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The UK's borders used to be hilariously lax. In 2000 I travelled a lot. To leave, as you note, you just left. To return, you'd walk past a man at Heathrow who
by jen729w 1y ago
The UK's borders used to be hilariously lax. In 2000 I travelled a lot. To leave, as you note, you just left.
To return, you'd walk past a man at Heathrow who was invariably reading the paper. He had his feet up on the desk. You were walking at a clip, passport held aloft, photo page ostensibly open towards him.
That was it. Immigrated.
- aprdm 1y agoIn 2014 I landed on either Heathrow or another London airport I don’t remember coming from Spain after a vacation I read on a sign “travellers from Europe this way” and I thought ok my flight came from Spain I’m going that way … when I saw I was out of the airport with no immigration whatsoever In hindsight it obviously meant if you’re European (which I’m not), I was in shock how easy someone could get in the UK !
- bluGill 1y agoI don't know about UK, but my experience is the signs for EU and non-EU point different directions, but either way you just go through a door that leads to the exact same place. I've been told that when they are looking for "something" they will put extra checks at the non-EU door, but if you have a US passport (I presume other countries like Canada) in hand they will send you through the EU door.
- sksksk 1y agoAre you sure your passport wasn’t checked? What you’re describing sounds like it was the customs check. Pre-brexit, if you were arriving from the EU, then there was no customs check since we were all part of the same customs union. The usual flow is immigration check -> baggage collection -> customs check
- aprdm 1y agoYeah wasn’t checked. I’m pretty sure it was a smaller airport than Heathrow. I definitely went through the wrong path out
- ssdspoimdsjvv 1y agoPerhaps your passport was checked on departure instead of on arrival? At least that's how it worked when taking the Eurostar train.
- strbean 1y agoEven if they did check his passport, he didn't have an EU passport so probably shouldn't have been allowed to skip customs.
- sksksk 1y agoFrom a customs perspective, flying from one EU country to another EU is treated like a domestic flight. If I (a British citizen) flew from London to New York, then on to Chicago; I'd expect to go through customs when I arrived at New York, but not when I arrived at Chicago.
- strbean 1y agoAh, good point.
- qingcharles 1y agoNo, you were good. You were already inside the Schengen Area so you actually took the correct path, though I can see how the sign seems vague now I read it from your perspective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area
- M2Ys4U 1y agoThe UK was never in the Schengen Area, though.
- somanyphotons 1y ago2 years ago I landed at London City (from Zurich), got off the plane and then we all walked all the way to the exit without being stopped by a single human to check passports or customs. I couldn't believe it. I am not a British or EU citizen