I'm an Irish citizen; my girlfriend and I live in London. Last Christmas, we tried to go to Ireland on the boat, but my girlfriend didn't have her passport with her (she is Turkish and has a UK Self-Employed Visa). The immigration team at the port stopped her and sent her back on the boat as she didn't have the right documents.
They gave her a 2-page document:
- The first page was directed to the Ship Company - a Carrier's Removal Direction under section 5(10)(b) of the Immigration Act 2003;
- The second page was addressed to her under the Immigration Act:
(g) that the non-national is not in possession of a valid passport or other equivalent document, issued by or on behalf of an authority recognised by the Government, which establishes his or her identity and nationality.
She has had tourist visas to Ireland twice before and the person at Port immigration told us that this sort of removal was not a big deal.
Now she is again applying for an Irish tourist visa, and one of the questions asks about removal from a port in Ireland. How will last year's removal affect getting a tourist visa?
Also, most importantly, she will be applying for an indefinite visa in the UK in February. How will this situation effects her ILR application?