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2 years ago I had a flight from New Delhi > London > Bahamas. The flight from New Delhi to London was delayed, causing me to miss the flight to the Bahamas. The airline very kindly offered me a stay in a hotel and transport for two days as the next direct flight was 2 days later. I only had a DATV visa so I knew that was not possible. The airline official asked me to at least ask the immigration officer if in this special situation, would I be permitted to exit the airport as it was the airline's fault. Obviously, I wasn't permitted.

Does this count as "Refused entry at the border" in a new UK DATV application and should I include this in my application?

Harshil Sharma
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2 Answers2

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Based on our conversation in the comments, you have not been refused entry because that always entails paperwork. Here's what the government has to say on this.

https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/at-border-control

If you’re refused entry

You’ll be told in writing:

  • why you’ve been refused entry to the UK
  • if you can appeal against the decision
  • when you will be removed from the UK

Nonetheless a SAR might be a good idea but this is pretty clear cut.

If I might add a layman explanation probably the officer interpreted the situation as you were asking whether some sort of emergency measure could be found. (S)he was correctly not interpreting it as if you were asking for "leave to enter" without the right visa and because of that, there was no entry to be refused.

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The only definitive answer there would be to do a SAR (Subject Access Request) to have all the data held by UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) given to you where it will show if you were indeed denied entry or not.

The procedure is explained on the link above

Nicolas Formichella
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