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Arrival process at LHR

Posted by (Tuscaloosa, AL) on

I know that over the past few months there have been some changes to the arrival procedure at Heathrow and with our trip three weeks away, I just wanted to make sure I've got this correct.:
Prior to landing from US, we should NOT expect to be given nor complete Landing Cards
Go to Arrivals, then on to Passport Control, where we can use e-gates using the Non EU passport queue. (Yes, we have the chip logo on our Passports)
Go through customs
Get luggage
Meet Transportation to hotel

Is this correct?

Posted by
23245 posts

The order is immigration/passport control -- luggage -- customs --- transportation.

Posted by
2788 posts

I went thru this on June 4th when flying in from Seattle. It took less than 15 minutes to complete the whole process and exit. Now when we returned to Seattle from London on June 24 it took over one hour to go thru these processes with the big delay caused at passport control where there we only two agents on duty to process hundred of returning passengers and that was at 1730 hours.

Posted by
8889 posts

Customs is the check on goods, whether the stuff you are bringing in is legal and if any taxes are to be paid. Logically it has to be after luggage reclaim, as they are interested in the contents of your luggage.
But it is a random check only, 95%+ are not stopped.

Yes, Landing Cards have been abolished.

Posted by
11136 posts

Great news! This is such a relief as we always take daytime flights from US to LHR and stay overnight there. The immigration lines have been horrid unless you get Fast Track.

Posted by
64 posts

Yeah, That's it.
I think by customs you mean immigration (I'm guilty of saying that too)
E gates are super easy and the longest part of the process was the walk to Immigration.
Super easy!

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