Delays at UK airports ...
 

Mrs. Jib was planning to meet a friend who had a six hour stopover at LHR today - The friend's flight from Barcelona to LHR T5 was delayed one hour. Then the plane spent one hour taxiing before reaching a gate. The immigration line was long ... after an hour of waiting, with at least another 40 minutes of queuing ahead, Mrs jib's friend decided to forget about it and do an airside transfer to T3.

On Monday, Mrs. Jib and I flew into Stansted with two Japanese friends. No queue at all for non-EU immigration. Whoopee. But unfortunately, immigration handed a piece of paper to one of the people in our party to explain that she had to wait on a bench for a while. (I didn't see the note, so I don't know what reason was given). We waited 20 minutes for our friend to be released from the sin bin. It was hard for us to understand why she was held at all. Her passport has a valid UK visa in it.

What's going on at our airports? Are UKBA beefing up the entry clearance kabuki to compensate for being terribly lax recently?

It's pretty clear that the controls need beefing up, but I hope that they don't become as unpleasant and inefficient as those in the USA.

We are just proving early on that we will not be able to cope when the Olympic circus comes to town.

Harrassing people who hold valid visas seems like a theatrical immitation of "beefed up" controls. As far as I know, if you've got a green card in the US, you pass through the same channels as US citizens and it's not an ordeal. (By all means correct me if I'm wrong on that - I don't have personal experience).

I assure you that UKBA have harrassed valid UK visaholders long before the recent revelations about laxity on some borders.

Under what pretence was your acquaintance detained when entering at STN?

You are correct. In most airports, USLPR individuals are entitled to use the same immigration controls as US citizens. I'm not actually sure the level of harrassment they receive.

Unfortunately, I did not see the piece of paper that she was handed and I did not hear her conversation with the agent. She could not understand why she was sent to sit on the bench but she just did what she was told. I did not interfere - just waited by the exit for her.

We saw one other person from the same flight in the same position as her. That makes me wonder if they're just picking random individuals to do some sort of secondary check on. What an unpleasant waste of time.

I think this is a standard note saying "we have to make further inquiries into your case for being admitted to the UK, this is a receipt for your passport while we do that".

Arising from recent press coverage, I would be unsurprised if the UK Border Agency hasn't decided to beef up immigration controls. It may have arisen for as simple as reason as someone not normally needing a visa having a visa.

Does the UK even require visas for Japanese passport holders? Here in the USA, they are not required to have a visa in advance of entry. I have even heard the entry process for Japanese here described as "visa on arrival," although I'm not sure that is the official term.

In any case, the UK authorities are likely within their legal structure in doing secondary and/or random screening. Even here in Hawaii, we have heard of some recent lapses in UK border control, so it doesn't surprise me. I'll be visiting the UK in May with a naturalized US citizen who was born in Japan, hence my interest.

I doubt that it was random, but a visa does not guarantee unfettered entry to the UK in this case, as my US visa does not guarantee me unfettered access to the US and you are at the whim of the border patrol/agency who can do whatever they feel like. And if something in your travel plans, passport, type of ticket triggers something then you are likely to get pulled to one side. Unless you can find out what was on the piece of paper then it is speculation m'lud.

Generally the UK government does not require Japanese passportholders to apply for tourist visas in advance of arrival. In this case, the Japanese national was not entering as a tourist, but rather on a residence permit, which of course confers a completely different legal status.

Of course they are, at any time. They are the ones employed to guard our borders, after all. :) They have considerable discretion to check the authenticity of all documents presented to them. Usually a cursory glance and a quick check through the electronic system is sufficient, but occasionally (as most probably in this case) it is not.

Make no mistake: there were no lapses in UK border control. The UKBA officers were following clear rules set by the government which, once the media got wind of them, quickly and typically sought to disavow themselves on any responsibility. I'm no huge fan of the UKBA (but then, I'm no huge critic, either), but in this case they were following the rules they had been given. There has still been zero outcome from these rules being observed beyond "someone could have got in".

Your US passport-holding friend should have no problems entering the UK as a tourist.

Or a "general visitor", as they have recently been renamed. Usual principles apply, the friend just needs to make sure he/she has funds sufficient for the intended length of stay, details of where he/she is staying, and so on.

That's evident from your even-handed posts on this thread, for which I thank you. For my part, I'm leaning towards a negative view of UKBA's competence to do its job efficiently and effectively. These recent delays at airports that have affected me are just one part of it.

Come with me through SFO one day down the non-US citizens line after the Air NZ, Emirates, and China flights have arrived about 20 minutes before me - you'll be fine for eternity after that ! :D

I've been in that line many times. (No, really). It can take a while ... I've found IAD and ORD to be worse, and Heathrow for a non-EU citizen to be worse still. (IME).

I see that Ireland also plays silly b*****s with people. This story from TechCrunch caught my eye:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/03/ux-...ames-flanagan/
I wonder what the immigration person was thinking: "We can't have these foreigners coming here and giving us jobs"?

Worst delay I've ever experienced was in Manila back in the 1990s. I think I spent more than four hours in a melee - not really a formal queue until the last couple of yards. I hope no other border that I ever cross in the future will be that awful.

The general perception, I should say, is that UKBA is not entirely competent. This is no doubt subjective and fuelled by parts of the popular press, but there seem to be enough stories suggesting a hit-and-miss approach, combined with frequent difficulties being experienced by bone-fide travellers, to suggest that all is not well.

The delays at immigration at major ports of arrival to the UK are problematic. Clearly, there will inevitably be times when it is slower than others, and at busy airports there will almost certainly be times when the delay is unacceptably long. However, there seem to be unacceptably long delays often enough (based on reports here, and elsewhere, and on my own observations and things that acquaintances tell me) to make me think that some sort of re-think is needed. It really isn't acceptable that ordinary travellers routinely spend an hour or more shuffling forward in a passport queue before being seen.

No doubt part of the problem is due to under-funding and therefore under-staffing, although I do wonder if there is some way that UKBA could be more flexible/creative in its use of personnel, staff shifts and so on, particularly at Heathrow with its four terminals. Clearly, though, the answer isn't what the government apparently thought was a good idea – that is, the relaxation of controls at busy times, at least not in the way that it was carried out.

I do think that as many passengers as possible ought to be enabled and encouraged to use some sort of biometric entry system, and that it ought to be made easy to enrol in such a system (if enrolment is necessary), and that it ought to be a priority to keep the equipment in good working order. It would seem to me that this sort of entry system would work for most people with an EU/EEA/Swiss passport, as well as for people with a right of abode certificate, possibly for people with indefinite or long-term resident permits, and possibly some non-visa short-term visitors from countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, etc. These groups would account for the majority of travellers anyway, and such a system would enable the staff to concentrate on the people that they need to concentrate on.