Used OnLineGAR to submit a GAR return to the U.K. this Sunday.
Every thing seems perfect, but I didn’t seem to get an ‘approval’ for my POB as specified in sGAR.
It seems that under OnLineGAR, the reception of an ‘Inbound Manifest Number’ is sufficient.
For clarification, I tried to contact sGAR on two separate specified emails. One responded: “Closed till Monday”; the other: “We will respond in 5 days”!
I have noticed that the UK online GAR can be done either with the online form or by uploading a file.
So I tried uploading the file!
It turns out that, basically, the old “email a .xlsx file” facility has been retained. You just upload the file, instead of emailing it. You need to use the latest file though, which was updated in 2024. Older files do not upload. The muppets have obviously hard-coded the whole thing…
But as usual with Govt IT, they made it brainless by not apparently providing two fields in the .xlsx file, so when you upload it you get warnings and you click on the warnings and enter them manually. One is (IIRC) the responsible person name and address, and the other is a Customs declaration (specify “nothing to declare”).
Oh well, so close and they still managed to f**k it up!
Not sure. Clearly it is not hard to create one without submitting it. I did it on a phone, not because a phone is easy (for most things it bloody well is not) but to test it can be done, because on short trips I don’t carry a laptop.
Peter wrote:
You can apparently submit one without actually submitting it. It will be listed in your list of GAR forms without any indication.
Interesting – what exactly happened? Drafts of unsubmitted forms can be saved, but submitted ones have a unique reference and email.
Be very careful with the government GAR form website.
You can apparently submit one without actually submitting it. It will be listed in your list of GAR forms without any indication.
It is a shit website, very confusing in the way you have to proceed to the next step without obvious new data. I am sure it complies with the guidelines for gender and race inclusivity and for blind people. And meets the requirements for max 2 braincells needed, by splitting up the filing process.
Had a long phone call from Biggin Hill police. Maximum fine is GBP 10000. They check every FP for a corresponding GAR form.
You should get a separate email for each form filed.
Also print them out.
This is all a grand shame. Yet the southern coast is a leaky sieve for any criminal, and they get the preferential treatment on arrival to the UK.
I have diverted a few times and you just phone them up.
Sure, but that was before the guidance changed. We will have to see if doing so in the future causes any issues. I can‘t really believe so, also because of that last paragraph. Anyway, I guess nobody will submit a new GAR at that point. And, playing devil‘s advocate here, if going to some non-designated airport, one might have to justify why one hasn‘t been able at all to divert to any properly designated airport.
Yes it is BS in reality. I have diverted a few times and you just phone them up. In fact last time they phoned the place I landed about 15 mins after I got out of the plane, and asked to speak to me on the phone, and all was fine.
But you will see BS printed, and this is normal because jobs self-select on personality, hence certain types of people end up writing this stuff.
