Originally Posted by bzcat

I came back from LHR on Sunday. It took about 15 seconds to clear immigration with the GE photo scan and since I had only carry on, was out to the curb in about 3 minutes from the time I went down the escalator to the immigration hall. The walk from Gate 159 to the escalator to immigration hall was much longer

The photo scan was quick but the screen flashed a message saying "proceed to officer" which just means exit in the direction of the CPB agents sitting at the end of the GE kiosk area. But most people assume means they had to get release by the CPB agents sitting there so people just queued up in front of the desk instead of walking out and a big line started to form. The officers had to keep telling people to just go and not stop. They probably should change the wording on the screen to "proceed to exit".

Edit: I guess "proceed to officer" may be intentionally ambiguous so the CPB agents can still stop you and perform secondary screening if they see you are acting funny?

Originally Posted by OskiBear

In the new GE set-up, the CBP agents have been calling out my name. I guess it pops up on their monitor. So, it had been a relatively good flow in the past...you get the machine to clear you and then as you walk to the exit/agent, the agent calls out "OskiBear" and you sort of mutually acknowledge each other and proceed. I did notice on Sunday that the officer wasn't actively calling out names so I slowed as I approached him and made eye contact at which point he then called my name and I moved on. I always figured that was a necessary step.

Originally Posted by SCChris

The handheld/screen has the name, picture and a color coding (green/red) of the last several people who went through. Each time they've called my name as I've passed. When I went through at MIA a couple months ago they also asked if I had anything to declare.