Lothianlad

At the present time the problems faced by many passengers who have landed at Heathrow Airport, expecially, and who have to be processed by immigration officials working for the UK Border agency are receiving a great deal of publicity in the UK media.

It is not so much impolite or rude attitudes displayed by the UK Border staff at the passport control desks but the very long delays the passengers are currently having to endure as they wait for their entry checks.....sometimes the delays can be as long as 2 hours or more. Those affected are people who do not hold UK or EU passports, and those who are UK or EU citizens are normally processed in little more than 10 minutes or so in most cases.

The Home Office here in the UK has put into force plans to tighten up all security checks at airports for a variety of reasons, which is understandable (it seems that in the USA the delays are even worse according to reports I have heard in the UK media) - passengers most affected being those holding non UK/EU passports, but a more likely reason, according to certain spokespersons in the UK media, is a shortage of available staff employed by the UK Border Agency.

What annoys and upsets many passengers waiting very long times to pass through immigration at Heathrow is the sight of so many unmanned checking in desks in Passport Control.

kampaicharger

In Australia, the standard used to be 95% of passengers within 30 minutes.

On easy days you could process a flight within 10-15 minutes, but when 3 jumbos's land together and you have a thousand folks turning up at once, this could blow out a fair bit.Which meant the "average" was under 30 minutes. Spin doctoring at it's best.

Despite the new claims of rostering at Heathrow "fixing" the problem, there is no substitute for bums on seats, which in this case means more Officer's processing gets more people processed in a quicker time frame.

It ain't rocket science

austin_d_powers

Your id is shaman, your wife is not British, your wife lives in another country.
If your wife comes from India (or similar country) then I am wrong and sorry for posting this.
If your wife comes from Pakistan (or similar country) then what do you expect, you should be glad "the official gave her a very hard time" only some of the time.

SanDiegogirl

Rather harsh.

Looking back at the OP's posting I think his wife is a Canadian citizen.

Editha

Your id is Austin d Powers.

You think shaman is a name that implies origins in the Indian sub-continent. Even though it is derived from a Siberian word and has entered the English language through its use by anthropologists -- so nothing to do with India or Pakistan.

You also fail to notice this has been re-posted from the Canada forum.

Your id suits you.

Sally Redux

Also the guy signed his post 'Alan'.

pTeronaut

My USC wife has also complained to me about the treatment that she received from the border agents at MAN, last year, we flew in to LHR and this time I went through the non-EU line with her, and we had no trouble whatsoever. I don't know whether it was a different location or that I was with her that garnished the favourable attitude, but after I naturalize, it intend to enter with my US passport to sample the treatment as a foreign national, and if I receive bad service, I will kick up a stink, as they cannot refuse me entry when I produce my valid UK passport.

Lothianlad

BBC Radio Five Live phone-in programs have focused on this very issue - reported delays at certain UK airports and at London Heathrow especially as experienced by holders of non UK/non EU passports.

It was interesting to hear some callers refer to similar problems occurring at a variety of airports in the USA - UK citizens being forced to wait up to 2 hours or more at passport controls and being confronted by extremely officious immigration staff who were less than polite or courteous, who displayed an air of dismissiveness and even superiority - all in all quite rude and unpleasant - I am only quoting the words of some of those British callers to the BBC Five Live presenters.

Some callers went so far as to say that airport delays are even more acute at least some USA airports.

Maybe some of you can either confirm or deny that to be the case over there.

dunroving

I've waited over 2 hours to get through US Immigration. If you include the time to get through customs, it would add up to over 2 hours. On most occasions, though, it usually takes less than 30 minutes.

Some US airports seem to be quicker and more polite than others.

If you watch some of the fly-on-the-wall programmes about immigration officers, police, etc., you realise that a) their primary job isn't to be polite (though the tolerance of UK police always amazes me), and b) the people they are dealing with aren't always polite.

If I don't have an automatic right to enter the US, I make sure I answer politely and accurately and if the POE officer is being a bit of a tw*t or apparently having a bad day, I keep my opinion to myself.

shaman

austin-d-powers, perhaps you could not see THAT MY WIFE IS NOT INDIAN, PAKISTANI, ASIAN BUT Canadian, goodness you sound as rude as the agency man who questioned my CANADIAN WIFE, perhaps if you read the thread properly, you might see before posting offensive answers. It is obvious you know nothing of Shamanism, the word comes from Russa , not asia, Tungus-speaking peoples of Siberia, i myself am a shaman, by birth and in my own right, its my way of life. I allready have you down for an offensive indevidual. Sorry to other Polite posters and many thanks to them.....Alan, BRITISH BY DESCENT BRITISH BY BIRTH, BRITISH ROOTS BACK TO THE DOOMSDAY BOOK AND BEYOND.

Sally Redux

I have often waited 2 hours at LAX. Immigration is slow but customs unbelievably so. 1 bloke sits there taking the paper declaration off each person - seems very antiquated.

They also used to have a very laborious system of taking your luggage to be X-rayed on departure, I think that might have improved now.

paranoidandroid

I'm not sure what people expect.. someone sitting at the immigration booth with a huge smile on their face, handing out a welcome flag and kissing their hand, perhaps? A red carpet, and a "Thank you for entering the country"?

We all have to tolerate crappy long journeys where we feel impatient at the end of them, and the immigration people have to tolerate thousands of people a day that think they should be able to get into a country with a wave and a nod.

It's an airport, it's how things are. Get over it.

paranoidandroid

I've had the same flying into Hartsfield, Atlanta. The whole procedure was even worse in 2002 after the whole 9/11 thing.
Even getting on the plane to come back to the US from LGW was a major pain in the butt 2 or 3 years ago, with jumped up people wanting to go through your bags and tell you to stand where you were. It was one of the few times I couldn't wait to get on the plane back here.. still, at least I had the pleasure of coughing my flu germs all over them as I waited for them to not find anything in my cabin luggage bags.

SanDiegogirl

No we don't expect a welcome flag and kissing of the hand, just common courtesy and politeness.

We, as passengers these days, are expected to behave decently towards these officials so we should expect the same from them.

These officials are, after all, being paid for doing what they do - and quite handsomely too in most cases; so the least they can do is be professional and efficient.

If they are not enjoying their work they should find another job - not take it out on people who, by the very fact of them travelling, are the reason they have their livelihood in the first place.

paranoidandroid

People don't expect it from Walmart cashiers, I've no idea why they expect it from immigration officials. It seems a lot of passengers fill out paperwork incorrectly, and love to whine about the immigration officers because of that.
Part of the professionalism you mention doesn't include being our best friends. They're in a job where everyone is a suspected illigal immigrant, or didn't that occur to anyone?
I've been questioned before when entering the UK at LGW on my British passport, it's just the way it is.
The OP has a situation where his Canadian wife is obviously out of the country a lot, it throws up a perfectly obvious red flag.

Whining and complaining about the officials in charge of admitting possible illegal immigrants seems more than petty, yet so many people still do it. .