mtkeller

It was open at T4 today, but since I couldn't sign up on Friday when I left, I stood in the non-EU queue for TWO HOURS (0650-0850). Is the T5 IRIS registration office landside or airside? The UKBA site's language makes me hope it's landside. I would gladly run out to LHR tomorrow or Monday (and give up 2.5 hours of my day) to sign up for IRIS to avoid a similar mess when I make my next several entries to the UK.

ajax

With respect, I believe you have already asked about this a few times in the recent past.

The T5 IRIS registration office (like all IRIS registration offices) is airside. It is right past security, down a corridor in the block of offices between the north and south security blocks. You cannot visit it unless you (a) have cleared T5 security and (b) are in possession of a valid boarding pass for a flight departing from T5 on that day.

mtkeller

Thanks, and sorry for being redundant if I have been. I don't fly out of T5, so I'd ignored the location list for it until today when I was checking the list today. Just had two horrible experiences with UKBA so was really frustrated today. The UKBA language talks about approaching south security, which suggested landside to me (who approaches security airside?) even though I had been under the impression that they are all airside.

(And I'm clearly a dolt for missing the part at the top of the page making the point about needing to go airside. However, given that the information about T4 being open for enrolment is blatantly wrong and the number on the door to the room seems disconnected, one starts to wonder about the accuracy of UKBA information posting.)

mtkeller

I actually spoke to a person from UKBA on the phone! You all have no idea how big of an accomplishment this feels like at this moment. (Perhaps only because it took three phone calls today before the person answering the phone could successfully route it to someone and get them to stay on the line long enough to answer my question.)

Apparently IRIS enrolment at LHR is presently ONLY available at T5. I couldn't get the person to stay on the line long enough to find out if there's any way to get special permission to get to the IRIS enrolment office in T5 if one has a flight from one of the other terminals. (I'm 99.999999999% certain the answer is no, but it seems incredibly silly that they'd have enrolment at only one terminal with no way for passengers departing other terminals to access it. However, this is the UKBA we're talking about.)

JOUY31

Yesterday, it worked like a breeze at T1 ^. I was surprised that it seemed to work better with my glasses on.

ajax

I have used the immigration contact numbers on the link below several times (not sure what the number is for T5):

http://www.heathrowinformation.co.uk...ct-numbers.php

mtkeller

The number before the slash in the T4 info is the one on the IRIS registration door (the number I called today). Wonder what the odds are on the T2 numbers having been reassigned to T5 in the absence of an actual T2. Might try ringing them to see if any useful information can be provided.

rwoman

Looks like you need a weekday flight on BA SOMEWHERE! I've seen some cheap fares on KL to AMS out of BHX if you do not want to deal with T5.

Mizter T

Mileage run type endeavours can seem fairly bonkers at the best of times... but an IRIS run?!

mtkeller

Given my last two experiences arriving at LHR, I'd be quite happy to pay for a flight somewhere simply to get into a terminal where they're signing people up for IRIS. Unfortunately, I have back-to-back trips involving returns to T4 at likely bad times for the UKBA, and I leave for the first trip at 0600 on Tuesday. If I'm taking a flight just to sign up for IRIS, I'd prefer it be one that accrues miles into a program I actually have something in. However, given how inaccurate the UKBA information online is about terminals available for enrolment, with my luck I'd get up to BHX to fly to AMS and discover that they're no longer doing IRIS enrolment there.

It does seem biased in favor of BA that IRIS enrolment at LHR is only in their terminal. It'd be one thing if there weren't IRIS gates in the other terminals, but there are.

mtkeller

I wasted three hours in UKBA queues in the span of 10 days. I have an AZ return a week from Sunday that's likely going to get in with flights from Asia. Just over a week after that, I'm coming in from DTW on DL with an 0740 arrival. Honestly, if I could get an IRIS run in tomorrow or Sunday, I would do it, because I'm expecting to be stuck wasting another 2-3 hours in UKBA queues on those returns to T4. (Well, maybe I can finagle a FastTrack pass out of DL as SkyTeam Elite+, but I'd be surprised if a lowly GM like me managed it.)

ajax

This limitation to just T5 is relatively new (so much so that I was unaware of it). Way back when, I signed up for IRIS in T4 and my o/h signed up in T3.

The future (and past for that matter) of the IRIS enrolment offices is, frankly, anyone's guess. They will be closed when they are supposed to be open and, every time we have enquired, no one has really known what is going on. Staff out front of the office will say one thing, staff at the passport-control desks will say another, and staff down the line will say something entirely different altogether. Ultimately, I don't think that anyone knows what the future or even the present of IRIS is.

That's why I'd be very hesitant to recommend anyone do an IRIS run: the opening hours are just so unreliable. If UKBA need staff to man the desks because they have a lot of people in the queues, AIUI they will pull the IRIS staff and - guess what - IRIS is closes and you've already paid for your ticket to go nowhere.

And then you also have the following to deal with: on a recent trip, the IRIS queue was full of people. At least one hundred people long. And it was not moving. I got in the queue right next to it which was a manual EU passport line but which was moving much more quickly. As I progressed past the people in the IRIS queue, I noticed that there were whole families waiting: mum, dad, granny, little kids, etc. As i eventually overtook the IRIS queue, i saw that what had happened was that somehow a bunch of bright sparks had assumed that they didn't need to sign up for IRIS beforehand and that somehow just by flashing their eyes, they would magically get through. Of course it took each and every person about three minutes to realise this wasn't going to happen (but not without lots of "Oi - Tracy! Why isn't this fing letting me frough?"), and the folks who had legitimately signed up were forced to wait behind our nation's sharpest tacks.

IRIS is generally wonderful, but not always.

Mizter T

Have you ever considered marrying an eastern European lady... no ties, well apart from being married for a bit of course... and you'd be supporting a thriving cottage industry (albeit one under threat from registrars who increasingly insist on asking awkward questions like how long you've known each other and demanding various paperwork... the cheek!).

Being serious, you make a solid point off the back of my frivolity - waiting around like that would start to do my nut too.

In all seriousness, you, your employer and others in your position could write to your local MP (I know you can't vote for them but they can still take up issues on your behalf), the Home Secretary (responsible for UKBA), the Business Secretary (referencing the UK's competitiveness) etc etc.

ajax

But in all seriousness, what could you expect your MP to do? Give you a VIP pass to let you jump the queue? Surely if they had those, they'd already be in use by others already. The only thing hat can practically be done would be to add more staff - and as you know, we aren't exactly flush with funding at the moment.

I'm sad to say (as I have been in this position many times myself) that queues at immigration are simply one of life's annoyances that we simply have to live with. There is no way round them.

Oh - and bear in mind that even if you do marry an EEA national And use their nationality tomsponsor your residence in the UK you are not permitted to go through the EU queue unless the two of you are together until your application for naturalisation is approved (the eligibility period is three years).

Christopher

Five years, plus a year with permanent residency. The 3 years plus no need for the year with permanent residency or indefinite leave to remain applies only if the spouse or partner is a British citizen.