On 15 Sep, 14:46, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 12:08:46 +0100, "tim....."

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

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.

Neil

Yes, I tend to agree.

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 - however I'm more of a sceptic than a
cynic so I wouldn't necessarily be in complete agreement with such a
simplistic line of argument, though I think it likely such
considerations were at least a factor (even subliminally) in the
change of policy. Of course it isn't possibly to entirely disentangle
considerations of how the image of the newly-uniformed Immigration
officers will come across to the GBP as discrete from how it will be
seen by the wider world.

----------
* GBP - the "Great British Public".

On 15 Sep, 16:33, Barry Salter wrote:
Mizter T wrote:
...which sounds similar to what authorities in the US hope to do. I'm
not so sure they'll be massively successful in this endeavour, even
leaving aside the open border in Ireland. Are they scanning passports
of those coming off the ferries at all, as they weren't last summer?
How about Eurostar passengers, as they weren't doing that at Gare du
Nord when I went through there last winter?

Having travelled with Eurostar last week, UK Immigration (at Brussels)
were extremely variable. The female Officer who I saw was really
miserable for some reason, and didn't utter a word. Her male colleague,
sitting next to her in the booth, on the other hand was quite jovial and
chatty with those he saw.


But did they scan in your passport at all?

The female Officer who I saw was really miserable for some reason, and
didn't utter a word. Her male colleague, sitting next to her in the booth,
on the other hand was quite jovial and chatty with those he saw.

Perhaps they are married and she's got the hump with him.

"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).

dB wrote:
The female Officer who I saw was really miserable for some reason,
and didn't utter a word. Her male colleague, sitting next to her in
the booth, on the other hand was quite jovial and chatty with those
he saw.

Perhaps they are married and she's got the hump with him.

In bed they take it in turns to... no, I can't say that.

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 !!"

"tim.." wrote in message

Whatever the problems with the organisation (and the
US has that too) at least the Brits attitude is pleasant
and they give the impression that they are making an
objective decision as to whether you are a bad'n or not.

The American's attitude is rude and if you are foreign they
have already decided (that you are).

Actually, I find that the US immigration people have got friendlier
since the new thumbprint/mugshot rules came in. Basically, they can
trust the computers to spot the wrong 'uns, and can afford to be less
suspicious than before. I've been travelling to the US at least once a
year for almost 30 years now, I don't think it's any more tedious now
than in the past. Of course, you do need to remmeber to provide all
sorts of extra info before leaving, including where you're staying (how
can they check?).

If you can get off the plane early and don't arrive just after a far
eastern 747 where hardly anyone speaks English, you won't usually have a
long wait at immigration (I once arrived in SFO just after a Cathay
flight packed with masked pax during the SARs scare). On my last flight
to the US a couple of months ago, I was the first off the plane
(something you don't often manage on a packed 747) and whizzed through
SFO immigration and customs.

I'm off to Canada on Tuesday, and in my experience they are particularly
friendly. My next US trips isn't till October, so fingers crossed that
they both stay friendly and efficient. Unfortunately, my next US trips
is to Orlando, and that's an airport that has really been messed up by
the new security rules (you have to queue security on the way *in*,
because they mix incoming and outgoing pax on the satellite shuttles).

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

Mizter T wrote:
On 15 Sep, 16:33, Barry Salter wrote:
Having travelled with Eurostar last week, UK Immigration (at Brussels)
were extremely variable. The female Officer who I saw was really
miserable for some reason, and didn't utter a word. Her male colleague,
sitting next to her in the booth, on the other hand was quite jovial and
chatty with those he saw.


But did they scan in your passport at all?


I have to admit that I wasn't paying particular attention. The officer
in question did spend quite some time with it, however, so I expect so.

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.