Customs

It all depends on how many flights are arriving at the same time and how many immigration officers are on duty to handle it. In past visits it's taken me as long as 90 minutes to as little as a five minute wait time.

Michael is right. By the way, "Customs" is just a walk through a doorway marked "Nothing to Declare". It is Passport Control (Immigration) that takes the time.

The terminal is another factor in the mix.

Thanks for your answers. Sorry, I'm pretty new at this. So is then what I need to do is to go through Immigration, rather than "going through customs"?

You will go through immigration, then customs. The latter may well be just a walk through the nothing to declare door (presuming you do have nothing to declare of course), but there is the possibility you could be stopped here.

I'm just a tourist, and am not bringing a lot of money or anything else. What are the kinds of things one would declare?

"What are the kinds of things one would ?" You need to note every item of clothing, electronics, jewelry and luggage you carry and you need to provide a receipt showing exactly when and where you bought it. You also need to surrender all your credit and ATM cards for close inspection to make sure they meet UK standards... OK, just kidding, I couldn't help myself. You will almost certainly not bring anything that you must register (for some reason, this website suddenly doesn't like the word "deeclaire"). I'm not sure exactly what you would need to "deeclaire" in the UK, but in the Schengen Zone (of which the UK is not a member), it's things like more than €10,000 in cash, large amounts of high-value items like jewelry or precious metals, or large amounts of highly taxed and regulated products like alcohol, prescription medications or tobacco.

You first go through passport control, which is where there may be a long line and a bit of a wait. Then, if you have checked luggage, you need to collect it. You may still have to wait for it to be unloaded. Then it's through the green line (nothing to ). If you need the toilet (it's still a long way into London), best to use it after passport control but before you pick up your checked luggage.

Thanks, everyone, for your helpful replies. I now have a much better idea of the process.

Here is the guidance from the Heathrow website for arriving passengers. http://www.heathrowairport.com/heathrow-airport-guide/arriving-passengers PS - UK may not be in Schengen (ie border control of people) but we, as an EU member state, are still subject to EU rules on import/export of cash as well as other things.

I arrived at Heathrow at 7:00 yesterday morning and walked straight up to the desk in immigration without even one stop. Amazing, but not typical.

Marilyn, a small thing to be aware of are the "landing cards" that you need to present at passport control. As first timers ourselves on our trip last month, we didn't know what those were, so we didn't take one from the flight attendants on our flight. I figured it was another credit card application they were trying to promote interest in. The landing cards are where you write down info about your visit, including where you are staying, how you arrived (airline and flight number), when you are leaving, etc. It only takes a few minutes to fill out, but would be easier to fill out on the plane then while standing in a moving line and using a make shift writing surface. Another small thing to be aware of is that I don't believe you have the opportunity to use rest rooms in the airport until you've gone through passport control. If there was, I missed it. So I was really hoping for the line to move fast! Fortunately for me, it did on our trip.

Thanks Bruce, for the info on landing cards. I will be a tourist, and thus in different places at different times. Re where I will be staying, do they want to know specific addresses of where I will be staying, and every single place, or do they want to know each city and/or county/shire, or just a general plan. Sometimes people go over not knowing when/where ever single place and exactly how long in every place. Rick Steves doesn't mention them, and it sounds like he doesn't always know exactly every place he will be staying.

On the form I wrote that I would be touring several areas and that was fine with the gentleman who stamped by passport and forms were all OK.

You are required to tell each hotel on your route as you go along details of your next destination and where you intend to stay, if you know. All part of the Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972.