LHR from Europe, do non-EU persons go through Immigration?

The way I understand it, Germany is a Schengen Zone country and the UK is not, so you will have to go through Passport Control at Heathrow. Being American has nothing to do with it, except that as an American you cannot go through the EU passport queue, but must use the "Rest of the World Passports" queue.

First question, are you leaving the airport or just passing through on your way back to the States?

For many changes at LHR you stay within a controlled international lounge area and never officially enter the UK, so you do not go through immigration or customs.

If you are actually entering the UK from outside, even Germany, you will have to go through immigration. Most of Europe is in what is called the Schengen Treaty zone, which allows free movement of people without immigration checks. So, going from Germany to France, or to Austria, or to Switzerland, does not envolve immigration checks, but going into the UK does.

On the other hand, the EU allows the free flow of goods so, since both Germany and the UK are in the EU, there would be no customs checks.

thanks--we are leaving LHR-was wondering how quickly we get out--so--not quickly! thanks, Elaine

Elaine, it's been years since I went through immigration in the UK, but I have been through it coming into a Schengen country 7 times in the last 10 years. I don't think it's ever taken more than 10 minutes. As long as there are no complications, they just scan the bar code on your passport and stamp the book. That part takes less than a minute. Waiting in line takes the most time, and there are usually multiple, parallel lines. It's far easier than going through security in this country.

Even if you are just changing planes at LHR and not actually entering the UK, the process can be frustratingly slow. Last time I was there, I had arrived from USA and was changing planes to go to Athens. I had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to go through security, just to be able to transfer from one terminal to another at Heathrow. I barely made the connection to Athens. Security at Heathrow insists on screening all incoming international passengers, and it is inefficient and slow.

In June, 2005, we flew KLM from Amsterdam to LHR, then left the airport for a week of car travel. It took us over an hour to clear immigration. I think we were the only non-EU people on the plane and only one passport check desk was open. The line had at least a hundred people from some other plane that had just arrived. When we finally finished, our luggage had been removed from the carousel and placed in an unattended corner. Luckily, no one took it. To compare, last summer we took the ferry from Calais to Dover. Immigration took about five minutes.