Probably Crazy Question about Going Through Immigration at London Heathrow Airport

Your post is very confusing so I will try to answer what I think you are asking.

Easy answer, anytime you fly from the US, you will go through immigration at your initial arrival point (although there are exceptions to this for some connections). So from your post, you would fly from the US to Frankfort and go through immigration there. Going on to Greece would not pass through immigration.

It then sounds like from Greece you go to Barcelona (again no immigration) and then on to London. In London you WILL go through immigration as the UK does not adhere to the Schengen Treaty for open borders. Same applies if you fly from London to somewhere else in Europe.

Hope that answers your question.

And it is the Schegen zone and not the EU. England is part of the EU (for the present) but not a part of the Schegen zone. The Schegden Zone countries allow for free passage between countries of the zone - that is most of central Europe. Once in the zone you only go through immigration once on entry and once on exit. If you go from Athens to London you will go through exit immigration in Athens and entry immigration in London. And, of course, customs but that is a quick walk through.

No need to go through immigration again in Athens or Barcelona if you fly US to Frankfort and go through immigration there. .
Where does Heathrow come in? If you fly to London from US or most of Europe, you need to go through immigration again as UK isn't in the Schengen Agreement. So Barcelona to LHR, yes you go through passport control again and it can take an hour or more.

Anytime you leave the Schengen in Europe as an American you will need to be checked by immigration authorities. The EU doesn't matter.

Frankfort is in Kentucky. Frankfurt is in Germany.

Thanks for the help. I knew England was part of the EU but didn't realize they were not part of the Schengen. I was typing as my husband was talking in the background (never a good idea) and didn't realize I had misspelled Frankfurt. He kept insisting we didn't go through immigration again in London but I was quite sure we did. Now we know to get in the correct line at London Heathrow Airport when we arrive.Thanks again.

Now we know to get in the correct line at London Heathrow Airport when
we arrive.

Just to clarify, any time a plane lands, ALL of the passengers will either need to go through immigration (international) or not go through immigration (domestic) in order to change terminals or leave the airport. When you land you will be FORCED to go through immigration if it is needed, just follow the signs to where you need to go and it will be part of the process. There is no option to "get in the right line" with some people bypassing immigration while others go through. The only "correct line" would potentially be citizen or non-citizen/foreigner.

Good point, JenC.

I will add that I always make a comfort stop if I pass a bathroom between deplaning and getting in the Passport Control line. Once you are in line you are stuck. I don't care if it puts me further back in the herd, just want to be comfortable if I have to stand in line for an hour or so.

Ha! Good advice, Pam. For international arrivals, my home airport (Denver International) has restrooms available just after deplaning and nothing more until after you have passed through (sometimes) lengthy immigration and collected your baggage. I learned that the hard way :)

I've flown through LHR many times in the past few years, with an American passport and an Irish passport. I've had to go through lines at immigration no many where I came from and no matter where I was going. Just be prepared for Immigration lines in Heathrow!

Once it was 15 minutes. Once it was 55 minutes. You never know!

Susan
Waterville, Ireland

This is very confusing---Barcelona, London, Frankfurt and Athens are all in the mix, but what is the flight path? In other words, when they fly into London, where are they coming from ( Barcelona?) and where are they going?

It is not true that all passengers flying through Heathrow have to pass through immigration/Passport control. In most cases, you can connect between flights "airside" without going through immigration, as you are not actually entering the UK.

There is a flight connection planner on the Heathrow website that will show you what to do.

As far as Schengen goes, will they get their passport date-stamped at Barcelona when they leave Schengen?

If you are coming to London from Barcelona, and changing planes to a flight back to the US, you can use the flight connection planner to see the steps.

http://www.heathrow.com/flight-connections

You will see that you do not go through immigration, just a security check.

Note that if you have checked bags that at present jot checked thru to your final destination, you WILL have to go through immigration to get to baggage claim and re-check.

Wow, I was not expecting so many replies. And in reading through them I see I have confused some people. So I will try to clarify. We are flying from Portland, Oregon to Denver, to Frankfurt, to Athens. On the return trip we fly from Barcelona to London and will spend 8 days in England, then fly back to Portland. So we will be leaving the airport and WILL HAVE to go through immigration. We did not know if we go through immigration again in LHR as we would have done it on arrival to Frankfurt. Thus we asked about another line, meaning for those who had already passed immigration in Europe--not to SKIP immigration, just to be in the correct place.. We did not realize that England is not part of the Schengren agreement (should have known that). I hope this clarifies some confusion. And, Sasha, the funny thing is, you asked if we were going from Barcelona to London to the US. Our original flight reservation WAS to do just exactly that, with a 10 hour layover in London. So then I asked th agent if we could stay in London for a few days and found out we could and so we are!

"For international arrivals, my home airport (Denver International) has restrooms available just after deplaning and nothing more until after you have passed through (sometimes) lengthy immigration and collected your baggage. I learned that the hard way :)"

Oh yes Andi, most of my advice was learned the hard way as well! Missed the bathroom, if there is one, in SEA one time and whew - !!! In SLC the airport volunteer in the Passport Control area spends her time point out the bathrooms and telling the crowd that there are none until you get thru Immigration/baggage claim/customs.

PDXGrammy, good plan to stay over in London for a few days!

Thanks for clarifying! Yes, you will go through immigration to enter the UK and go to London. Good choice to spend a few days there before flying home.