Consolidated UK immigration exit checks thread (starts 8th Apr 2015)
 

Any one experienceing this as they leave Heathrow today ? More interestingly knowing terminal 5 how is it being done as there is no real choke hold for people exiting..

UK immigration exit checks
 

So exit checks are now in effect in the UK:

Passport exit checks begin at UK ports and borders - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32205970


Has anyone seen where and how they are doing this at heathrow and gatwick?

Not sure where they would do it at T5 possible at the BP check gates? Do there gates also scan passports?

Exit checks for air passengers have been happening electronically for some time. The change today relates to people in cars going across the Channel. Because it's essentially a car that is booked, rather than a specific set of humans, this has been a known weak point in tracking people leaving the country, and was being exploited by those who knew about this weakness. We knew the ID of all sheep leaving the country by ferry, but not all car travellers. Air travel is booked by individual, even in the case of group travel, which isn't the case for sea transit.

There is scope in the legislation for spot checks leaving by air, again that's not new, and though I guess we may see a bit more of that, I doubt most people will notice.

UK exit controls - airlines checking wrong travel document?
 

I understand that the UK's reintroduction of immigration exit controls (previously abolished in 1998) relies on carriers checking travel documents (passports or ID cards) of departing travellers. This is already in place for air travel and is today being introduced for ports and Eurotunnel.

Airlines, upon departure, have for many years routinely checked the travel document being used to enter the destination country. However, the travel document used to enter the destination country will very often differ from the travel document that the traveller had used to enter the UK.

I can think of two obvious examples:

1. Many Russian dual citizens in London fly to Russia on their Russian passport and fly to the UK on their British passport. When flying, for example, from LHR to DME, they will show the airline their Russian passport, as their British passport would require a visa to enter Russia. Consequently the airline will give the details of the Russian passport, which has no UK visa and no record of entering the UK, to the Home Office. This will undoubtedly cause much confusion by falsely flagging up an illegal immigrant.
2. Boris Johnson is another example (although maybe for not much longer). In 2006, he had difficulties when transiting in the US because he used his British passport rather than his US passport. When departing from LHR to JFK, he must now therefore show the airline his US passport. Consequently the airline will give the details of Boris's US passport, which has no record of entering the UK, to the Home Office. In Boris's case, this will no doubt simply cause amusement to the Home Office, but there will be thousands of cases of non-celebrities where confusion will result.

Have these exit controls been properly thought through?

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No sign of anything this am at T3 fast track. I didn't look at the normal queue endpoint but going in the lines were normal so it doesn't seem to be disrupting things at all at least in T3

Why would you see any change today in an airport? Have I missed something?

Indeed. Wife and daughter have NZ and British (and daughter US) passports. When they get to NZ they show NZ passports, when they leave here they will show UK passports. Not gonna cause any problems I am sure ! :)

That's because the airlines do it when you check in and scan your passport.

Today is the extension to sea ports - hence why SKY are at Dover and not an airport!

In this news report today, the BBC's Rebecca Williams says (at 22 seconds into the video) "Here at Eurotunnel, they have gone full force ahead today, 100% checks", yet behind her almost every car is being waved through without any check of the occupants' travel documents - hardy 100% checks! The booths behind her were installed before exit controls were abolished in 1998. The next booths (well out of shot to the left) are French immigration but are often unmanned.

According to the BBC news article:

100% of passports will be scanned but only 25% will be randomly verified to ensure they are genuine. After a month it will be 50% and by middle of June 100% verification.

Not sure where and how this will be done at the ports but at least that may clarify things a bit?

But in the video, you can see that they're not scanning 100% of passports. I think only one car is stopped during the whole video, possibly a German-registered VW Golf.

Unless the scanning will make use of biometric chips in travel documents, it will be very easy to use forged passports or ID cards. Unlike immigration officers, those conducting exit controls are employees of the carriers, so it would be very easy to use forged travel documents at exit controls with almost no chance of being detected. Obviously airlines have an incentive to verify the authenticity of a travel document (as they can be fined by the destination country), but where immigration controls are carried out by the destination country before travel (as is the case with Eurotunnel and Eurostar), there is no incentive for employees of the carrier to ensure authenticity. This whole exercise is a waste of time, as anyone who really needs to slip under the radar can continue to do so.

So from an air travel point of view, nothing will be changing in the medium term?

This seems to be the government remembering they had committed to reintroducing "exit checks" by 2015 but then not having enough time / money / willpower to actually build immigration booths at ports of exit.

And I don't understand why they were removed in the first place. Most places in the world except North America have proper exit immigration.

Yes, as a US/UK dual-national I am also in the same boat. When departing the US, the airline always wants to see my US passport to ensure that I have not overstayed in the US before departing. Yet when I enter the UK, I always enter on my UK passport, of course. I have long wondered how the Home Office knows that I am legally allowed to be here without leave on my US passport.

It seems like the UK has been doing this for air passengers leaving the country for a while. So they must have been dealing with the question of someone arriving on one passport and departing on another in some way - possibly by ignoring it.

If we assume that everyone is checked on the way in across all border crossings (titter ye not!) then foreigners leaving who did not arrive, are all going to be people leaving on the foreign passport after arriving on the UK passport. The government need only concern itself with foreigners who arrive and then leave after they should. Simples!

This tweet from Mark Smith (Man in Seat 61) has some info on the Eurostar situation: