How long did your Heathrow immigration take?

[Rhys]

Thought this would be interesting – how long did it take you to get through Heathrow immigration on your last trip?

Bonus points if more than 10 eGates were open when you were there!

I actually managed to get through in about 15 minutes last week, although my passport now refuses to work with the eGates full stop.

[andrew]

Lucked out with <5 mins queue on all trips this year.

[John]

Only managed 1 trip overseas in 2021 in the short window where my destination had zero requirements (except vaccine proof) and UK requirement was just LFT on return.

Took 20 seconds to get through immigration at LHR T5. 10 e-gates were open.

It helps that everyone likes to line up for the e-gates near the front of the queue (and the purple people point you in that direction) but nobody goes to the gates closer to the desks, which are always free or just about to become free.

[roger]

Few of my trips less than 5 minutes wait.

My gripe is with Spanish immigration which takes on average 30 minutes in queue for 30 seconds of work. E gates not open for uk passport since brexit.

[QFFlyer]

About half an hour in total arriving on QF1 recently. There was clearly an EK arrival just ahead of us which meant T3 was busy, but the queues moved quickly. A lot of the e-gates were open, I didn’t bother counting after 27 hours of flying, but it was almost def more than 10.

[Cosmo175]

Straight through with no wait last Wednesday morning at around 8am, definitely more than 10 gates open.

[Helen]

Whole experience from touchdown to collecting baggage and emerging in 20 minutes at T5 last Wednesday. Taxi driver greeting us said he’d never seen Heathrow so quiet at that time of a weekday…. 1630.

Slightly longer duration in mid October on a Sunday, but mainly caused by waiting for baggage, however e gates working well even though T5 was very busy. About 30 minutes that time, including a longer walk from a more distant stand.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Helen.

[Whisper2]

Less than 5mins in T5 on Friday night at 2320 – were we the last flight in? Just 2 officers on in the Border kiosk, but only about 6 people in front of us in the queue.

[Aliks]

Less than 1 min last Friday at 4pm – almost all e-gates working, and no-one queuing at 10 of them!

[modestpointscollector]

B gate to taxi with hold luggage in under 20 minutes beginning of Nov, A gate to tube in about 10 min a week later, never been through T5 so quick in either direction as I have with my 2 trips this year.

[davefl]

Sunday at 10.30, all egates open, no wait. Same coming back in via North security half an hour later after my halo test.

[athruna]

Coming back from Canada on a Sunday in October, it took over 40 minutes. The queue was snaking around the corridor and then suddenly disappeared. No clue why. Possibly the eGates were acting up as it took me a number of attempts for my passport to be read. There was also a very large queue for the manned gates, lots of families with kids.

Coming back this Monday from the US, we walked straight through. Several eGates free. However, took us another 1h 30 before we could leave the airport due to the wait for luggage and PCR test at Halo.

[tiriavpo]

Mostly less than 10 minutes. Even when the tense queue looks bad, snaking round the entire room, it has moved quickly AND we had nearly all of the e-gates open (plenty of people seemed to be unable to work them though!)

On one trip, we were horrified to be directed to a queue which ran the entire length of the arrival corridor but even that only took 20 minutes in the end to get to the gates.