haggis88

The little guy who directs you at the lines told us to go to separate lines last time we visited the UK (me British, her Canadian) and the Border guard gave her shit cos I wasn't with her...

sharkus

I was using my UK passport, travelling with my young son, thus using his Canadian Passport (plus without his mother, as we're separated), plus my US girlfriend using her US passport. I was pondering if we should go up together to the EU / UK section, or split up. We decided to all go up, no issues whatsoever. Wasn't even asked for the consent letter for my son either (had one just in case, along with his birth certificate).

I think the most we got quizzed was at pearson, by the person looking over the landing / customs form, as there were three forms due to three different addresses. We simply said that he was my son, but didn't live full time with me, and that was it

All in all, I think the security and passport side of things was much quicker and more efficient than prior trips I have made.

DigitalGhost

Yeah to be honest, we have never questioned it in the UK since the first time and the non-EU lines in the UK never seem to have a problem processing me with a UK passport. If you fly into an airport other than LHR or LGW then it can speed things up as well since most visitors tend to be stumped by the UK landing card so it's fairly easy to get ahead in the queue.

Gozit

When I was reading the signs on the tram at heathrow there did seem to be some strict guidelines for EU/non-EU lines, they seem to be pretty anal there. Although I couldn't tell you since we didn't have to go through immigration there. All I got was a dirty look from the border guard when I took my Canadian passport family through the EU line in Munich when I was the only one on an EU passport, other than that we were fine.

DigitalGhost

I think LHR have come under strict criticism over the past few years regarding wait times (times > 2 hours and more are not unknown) so they try to keep traffic moving as quickly as possible.

Gozit

Makes sense... Although for family unification purposes I think there should at least be a unified standard throughout the EU on people with mixed EU/non-EU passports throughout their families.

DigitalGhost

Yeah the one annoyance for us in that regard is that Britain doesn't separate permanent or long-term residents from visitors in any way like most major countries do. The US for example divides people into 3 groups (citizens, green card holders and other) and that makes more sense to me. It can be a real pain if my OH (who has UK ILR) gets stuck behind someone from a non-preferred country or a newly arriving foreign student at the airport.

Engineer_abroad

My wife with UK ILR gets the same shitty attitude everytime she comes back through Heathrow. The immigration officers at LHR have become as bad as some in the US for rudeness IMO.

BritInParis

Consider naturalisation?

BristolUK

I've not crossed an international border since 2004.

Gozit

None of the EU does, its just divided into EU nationals or non-EU nationals... I think people with permanent residence/ILR should be able to go through the UK/EU line though.

This, especially if you are planning to immigrate to Canada, if she loses ILR it is not the same process anymore, you need to be earning at least 18,600 pounds to bring her back in on a spouse visa and its not instant ILR either. Id get her UK citizenship ASAP, no reason not to unless her country is one of the idiot ones that still doesn't permit dual nationality.

DigitalGhost

Which unfortunately my partner's nationality is otherwise we would be looking at getting a UK passport for her now since I'm sure that she fulfils the requirements.

Tbh, I never really consider how the rest of the EU does things because the Europeans are mostly completely inept when it comes to border control. It's only really the UK and Ireland that come anywhere near close to getting things right in Europe.