In Harry Potter, are immigration laws taken into account?

[Aurora Merrythought]

When a student transfer's over to another country to go to a different school, are there not any immigration laws that the country they are wanting to move to, been implemented? Or do they automatically get into the country because of 'educational' reasons?

 

[Ciaphas Larraman]

It's never really covered in the books, is it?

I presume, that since a person living in another country would also be a citizen on the Muggle side of things, the wizards simply check if the person in question has been approved by the Muggles to migrate to their country.

 

[Nicolas King]

Honestly I disagree with you there, Ciaphas.
I don't think Wizard society hinges on Muggle society in any sense. Of course, there are very few solely wizarding communities left in the world but that doesn't mean that all Wizards/Witches have to report to Muggle Authorities. It doesn't make much sense at all, really. Because then the Weasleys should have known more about Muggles because they would have had to acquired some sort of paper trial with the muggles (and according to your theory likely even passports to go to Egypt ).
I think that the universe of Harry Potter was never fully developed and to apply a concept like immigration laws to it would be overly difficult. I'm sure there is some process by which Ministries of Magic exchange information regarding citizens that have moved, but that's about it. I can't imagine trying to stop a Wizard from going somewhere... they're magical.

 

[Hilary Grace]

I agree with Nick. (Wow.... that doesn't happen very often ) I don't think that Wizards would have to go through muggle imigration to get to where they want to go. Seriously, can you imagine if they were searched at the border and someone found their floo powder and thought it was drugs and took it in for testing...... or if their watch starting telling the person to hurry up because they'd miss their portkey to the Quidditch world cup?? While I think it would be a fun idea to pursue in FanFiction or something, I think it might cause super issues if it was real.

That being said, as we see in the books..... when something or someone dangerous is coming into the country in the Wizarding world, they will alert the muggle Prime minister. It's not really imigration, but it is kind of a customs system. The wizarding world does have some rules on secrecy such as what you can and can't do infront of muggles.... but as far as which country you can be in, how would the muggles prove it? In a split second the wizard in question could have aparated to a different country.

I'm guessing Tranfers (like an RL exchange student or something) would have to notify their school, and the head would notify the two ministries of magic for aproval. Also as students aren't even allowed to go to the local village without parental permission, there would be a meeting there. As the student would be spending most of their time in the school (which isn't visible to muggles) it would probably be less conspicuous for them to not get muggle permission than to get muggle permission and not apply for a school, student hostel, or leave a paper trace.

 

[Tomas Andrews]

Cant they teleport? I mean, on a personal basis, without any medium other than a wand neccesary? That would make a mockery of modern immigration theory, much less technique.

The admin is right. The books were never meant to encompass an entire world, with all its complexities and difficulties and exceptions. The author wanted to tell a very specific story about coming of age, struggle and all that jazz. She only developed her world as much as needed to throw a cheap backdrop behind the characters, who are the main focus anyways. And that isnt a bad thing. Those books were heavy enough as it is.... If they had to explain EVERYTHING linked with modern life, even taking magic into account, they would be big enough that you could beat a horse to death with them without too much trouble.

The moral of the story? Go with it. If you run off the edge of the map, you are thinking too hard about it.