Please forgive a selfish and personal perspective.
UK Residents, UK e-chipped passports.
We usually arrive at LHR T5 at around 0630 ex-IAD. I don't think we've ever had a major SANFU … we just wade through the crowd [in the Tensa maze] to use the e-passport gates. Although we're both registered with IRIS, only mine works. OK, so we haven't done this since last October, but is it really dramatically different now?
I have a slight sensation that there are a lot of posts from non-EU, or even non-British EU, which are slightly fogging the picture.
So … How difficult is it now, for me [and the OH] as British chipped passport holders to get across the Border? At 0600-0700?