> I enjoyed staying in the UK and travelling through it. But ever so > often crossing the UK border was..eh ... adventurous.. I can confirm > that the border guards never made me feel welcome and sometimes they > were just rude and arrogant. In the early days they gave you an "in" > and and "out" stamp. My father once travelled to Ireland through the > UK and then from Ireland to the US and from there back to The > Netherlands. He ran onto problems next time he went to the UK. The > problem was he had an "in" stamp without a matching "out" stamp. The > UK border guard had given him an "in" stamp when entering the UK from > The Netherlands but they gave no "out" stamp when traveling from the > UK to the Republic of Ireland. No problem when you retun from the same > route, they don't give an "in" stamp when enterung the UK from the > Republic of Ireland. But don't come back via the US. Next time you > will be accused of leaving the UK in an Illegal way because the "in" > and "out" stamps don't match.
Once I stopped flying (as a pilot) I noticed that I also had various passport stamps that did not have matching in & out labels etc.
I cannot say I ever had an issue with border personel regarding this but I have to point out it was and still is very rare for me to have any stamp in a passport and my current one dated 2019 covers at least 2 trips one to Canada and Israel as well as may be the USA with no stamps what so ever but it is possible there was a loose page given to me that did have such stanps.
As a pilot getting a stamp was very rare any where including most of Europe (inc. EU) and other countries so I stopped buying the large 64 page passports as it is a lot more expensive but I did get fast new passport service, i.e., same day and usually within 2 hours as a pilot could be asked to see the thing and you can be asked to work with less than 24 hours notice so could not send the expiring one in via the post.
Some of the UK (and other country) airlines have a special service for geting these renewed same day for no cost.
I expect my current one to possibly be my last unless there is a UK gov. requirement to change them to the Blue style and while may be nice is hardly important. Why last ?, as I age the cost of getting travel and health insurance may well get silly if obtainable as many insurers do not like people travelling in their 80's so my have to consider keeping at least one license (pilot) running. - I have 5 or 6 commercial (incl Mil) and 2 PPL one's although getting a medical might start to get tricky at some point for some of the countries that issued them.
Vincent
--- Mageia Linux v7.1 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.17/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707 * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)
