Originally Posted by
ant_west
...Spoke to the immigration officer there and he said that he wasn't sure what had happened but he said that as they were getting rid of the IRIS machines not to worry about it and they may not be renewing registrations - he said the machines in T3 will be gone "before the summer". He did say the IRIS registration office in T3 had closed already and wasn't sure when the other terminals would close their offices but it would be soon as staff can be better used elsewhere.
Having noticed this thread from time to time, I was indeed under the impression that IRIS is coming to an end. Somewhat to my surprise, however, my other half enroled in IRIS on his own at LHR T5 in the first week of this month... received the letter on the spot, and apparently already used it earlier this week in order to enter the UK for about 20 minutes on a connection NCE-LHR-GRU (having forgotten his glasses at a hotel in London, he had them sent by messenger to LHR during his connection).
All this was quite a bit more resourceful (particularly the IRIS matter) than he usually is when it comes to travel-related things. If they are indeed shutting it down, why keep accepting new applications (and issuing new letters for two year validity periods)?