Advice Re: UKBA & "deletion" of a warning/UK visa

I  had a refusal for ILR last summer (don't ask, I'm still sore) that was entirely the Home Office's fault. They even wrote me a letter of apology and refunded my application fee. However the first time that I re-entered the country from a short weekend trip abroad after the refusal, I was detained as well.

The IO investigated and my story checked out. But I was still served an IS51 (?) or something while they did so and was held back for about 30 minutes. When he came back, it was all fine, but he told me that I would continue to be detained for the next three times that I re-entered the country UNLESS I could get the Home Office to remove the flag on my record. Apparently any refused in-country application results in a flag, or at least that's what he told me.

Anyway, I immediately sent off a letter to my MP who followed this up with Jacqui Smith. I then got another apology letter in which I was told that the flag had now been removed. And ever since then, I've had no problem on the subsequent five times I've re-entered the UK.

Moral of the story: Write a polite but direct letter to your MP asking the Home Office to remove the flag. Mine was cleared in less than a month. Hopefully that will be the case for most people. But if not, be sure to carry all your relevant docs when you re-enter the country just in case. I did for the next few times, even though it turned out I didn't need them.

Anyway, I immediately sent off a letter to my MP who followed this up with Jacqui Smith.

Stories like this amaze me. Not just in the UK; it amazes me when someone gets a problem sorted directly through a senator or congressman in the US. Happens all the time, apparently.

No slight intended to you, london lad. It just seems a country of sixty million people, Jacqui Smith risks spending her whole career dealing with things that ought to be handled way, way further down the food chain. If small problems make it all the way up to a cabinet minister, the thing to do is not so much fix that problem, but fix the system that makes small problems bubble up to stupidly inappropriate levels.

Heh. My dad once got a passport problem sorted out by a US Senator while he (my dad) was standing at a ticket counter waiting to get on a plane. I guess that has sort of nagged at me ever since. It ain't right.

She didn't take it up with Jacqui Smith.  She took it up with the Ministrial Correspondence Unit, where it was dealt with by one of the many officials who work in the Home Office on Ms Smith's behalf.

Vicky

Well, yes. I didn't really think they got Ms Smith herself on the horn. It just seems like a if a small problem bubbles so high, it's symptomatic of a systemic problem.

My local congressman in the States used to run ads at election time describing all the trivial problems he'd fixed for individual old ladies and adorable children with big eyes. It struck me as exactly what was wrong with his job performance.

I used to work in DC at my Senator's office.  Things slip through the cracks, after all the people running the system are only human as well. 

Meh. If lots of things slip through lots of cracks, there are too many cracks.

What are MPs for if not to stand up for their constituents when they get screwed over by the government? Constituency populations are much smaller in the UK than in the US as well, so it's sort of meant to be more personalised here I think.

Meh. If lots of things slip through lots of cracks, there are too many cracks.

I agree, but mostly people had different problems with different agencies. 

They're for building and maintaining the systems. There's something distressingly feudal about approaching the powerful man to get your little peasant problem sorted.

Welcome to representative democracy, I'm afraid.

I think it is distressing that people end up having to go their MP's because the system is so shockingly bad that no one else can help.  I go to MP's as a last resort, but I am finding myself having to do it more and more.

Vicky

I think it is distressing that people end up having to go their MP's because the system is so shockingly bad that no one else can help.  I go to MP's as a last resort, but I am finding myself having to do it more and more.

Vicky

There. That's what I was getting at.

An update.

My husband's employer has retained a local law firm to have the UKBA/Home Office remove/delete/expunge the warnings/red flags/? so I will no longer get detained at the border.  I just spoke with the attorney (after freaking out when I read london_lad's post since I nearly forgot that I, too, was served with that IS51 Form the last time I was detained) and provided the attorney with my background.  The plan is to have the attorney clear up any and all issues with immigration as quickly as possible.  I hope this gets resolved soon since I have upcoming plans to travel.

I asked about the complaint and the attorney suggested that once I get my deletion request resolved first, then I could file a complaint (through the law firm or myself).  I was told that the complaint letter should be sent to the UKBA/Home Office and a copy to my MP.  I plan on writing this when the time comes.

I know this thread is several months old --- but I'm wondering since my application for a fiancee visa was denied the first time I applied is there a chance that I could possibly be detained due to some sort of 'flag' in their computer system when entering the UK?

[My fiancee visa was approved the second time round]

I know this thread is several months old --- but I'm wondering since my application for a fiancee visa was denied the first time I applied is there a chance that I could possibly be detained due to some sort of 'flag' in their computer system when entering the UK?

[My fiancee visa was approved the second time round]

Each persons experience will be different. Given that you weren't acutally bounced on arrival but just refused a visa and have since cleared up whatever the issues were and received a visa, I would GUESS most likely not.