I flew from Dulles to Heathrow on June 19, en route to Dublin, and had a horrible time passing through British immigration in terminal 1. I have an American passport with a fair number of stamps from different parts of the world and am a 21 year old male. I had no intention to enter the UK and explained this to the officer, but he spent about 15 minutes questioning me.

I imagine the main reason for this was that I had left the address blank on my British landing card...it did say "address in UK," which I found rather perplexing since I was just transiting Heathrow. Why do transit passengers have to go through British passport control if they´re not entering the UK? It seems totally superfluous, at least for people who wouldn´t need a visa to enter the UK anyway. The guy treated me like I was some sort of vagrant, and I totally complied with all his questioning and was not rude at all....he asked for my return flight information, which I didnt have, because its an eticket (I mean, I know all the information on my head but didnt have a printout). I also didnt have any pounds (again not going to Europe) or Euros...better to get them at an ATM. He wrote down an entire page of notes, threateningly told me that I may be sent back to the US upon arrival in Dublin, and concluded by saying the following: "For someone who studies international politics, you are REMARKABLY disorganized," in the most haughty British accent one could conceive.

Of course, as expected, when I got to Dublin, I got stamped right on through without a second thought. The passport officer even had the date wrong on the stamp...December 17, 2007.

Given the lines, long distances between anything, and this very rude and threatening person, I will be avoiding Heathrow INDEFINITELY....has anyone had similar experiences with the immigration people?