Taking Argentine Wife For Uk Visit

[gpop]

To me it seems that no matter how "by the book" you are: follow a legal process as required by immigration/consulate, provide any and all the documentation and proof, answer all the right questions; ultimately the final say is up to the border officer and what his/her mood is on any given day. Those on-the-spot, human judgements are much too damning and follow you around for far too long. While I can understand the burden of these officers and immigration, the paperwork and actual entry are not congruent. Why provide so much documentation if the end result is really up to one person with a questionable mandate. I say questionable because despite the checks and balances, it's his/her mood that will decide.

I get the impression that there is too much secrecy, too much undisclosed 'requirements' and worse yet, little to no recourse in understanding what (if anything) a person has to do to get through a border without feeling like thy just got a degrading public colonoscopy. Why is it that the result of entering or being denied entry is so wildly fickle.

The last time I went to Canada to stay with my family for Christmas (with my Canadian passport) with my Argie wife (a resident with travel-document, Argie passport. That is: permanent resident abroad) and Argie born daughter (birthright to Canadian citizenship, but with Argie passport); I had the distinct impression that the stone-faced Xena-esque officer could have gone either way despite the loads of documentation, invitation letter from my family, having followed all due process. At some point, I felt that even I would not be let back into my own country. As happy as I was to return home; I entered feeling ashamed of the same people I promote as friendly Canadians.

Entering other countries has been somewhat challenging as well due to the 2 Argentine passports. It's not just those passports though; something odd seems to happen whenever I cross a border that leaves me thinking that the outcome might have been different. The constant seems to be the mood of the border officer. I'm sure they know all the tricks and they may do or say things to try to trip a person up; but what/who decides the officers demeanor is correct or abusive?

 

[Sockhopper]

gpop,
My perception as a Canadian is like yours. The arbitrary nature you sense might flow from Immigration officers' own socio-economic demographic's beliefs and the culture they work in. Bosses have to keep them feeling powerful or they'll go on strike to regain 'respect'. They're not high in the pecking order and they're touchy about that.

Heres my story. In 1976 long before I'd obtained British nationality as well, I'd been travelling on the road for 12 months straight. I'd dealt with about 8 countries' Immigration. They all welcomed me. I didn't have a Canadian flag on my backpack. One officer at a border brought me a Coke and sat with me on a bench outside in the sun. Another in Hungary during Communist times had brought to my train seat a paper doily on a silver tray with a beautiful porcelain cup of coffee on its saucer and a delicious piece of homemade iced cake with silver cutlery and a starched white napkin. They wanted to surprise me. I certainly was. Moments of elegance and grace (captured in a photo I still have) even for somebody like me who had little money. The service was as great and memorable as service is at Palacio Duhau on my birthday when its staff sang 'Happy Birthday' to me and brought me a dessert with a lit candle (because I was dining there alone. It would be another week before my husband arrived).

After a year on the road in 1976, I was excited to be returning to my country, Canada! The Immigration officer flipped my passport over a few times and said something is wrong because my only Canadian stamp in it is a year old. I listened giving him all my attention and respect. He presumed I snuck out of Canada without my several departures being recorded! I explained with a modest hint of joy that I'd been away for a year to see what other parts of the world were like.

(My teachers in Canadian high schools, the UNICEF cards I'd sold at age 9 with their depictions of unusual foreign faces on kids my age all holding hands, my Latin teacher assuring me that one day I'd too get the chance to see Rome, our Greek, Czech, Italian and Russian neighbours, and my grown-up friends' travel stories of countries I couldn't position on a world map had all told me that a sense of internationalism formed our future. So off I went long before the Internet and the Canadian version of multiculturalism existed and at a time when travel itself WAS the research, of course.)


To my response, that officer in 1976 asked me, "Why are you back here? What did you come back for?" He wanted a reason from a Canadian citizen! Flummoxed, I went weak at the knees and slid vertically straight down onto my haunches disappearing from his view entirely! What did the guy think, that we were in Switzerland or at some desert outpost in Mauritania? I thought, "What would my ancestors say?" Then I popped up in front of him again, pouted but then frowned into his eyes as I told him, "Don't ask me that. You can't ask me THAT! This- is- my HOME!" He stamped me in. No little smile. Not even a nod. I'm ninth generation Canadian. That was the only negativity at any border I encountered in a year.

Nowadays, going by rabid and uneducated comments in Canadian newspapers about citizenship, dual nationality and residency among whoever writes them, there is more cause for concern imo. The same thing is happening in the British press. There, foreigners are blamed for the economy, unemployment and strains on social and public health budgets' deficits.

In Canada, it's always assumed by ignorant xenophobic commentators that dual national Canadians must have had some other nationality first! Thus there, dual nationality is more readily associated with terrorism and seen as a sneaky device to infiltrate and ruin us. Other idiots argue for canceling Canadian citizenship of any Canadian who stays outside Canada for longer than 6 months because we must be traitors. Already, we Canadians lose our vote after 5 years away. In the UK, expiry occurs after 15 years.

We all just have to deal with the suspicion. I despise being treated that way. I felt great when UK officers said, Welcome home Mrs 'X' as they finish reading my passport. Argentine officers are really great too.