Christopher

Over the past year or so, I have not infrequently been asked on arrival at Heathrow where I have travelled from. (I am a British citizen and enter the UK on a British citizen passport.) I always simply answer the question, since I've got nothing to hide and I don't want to delay myself or the people beind me, but it has always struck me as odd.

ajax

I have always assumed that this is done so that the UKBA agents can inform themselves if a certain flight has arrived. I have never thought that this question has had anything to do with me personally. After all, it's not like they don't have a finite list of possibilities of where you can be coming from and it's usually not too many at any given point in the day.

:D!

This may be one of the reasons in general, but what I observed specifically was passengers from the same flight, travelling in a large group, all presenting what appeared to me to be an EEA document from the country of origin of the flight, all being asked their point of origin and obviously all answering with the same city. Perhaps the officer was just bored.

Before I obtained British citizenship I was frequently asked where I flew from (despite the answer being written on my landing card). I always answered with the place whose immigration controls I had previously exited, rather than with any of my transit points. I would do the same if asked today, which would occasionally defeat the purpose of knowing whether a flight's passengers had arrived at immigration (I am usually one of the first to arrive there).

Christopher

Yes, this has occurred to me, and on one occasion it was certainly true, because the passport control person responded along the lines of "Goodness, it's that time already!"

Calchas

Once I replied with "Rochester" which got a confused look.

I clarified, "Rochester, New York", which didn't help matters. He let me in without any further words.

Silver Fox

I am with you on that. I always think they ask just to know what flights are coming in and whether to take a break as it might get busy for them !

stut

Well, many people do think of Medway as a foreign country

Personally, if I'm on a connecting flight in a third country, I'll say something like "Hyderabad via Doha". Don't know what they're looking for, and no point slowing things for everybody else...

Silver Fox

Some people don't think of Medway at all!

gnarly

I try not to think of it.
I've been offered jobs in "Kent", but when it turns out that it's in Medway it's the equivalent of finding yourself on a Ryanair flight.

Mizter T

There's the rather sorry tale of Rochester managing to lose its official city status during a local government reorganisation in the late 90's...

Silver Fox

For some reasons it reminds me of "Staines-upon-Thames". I wonder if Slough is waiting in the wings.

liamvad

No,Slough is an awful place,I know,I live there,should be called 'Slough upon Dump'

Daner

I am a US native, with dual US/Swedish citizenship. We've been able to use our chipped Swedish National ID cards for travel to the UK since July, but upon arrival (at LHR T2, anyway) using the card limits one to using the line for non-biometric EU passports. The entry line for biometric passports has been considerably shorter and faster, so I'll be bringing that one with me from now on.

Mizter T

Just to say that EU/EEA citizens being able to use their national ID card (if they have one) to enter the UK is nothing new.

LondonElite

Not really. It limits you to interacting with a Border Force official, rather than going through an e-Gate.