to Manchester, UK.  There was a stop in Dublin, and this is where I went through customs.  I didn't know that Ireland --> UK was considered a "domestic" flight (ie, I was not required to go through customs in UK a second time), but I contacted an immigration officer at Manchester just to double check that I didn't need to provide any additional information. 

My question is regarding this:  I DID point out to the officer in Ireland that I had a visa to remain in the UK, and he looked at it but stamped my passport normally.  The officer in Manchester double checked with a senior officer, and told me that they didn't think I needed to contact anyone - but didn't seem too sure of himself. 

Can anyone tell me if I need to contact someone locally and let them know I'm here, or what information to provide? Of course the visa has a start date, and the British consulate who issued it collected all my information regarding my locations on both sides of the ocean.  I'm probably just being paranoid about it but the more I'm sitting here thinking about it the more worried I get that I've forgotten to do something and will be expelled!

Thanks!

Meg & Chris

I am by no means an expert, I'm just relaying my experience travelling via Dublin.

When I entered the UK in August of 2008, as a visitor, I intended to stay for around 6 months, just on my passport.  I also flew through Dublin and my passport was stamped for 60 days in Ireland, and not checked in the UK.  I became concerned and nervous about my status, so I posted a thread and was told I needed to go to either Heatherow or Stansted and have my passport stamped.  When I called both airports and spoke to immigration they both told me I had ninety days in the CTA on my passport, but to be stamped in the UK I would need to leave the country and re-enter.  I did so in November '08 and had no trouble with the IA, and in fact would have had an extra 2.5 months had I decided to stay. 
Again, this was just my experience- I'm no expert on visas.
I hope it works out in an easy way for you. 

As far as I am aware you don't need to contact anyone, but you do need to keep proof, boarding card/ticket any other info, proving you arrived on that day.

If you can a channel hop, as soon as possible, would be best to get your visa stamped. 

And if you can't channel hop, be sure to get as much evidence to show that you are living here as you can get.  Get bills in your name, get a provisional driving license, get a library card, get a bank account.  You need to establish your residency ASAP.

Yes, while there is nothing to freak out about, you have fallen into a Catch-22 that is probablly one of the biggest issue Americans have when immigrating to the UK.

They won't throw you out, but because you visa was not "validated" with a UK Entry Stamp, UKBA will likely argue with you in regards to when you started living in the UK.  You essentially have no fixed date of entry in the UKs eyes.  Yes, you didn't wander around Ireland for 6 months, but I am afraid that doesn't matter.  When you apply for additional leave to remain in the UK when your current visa expires is when you might run into problems.

As other have said.  The "best" way to fix it, is to leave the Common Travel Area (CTA, which includes the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man) and re-enter, passing through the UK Border to get a stamp.  If this is near enough the time you entered, you are golden.

You could also plan now for a fight in the future, by again as others have said, by keeping as much paperwork the proves you entered on a particular day.

This is something Garry is leading on from an Advocacy front.  You may get a message from him asking to share how you tried to get your passport stamped but couldn't.  For some strange reason UKBA thinks we are being "sneaky" by entering the UK this way, when in fact it is simply a pratical situation of cheaper flights via Dublin.

Yikes!  I knew those goofballs probably had no idea what they were talking about   I mean, they left me waiting at the desk to have a powwow for about 20 minutes, only to tell me that nothing needed to be done.  There was noone available to call either, being as it was a Saturday.  You'd think they'd have seen enough visas to know what's going on. 

Well I'll have to talk with my fiance and decide what to do.  We're getting my name added to many things (bills, tenancy, etc), but I don't want a hassle at the next major turn.

Keep posting and I'll keep reading!

If I were you, I'd find the cheapest EasyJet flight there is, hop over to some strange city for a day or two, and have a mini-vacation. Then you can come back and get the stamp But that's just me!

I'd just take a ferry ride--much cheaper often.