On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:41:26 -0700, Mizter T
wrote:

Of course the whole issue of uniforms is one that is surrounded by
many theories, and is a favourite topic of study by psychologists and
the like. Maybe the uniform does suggest to people (not least the
officers themselves) that they are taking things seriously/to be taken
seriously. Of course the cynic would suggest this change of image is
really for the benefit of the law abiding GBP* as opposed to those
wishing to break the rules

This wouldn't surprise me, nor would the theory that security and
immigration queues are allowed to get bigger because that shows that
"Something Is Being Done" (tm), while employing more staff and
improving procedures doesn't.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007, Recliner wrote:

I'm off to Canada on Tuesday, and in my experience they are particularly
friendly.

Immigration at Calgary was by far the most unfriendly i've ever
experienced. They were probably just having a bad day!

tom

--
Sapere aude!

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...
On Sat, 15 Sep 2007, Recliner wrote:

I'm off to Canada on Tuesday, and in my experience they are particularly
friendly.

Immigration at Calgary was by far the most unfriendly i've ever
experienced. They were probably just having a bad day!

The one at Montreal was equally unfriendly.

Having ticked the "holiday" box on the form and told
him that I was on a "fly-drive" he actually asked
"why would you want to holiday here".

Are they trying to turn tourists away.

tim

"tim.." wrote in message

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...
On Sat, 15 Sep 2007, Recliner wrote:

I'm off to Canada on Tuesday, and in my experience they are
particularly friendly.

Immigration at Calgary was by far the most unfriendly i've ever
experienced. They were probably just having a bad day!

The one at Montreal was equally unfriendly.

Having ticked the "holiday" box on the form and told
him that I was on a "fly-drive" he actually asked
"why would you want to holiday here".

Are they trying to turn tourists away.

I was in Montreal on business a few months ago and the (female)
immigration officer couldn't have been nicer. And that was despite not
being a French speaker.

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 12:39:04 +0100, Edward Cowling London UK
wrote:

In message , tim.....
writes

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:53:19 +0100, Edward Cowling London UK
wrote:


I had my first experience of the new "Uk Border" style of immigration at
Heathrow last night.

I had no idea it was changing. It was already the worst form of
immigration "service" I've encountered anywhere in the world. Oh well,
one further reason not to leave the country.

You've never flown to the US then! It's the pits, makes the
UK controls look trivial.

I remember arriving in Philadelphia on a Sunday and telling the guy in
immigration I was coming over for business meeting on the Monday in
Wilmington, Delaware.

"Who's worth seeing in Wilmington ?" he asked. Without any trace of a
smile or humour.

Talk about promoting trade & industry :-) USA immigration officers
usually look and sound like ex night club bouncers who were sacked for
brutality !

It doesn't just happen there. Before I was naturalised here, I had indefinite
leave to remain. I came into Heathrow one evening and presented my US passport
to an immigration officer who was Scottish. He didn't see the indefinite leave
to remain stamp immediately and asked me, "How long will you be staying here?"
I said, "I live here!" He immediately replied, "For your sins?"

I know this is off-topic. I'll get my coat.
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com

"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in
message
I had my first experience of the new "Uk Border" style of immigration
at Heathrow last night. After a long journey and 20 minutes in a
holding pattern the last thing you want is 15 minutes in a line. But
that said I have to admit I was impressed. There were about 6 lines f
or EU passports with the new uniformed staff on each line, with a few
heavies lurking in case of trouble. Every passport gets scanned and
they do actually look you over to see the picture is you. Plus I
liked the no nonsense approach.

Yes I could have done without the hassle, but it has to be done and
they seem to be doing a good job of it.

I arrived back at LHR T3 early this morning and didn't see any sign of
the new immigration uniforms. All was as it has been for the last few
months -- friendly, efficient immigration staff in civvies, with no
obvious heavies in evidence and no long delays. It was the same when I
left a few days ago -- exit passport inspection, but no uniforms in
sight.

In message , Recliner
writes
"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in
message
I had my first experience of the new "Uk Border" style of immigration
at Heathrow last night. After a long journey and 20 minutes in a
holding pattern the last thing you want is 15 minutes in a line. But
that said I have to admit I was impressed. There were about 6 lines f
or EU passports with the new uniformed staff on each line, with a few
heavies lurking in case of trouble. Every passport gets scanned and
they do actually look you over to see the picture is you. Plus I
liked the no nonsense approach.

Yes I could have done without the hassle, but it has to be done and
they seem to be doing a good job of it.

I arrived back at LHR T3 early this morning and didn't see any sign of
the new immigration uniforms. All was as it has been for the last few
months -- friendly, efficient immigration staff in civvies, with no
obvious heavies in evidence and no long delays. It was the same when I
left a few days ago -- exit passport inspection, but no uniforms in
sight.


I unfortunately landed at Terminal 1 last Friday. It is the worst
terminal and does badly need pulling down and rebuilding. Segregation of
incoming and outgoing passengers was often just a piece of tape across
two cones. And the immigration hall had close to 500 or so very weary
and ticked off passengers.

But all the staff were in the new uniforms.

--
Edward Cowling "If it screams it's not food yet !!"

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:46:03 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:
I will admit I always liked the non-uniformed informality of the UK
approach. They could quite easily have tightened it up without losing
that typically British friendliness.

I think some professionals' work is enhanced by a uniform, with all
the advantages of instant recognition - I'm thinking particularly of
the emergency services. But immigration people, also professionals,
aren't improved by a uniform that makes them look like a Top Shop
security guard.

As far as I remember, my passport has been scanned each time I've been
through a UK airport this year, even when the queues have been long.
It seems to take a relatively long time scan/lookup, perhaps it's
quicker with the new biometric passports.

Has anybody here registered with IRIS? This might be the solution. I
haven't registered, but I think I will next time I pass through. A
pity that it has not yet been extended to Eurostar arrivals.
(http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applying/iris/)

Richard.

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:13:07 +0100, Richard
wrote:

Has anybody here registered with IRIS? This might be the solution. I
haven't registered, but I think I will next time I pass through. A
pity that it has not yet been extended to Eurostar arrivals.

A bunch of us registered to reduce the pain of LHR arrivals. It's a
relatively pleasant experience in LHR T4 to register: the staff were
pleasant and efficient. However the one sole machine in T4 arrivals is
not well. According to the passport bod it's been out of action for 1
week now.

You get several problems with use of Iris. Firstly, there's only one
per arrivals area. Sometimes the EU queue is faster, especially when
someone in front is doing their best make a balls of reading their
eyeballs. Secondly, the system is not really intuitive: you wait for
the glass panels to slide shut, red X becomes green arrow, step up,
glass panels open and admit one. Some people step too close to the
panel and it stays shut in a sulk until a space is left.

Unlike Schiphol's much older and costly (EUR75?) system which tips
failures in front of the EU q,, a 'reject' has to either walk all the
way back to a proper EU queue or scale barriers. You're meant to slip
to the shorter Q: EU or rest of world but the rejects I've seen tend
to loiter and block - the system has been kind to me for 4 or so weeks
and it's fair to say that it works on cop & clue as well as the iris.
Peeps lacking cop tend to drastically slow down the process.

Registering needs a proof of ID and residency. 10 or so mins on a good
day but they open well after the red eyes (!) have departed.

--
Old anti-spam address cmylod at despammed dot com appears broke
So back to cmylod at bigfoot dot com