Originally Posted by
whirledtraveler
Noticed on this trip that there is a special immigration program which allows you entry into the UK without speaking to an immigration guard. I think this is in Terminal 2.
You line up and then go into this little booth and stare like a maniac into a lens. Then it says (in a loud robotic voice) "Move closer" or "Move down" over and over again until it tells you that your eyes can not be scanned
and tells you to go all the way to the back of the regular entry queue(!).
..or at least that is what happened to a number of people I saw that day.
It was comically pathetic.
Since all your other points have been demonstrated to be incorrect by previous posters I thought I'd pick up on this one
You do
not have to go back to the end of the queue if for whatever reason the system cannot read your iris (again, very unlikely - never failed once for me in 100+ visits). You can go immediately to the desk that is right next to the Iris machine, show them your passport and enter normally. If this desk isn't manned you can go directly to the front of the "regular" queue.