"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.

Took 15 minutes through LGW last Tuesday at 11:15pm, which I thought was
disgraceful.

What are they doing that is so "new" and slow? I'm sure the new uniforms
don't make them work slower, and once I got to the front of the queue, they
simply scanned my passport and had a quick gander, exactly the same as every
other time through immigration in the last couple years. So why the wait?

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 could. At that time of night, I just want to get home (mind you, my taxi
was then 20 minutes late, so I was pretty ****ed off with them, too).

In message , Graculus
writes

What are they doing that is so "new" and slow? I'm sure the new
uniforms don't make them work slower, and once I got to the front of
the queue, they simply scanned my passport and had a quick gander,
exactly the same as every other time through immigration in the last
couple years. So why the wait?

You can't complain, I had to wait with a bunch of teenage "Goths" just
arrived from New York :-) Now that really was hell.

Mind you I can remember when customs could often mean half an hour with
a stroppy official going through your case. As I usually travel alone I
always seemed to get stopped. These days you never see anyone in
customs.

Is a no hassle EU walk through a good idea ? I'm sure the drug barons
think it's a wonderful idea.

--
Edward Cowling "Must Go - Politician to Heckle !!"

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

Mind you I can remember when customs could often mean half an hour with
a stroppy official going through your case. As I usually travel alone I
always seemed to get stopped. These days you never see anyone in customs.


As it happens, on my return journey from Brussels we had a "welcoming
committee" of about half a dozen Customs Officers at Waterloo (no prizes
for guessing that our Eurostar had a connection out of a Thalys and an
IC from Amsterdam), pulling a few folks out of the crowd. (I wasn't one
of them).

Cheers,

Barry

"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in message
...
In message , Graculus
writes

What are they doing that is so "new" and slow? I'm sure the new uniforms
don't make them work slower, and once I got to the front of the queue,
they simply scanned my passport and had a quick gander, exactly the same
as every other time through immigration in the last couple years. So why
the wait?

You can't complain, I had to wait with a bunch of teenage "Goths" just
arrived from New York :-) Now that really was hell.

Mind you I can remember when customs could often mean half an hour with a
stroppy official going through your case. As I usually travel alone I
always seemed to get stopped. These days you never see anyone in customs.

Is a no hassle EU walk through a good idea ? I'm sure the drug barons
think it's a wonderful idea.

Got sniffed by a drugs dog right as I was having my passport swiped anyway.