Does China care if you had a valid visa from where you're returning?

[banjo67xxx]

Hi,

My wife hasn't got her old passport to hand which has her UK ILR visa stamp, but she has a current Chinese passport issued by the Chinese consulate in London.

(I've already read that the UKBA has no passport control on leaving the UK, so she wont have any issue getting on the plane at Gatwick.)

As we had to get her a certificate of non-aquisition of British Citizenship to renew her Chinese passport, will they likely detain her at Beijing airport on suspicion of dual-nationality, if she doesn't have her UK visa on her? Do they care about other countries visas?

(I can post her the old passport when I get it, so she'll have no problem coming back to the UK)

Does anyone know how China deals with returning citizens who didn't have visas in the other countries?

Regards,

Banjo.

[fanglu]

will they likely detain her at Beijing airport on suspicion of dual-nationality, if she doesn't have her UK visa on her? Do they care about other countries visas?

I don't know for sure, so happy to be corrected, but I very much doubt there would be a problem. The reason is that some countries (eg Australia) now almost exclusively use electronic visas, meaning no visa is pasted in the passport. So, there is no way for the Chinese government to check whether a Chinese person has a visa. So, I doubt lack of a physical visa would raise any eyebrows.

Having said that, they may check for an exit stamp, to check that you aren't travelling on another passport. But even then, some countries (Australia again, for example) seem to be not too strict on actually stamping passports, so I don't know how much of a basis that would be for suspicion. And, in fact, given you say:

UKBA has no passport control on leaving the UK

no one would ever get an exit stamp. (Are you sure this is right? Seems odd to me - every country I've ever been to has had passport control on both arrival and departure.)

[Silent]

Are you sure this is right? Seems odd to me - every country I've ever been to has had passport control on both arrival and departure.

I guess it depends on your nationality, the country/border and mode of transport. In western Europe, long before it became the EU, border checks were often very lax. Just the sight of a passport was usually enough to get waved through when crossing a landborder. Also in my limited experience of landborders outside of Europe I've experienced some quite lax border controls, though admittedly, they had to see the passport.

When travelling by air checks tend to be much better. They have a real look at the passport when leaving I'm sometimes under the impression that it's more to verify that you have (valid) travel documents then a real check. Border control in general doesn't really care if you leave, if you leave a country you're not their problem any more.

[anonymoose]

Doesn't her new passport say where it was issued? If it says that it was issued in London, then obviously it will not contain the visa stamp. I'm sure the immigration officers in China understand this.

[banjo67xxx]

Are you sure this is right? Seems odd to me - every country I've ever been to has had passport control on both arrival and departure.

I got this from http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k5703435-Heathrow_Airport_Passport_Control-London_England.html

However the airline or security must atleast notify the UKBA of departures even if they dont put any obvious stamps in the passport, otherwise how would the UKBA know about overstayers (I know they do, but that's another story). So the airline might notify the UKBA, and I dont know if they'll want to talk to her before departure (atleast we have a photocopy of the ILR stamp).

[banjo67xxx]

Thanks to everyone who helped.

We spoke to Air China who said that to fly to Beijing you only require a valid Chinese passport, and they dont care if you're an illegal immigrant in the UK.

We spoke to the UKBA who said when you pass through security at Gatwick airport, they dont care if you were an illegal immigrant because you're leaving.

We spoke to Beijing airport passport control who said they dont care about your immiration status in other countries, so long as you have a valid Chinese passport.

[roddy]

Banjo, was your wife allowed in / out?