ajax

Sadly not. I've actually rung immigration at LHR T1 and asked just this and was told it was only available to EEA passport-holders.

vla

And when Iris goes, obviously, it should be made available to those fulfilling existing Iris criteria. The reasons why are perfectly clear to all reading these pages. This is UK plc speaking.

Swanhunter

One machine open at T3 today. The other was being fixed so clearly someone still has money somewhere to keep it running.

vla

I know not, but I imagine the contract was up this year, Labour committed itself to new contracts, Iris doesn't work in natural-light environments (eg. Stansted) -- so there's a problem, and with the change in government, Labour's original e-borders is, by definition, being re-assessed (remember, they wanted to de facto end the Common Travel Area), and ministers are hard at work with their staffs implementing immigration rules.

I would suggest, though, that now is the right time to advocate that those holding ease-of-entry access to the UK now under Iris should not lose that status once Iris is replaced with something else, under Labour's e-borders, or whatever that policy is at the current time.

platinumstar

I love using Iris, it is quick and easy. If it goes, then I will have a problem because before using Iris, I tried my e-chip passport on many occasions via the automatic unmanned entry at LHR and LGW, and each time it failed and admittedly I was given assistance and guided through, it was mentioned each time that "your card is not being accepted by the machine because you have a similar sounding name to someone else"????? Each time I asked what this meant I was told that they were probably trying to contact another person with a similar sounding name and there was nothing at all that could be done with mine. I find this all a bit strange, I am English, have a normal name, surname is Clark, and there must be hundreds of thousands of instances where Mr John Smith, Fred Brown, or whatever has "similar" sounding names. Nobody at the airport seems to be able to offer a real answer as to how it can be sorted out, so if Iris goes, I'll have to queue up all day!

drcasio

only one machine operational at t5 this evening, i love iris it saves time

potfish

My wife's a US citizen and a UKBA official at LHR told us that we are allowed to pass through the EU lanes when we're travelling together. (Not tried it yet though!)

LHR-HUB

I concur at about 19:30 Left machine operational, right machine not. Well, I say not, but the green arrow on the outside was on and pointing to the entrance, but someone had decided to leave on of those crowd barrier things there, despite the system seeming to be OK.

To the poster above who mentioned about waving the passport about - very true! Although my usual experience is with people who just haven't registered or don't seem to be aware of where the mirror/ camera is, I recently stood behind a gentleman who just stuck his passport on the camera bit that you're supposed to look into. The machine eventually kicked him out, but he insisted on standing right by the door and going back in, only to do the same thing again. I nearly p***ed myself when I heard the "please move back a little" and he did so, only to lean forwards to reach to put his passport back on the mirror. Eventually he got kicked out again, and I mentioned that he needed to be registered, "yes, yes I am. It usually works fine for me" he retorted to me (with a slightly embarrassed sneer), but I just walked passed him and went in, one quick shutter noise later and I was through ^ I didn't look back, but I suspect he'd jumped in again to try waving his passport at it again. Not sure how he'd managed to get it working "just fine" for him on other occasions

Anyway, I hope it stays. Anyone fancy organising one of those No 10 petition thingys?

FenLandK

She had to steer me to a man at a desk when I came through T5 a couple of weeks ago, because the machines didn't work for me. The bloke at the desk made great play of rubbing various parts of my photo page before waving me through. Both IRIS machines were down at the time. I can get through IRIS within a few seconds now - I've learned to gauge how far away to stand pretty much before the picture comes up. It's a shame if it goes.

BTW - anyone here a member of Global Entry for the US? I'm sorely tempted to pony up the $100 to avoid the queues at JFK, although I'll probably end up queuing for the same amount of time - just at baggage reclaim rather than immigration.

HilFly

From the Global Entry website:

Global Entry is open to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, Dutch citizens, and Mexican nationals.

LTN Phobia

Currently that is the case. However a guy at Iris registration desk told me a while ago that there is likely to be a paid-for automated entry system for non-EEA passport holders sometime in the future.

FenLandK

Bu....

Missed that.

canopus

I will miss the IRIS dance, move forward a little, move back a little.. And the answer phone recording of "thank you"

GUWonder

With regard to non-US persons, US DHS management clowns seem intent upon eventually expanding that GE facility to include select UK citizens under the typical type of relationship DHS has pursued with Privium for its customers in the Netherlands. In typical self-dealing fashion of the "security" industry types looking for kickbacks upon use of the revolving door between the public and private sectors, expect this expansion of GE to happen when there's money on the horizon for former government types.

Ian_C

A couple of years ago my wife (a US citizen) and I used to travel back and forth from Europe through LGW and I never had a problem taking her through the EU lanes with me (we didn't bother signing up for IRIS/Privium, mainly because more often than not it looked like the machines were knackered.)