France - Immigration chaos spreads from Heathrow to Eurotunnel (Coquelles, FR)

AOL.co.uk: Immigration chaos spreads from Heathrow to Eurotunnel (http://travel.aol.co.uk/2012/05/02/immigration-chaos-spreads-from-heathrow-to-eurotunnel/)

IME, passing through immigration at Coquelles in France has always been painless...maybe not now..

The chaos and long delays being experienced by passengers at Heathrow's immigration has now spread to Eurotunnel's terminal at Coquelles.

According to the Telegraph, travellers wishing to cross the Channel are missing shuttles services and having to wait for an hour to clear British immigration posts.

Coquelles has 11 Border Force control booths at Coquelles, just outside Calais, where drivers fill in British immigration forms before moving on to the train.

But Eurotunnel says they are very rarely all in use and, in thisi instance, queues are forming out on to the French motorway system.



Thread on Heathrow's Immigration mess: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-ireland/1319805-delays-uk-airports.html

This is an issue at some large US airports too. Immigration lines for non-US citizens/green card holders can be painful. OTOH, some airports seem to manage this very efficiently (AMS comes to mind). I guess it's a matter of whether or not the local authorities are motivated to address this or not.

Moving thread to France forum at OP's request. Please continue to follow this thread in the France forum.

stut
Moderator
UK & Ireland

This is an issue at some large US airports too. Immigration lines for non-US citizens/green card holders can be painful. OTOH, some airports seem to manage this very efficiently (AMS comes to mind). I guess it's a matter of whether or not the local authorities are motivated to address this or not.It's not only AMS, it's most airports in most countries of the world. The only places where I've waited for longer than one-two hours are several US airports and Narita!

As no doubt one of many with a LHR connection in the coming weeks this news isn't great, especially as the unions say they will further compound the matter by staging a one day strike. At least, that's the talk in the press including this article. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/heathrow-immigration-staff-to-strike-on-10-may-over-pensions-7707160.html)

As no doubt one of many with a LHR connection in the coming weeks this news isn't great, especially as the unions say they will further compound the matter by staging a one day strike. At least, that's the talk in the press including this article. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/heathrow-immigration-staff-to-strike-on-10-may-over-pensions-7707160.html)

Unless connecting to a domestic airport, connecting through LHR should be fine since there's no UKBA involved...

;)