Originally Posted by
pewpew
I'd probably go to the UK last. If you enter Schengen through Italy or France, you're unlikely to have a real conversation with an agent, but the UKBA loves asking questions. If they find out about the criminal history, it's a toss-up about whether your friend gets in. If that's at the start of your trip, denial of entry into the UK could affect ability to enter other countries using SIS. Conversely, if it's at the end, at least you've been to 2/3.
For regular entries into the UK at staffed passport control counters, my travel party members and I have never been asked any question about criminal records as far as I know. And given the volume of travel involved and some other stuff, I am pretty confident that they don’t usually ask such questions unless tipped off already or highly inclined to frustrate entry even before questioning.
Originally Posted by
schrodingerdog
Not the guys at London St Pancras. They literally stamped South Korean / Japanese / US passport faster than you can imagine it's possible. It actually took way more time to process my EU ID card.
That’s pretty consistent for French passport control at rather high volume ports. Of the last 100 or so entries into the Schengen area in France using my ordinary US passports, I have had questions once and that was at CDG — and that was despite the passports having every possible indication that I likely have exceeded 90 days of staying in any given 180 day period. If the objective is to enter Schengen with the lowest chance of being questioned when presenting a very recently issued US passport, CDG is a great port of entry, even better than MXP and FCO in some cases.