The problem with that process is that it completely defeats the purpose of the e-gates. If you have to queue up once to use the e-gates and then queue up again after that to deal with an officer for a stamp, it's actually MORE cumbersome than before the e-gates came onstream.

It's similar to the self-defeating process we have for arrivals in Canada. We have to queue up and make our customs declarations at a bank of terminals, then queue up again to see an officer, where we're asked the very same questions we just answered on the machine. At least under the old system we only had to queue up once.