Hello,
I recently had to leave the UK to in order to come through a port of entry to activate my student visa after being here for a few weeks on a visitor visa. I was told by the British Consulate in LA and by a international visa advisor at my university that I would be ok going to Ireland and coming back. When I got to City Airport the customs agent said I was free to re-enter on my visitor visa, but since I went to an EEA country instead of a non-EEA country I would have to go to a non-EEA country and then re-enter the UK yet again to have my visa stamped. I contacted my university's international visa advisors who said that I only need to go to a non-common travel country (outside the UK and Ireland), so pretty much any mainland European country will work. I am ready to book a flight that has me pretty much just sitting at the airport in Paris, but before I book it I wanted to see if anyone has gone through a similar situation. I dropped several hundred pounds in order to do the Ireland trip, which while nice, was rather unnecessary. I just don't want to keep spending money to leave the UK and keep getting denied having my visa stamped. As you can imagine I am a bit frustrated, so any insight would be truly appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt
I recently had to leave the UK to in order to come through a port of entry to activate my student visa after being here for a few weeks on a visitor visa. I was told by the British Consulate in LA and by a international visa advisor at my university that I would be ok going to Ireland and coming back. When I got to City Airport the customs agent said I was free to re-enter on my visitor visa, but since I went to an EEA country instead of a non-EEA country I would have to go to a non-EEA country and then re-enter the UK yet again to have my visa stamped. I contacted my university's international visa advisors who said that I only need to go to a non-common travel country (outside the UK and Ireland), so pretty much any mainland European country will work. I am ready to book a flight that has me pretty much just sitting at the airport in Paris, but before I book it I wanted to see if anyone has gone through a similar situation. I dropped several hundred pounds in order to do the Ireland trip, which while nice, was rather unnecessary. I just don't want to keep spending money to leave the UK and keep getting denied having my visa stamped. As you can imagine I am a bit frustrated, so any insight would be truly appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt
