chucko

By the Home Office, it seems:http://www.itv.com/news/2017-08-05/p...lers-scrapped/

KenJohn

The UK is just playing follow the leader.

The US immigration has already introduced this.
You queue. You go to a machine. Type in all the information on a screen. You get on of those thermal print-outs on flimsy paper. You then queue to see the immigration officer. So you queue twice and you still see the immigration officer.

Just makes for a longer process on the ground. Not sure if the savings is all that much and heaven help when those machines break-down when the immigration officer has to type in everything themselves adding to their work and then length of time to clear immigration.

squawk

(My bold) was my immediate thought when I saw your comment about it requiring a machine - at the moment, people do them on the plane, and only those who forget have to complete them on landing. If they do that, there is no delay to other passengers, only themselves.

This introduces a fixed requirement to use a machine on landing, which doesn't scale in the same way as a paper form. Even if there are enough machines to handle the surges, people will still need to queue for them as it wouldn't be cost- or space- effective to have sufficient machines for everyone to have one to themselves…

If the issue is 'inefficient' paper… would it not have made more sense to make the paper forms machine-readable, and equip each immigration officer with a scanner that can quickly pull out the data and append it to the electronic record?

Dave Noble

The article doesn't state that this would be the process. Reading it, it could be simply that the information needs to be provided prior to travel

If it enables passengers to use self service immigration facilities and checks can be done before arriving, the length of time to process each passenger could drop significantly

KMPete

Maybe they'll switch to an app, like the mobile passport that they have in the US. That makes it a snap to get through immigration since you have all of the info on your phone, you create a landing profile (same stuff as on the card really) which is sent to immigration, and at the airport have a QR code that they scan to let you in to the country. Pleasantly, I've never run into a line either when using the mobile passport, the first time being so quick I felt like I was doing something illegal.

LTN Phobia

My guess is that it will require API-style information to be provided prior to arrival. I sincerely hope that is indeed the case, so that it won't cause a bottleneck at the immigration if traveller have to input that information into a machine.

YacozA

Would a U.S. style "Mobile Pass" app work? and would the home office be able to roll it out before 2043?

UKtravelbear

The current system only costs £3.6m per year?

Seems low to me but how much would machines cost? Would it actually be cheaper to buy and maintain them than paper?

No doubt there would be a link between API info like there is on arrival in the US where one of the questions is 'did you arrive on XX flight?'

And if the info is in API then there really is no need to fill out paper at all. The border officer can ask questions like 'where are you staying' knowing full well the answer already given.


(OT but one of my bug bears is that many airlines only give them out near the end of the flight when people are tired and then need to faff around to find a pen and passport.)

Efrem

My experience with the U.S. system is that time with an immigration officer is much less than it was before the electronic kiosks were introduced. Yes, there's an additional step in the process, but overall time is still way down. Needing to queue twice is not necessarily a problem if the queues themselves are much shorter than previously - as, in my experience in the U.S., they are.

ajGoes

The mobile passport queue at EWR was zero when I entered a couple of weeks ago. Granted this was at 4:30 am, but it looked like the end of the regular line was already half an hour or so.

I did have to ask a guard where to go. There were big signs promoting mobile passport, and one sign pointing in the general direction of the right booth (number 15, next to the global entry kiosks), but the last step was unmarked.

Analise

1. What if I'm arriving at T3 LHR on one airline and departing another airline at T3 for GIB four hours later. Would I still go through this process?

2. Will those arriving at LHR from GIB also go through this new kiosk system?

UKtravelbear

If you are in transit and remain airside then no you wouldn't complete a landing card.

Analise

Thanks.

The second part of my trip has me landing at LHR from GIB and staying for a few days. I assume that I'd need to use the kiosk then assuming it's up and running the first week in October.

CDTraveler

Do you mean for US citizens or visitors?

My experience as a US citizen using the machines at YVR where you preclear for the US was that I scanned my passport, stood in front of the machine which matched me to my picture (scary thought!), it spit out the aforementioned flimsy paper, which I waved at the guard at the exit and I was through.

The hitch was my son - his passport photo was 4 years old, and 17 and 13 don't look much alike. The machine couldn't "match" the scan of him to the photo, so he had to go to the counter, the agent looked at him, looked at the passport, asked his name and sent him through.

That experience was much preferable to our most recent return home which required 40 minutes standing in line for 90 seconds with the agent. A machine system is not necessarily bad.

UKtravelbear

@Analise

Yes you will have to complete a card / use the machines on this part of your trip as you will be entering the UK.