Immigration service at airports what would you change

[racedo]

Not asking about each countries controls but following on from thread re US Immigration Queues and the line / queue and what appears to work well or could be improved.

On experience travelling within Europe often with Children I like the way that some immigration services insist families with babies / very young kids go to front of queue...gets rid of them and stops often tired littlies getting upset going nowhere fast and annoying everyone else.

Have noticed it in Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Italy and France.......never in UK, couple of these countries other passengers / immigration officers have pushed families forward deliberately so they could go through quicker.

Last flight to Stansted from Italy took 1 hour to clear immigration with quite a few mums with crying babies (11.30pm), ours passed that stage now. Border Police Guy came into crowd from mezzanine platform purposefully, assummed he was going to ask the families with babies to come forward and get them moved on, he more upset because he claimed someone took a photo of the 1000 plus people queueing. Less than half the desks open and immigration guys said like this every night blaming airlines.

Don't think he got the customer service bit.

[Load Toad]

I think someone has pointed out before that 'Customs' and 'Immigration' are there for a countries safety and security and customer service isn't their job.

Saying that (which I kind of agree with) I think that it makes sense for both safety and security to get passengers checked through a fast and pain free as possible.

So - I'd change the hell hole at Theifrow for a start.

[James 1077]

Auckland Airport has a separate counter for travellers with families - this works really well.

They also have exceptionally friendly staff, greeters who stand at baggage collection to help with bulky bags (or, in our case, to push one of our trolleys) and, when you arrive, immigration greet you with a "welcome home".

All in all a very pleasant experience!

[Al Fakhem]

I would generally get immigration officers to wear uniforms.

Then I would have them send back persons in the wrong queue (e.g. non-EU-citiziens pax in EU-only line) instead of pi$$ing around with them, checking their visa and stamping their passports at the time expense of everyone else who is in the correct queue.

[Rush2112]

Fast track for business class passengers!

[Gibon2]

I'm glad you asked. I've given a lot of thought to this, mostly while waiting in immigration queues. Inexplicably, no immigration official has yet sought my advice on how to fix things.

This is how it should be:

- No separate categories (e.g. citizens, non-citizens, etc). I'm not convinced that having separate lines makes things any faster, on average, for anybody. After all, everybody is a citizen in some places and a non-citizen in others. What we want is maximum throughput, which means having every immigration officer constantly supplied with a "customer". Separate lines often means some counters are empty while others are overloaded. So we want one category, with all counters fed from a single queue (so no dithering about which one to join).

- A side channel for Difficult Cases. Again, we want throughput - not counters being clogged by those mysterious people who for some reason require pages of typing into computers, phone calls, multiple stamps, puzzled peering at documents, etc. Anyone who needs more than a scan of a passport, entry of a visa number, and a single stamp gets sent straight to the side channel, where highly trained Difficult Cases experts deal with them without holding up the main line.

- Advance warning of what documents need to be presented. You can assume everyone will have their passport reasonably handy, but if you want to see people's return or onward air tickets, you'd better tell them early, because such things may be buried deep in bags or backpacks. If you give landing cards to the airline to hand out on the plane (an excellent plan), make sure these cards advertise prominently the documents that are required.

- Give people something useful to do while they wait, at least in the larger establishments. Have monitors showing information on how to get to the city for example, taxi prices, train schedules, exchange rates, interesting local information. Or maybe showing the crowd waiting in the arrival hall, so people can amuse themselves trying to pick out Granny or their limousine driver. Or have mobile vendors moving up and down the queues selling train and bus tickets, or changing money.

That's all - not that difficult or expensive to do.

[eastern wiseguy]

Fast track for business class passengers!


No...once you are on the ground you are as big a pleb as me....get in line!!:ok::ok:

[TightSlot]

I'll never forget - at LAX, pre 9/11, arrived as pax with other/better half and two toddlers. There was a queue down a corridor to join the queue at immigration. Cunningly, you didn't realize about the second queue until reaching the end of the corridor, just when you thought you'd made progress!

Once in main queue, we stand there with same look on our face as cattle half a second after the bolt goes in, and the kids start running around, crying, and generally doing their job as professional toddlers. Big uniform guy approached us: Made my peace with God as thought he might shoot us for not being American. Instead, he pointed and beckoned with one finger - Come with me to the front of the line. I never found out whether this was a random act of kindness, or he just couldn't stand the kids anymore, and to be frank, didn't care. Most enjoyable of all, was the reaction of those immediately behind in the line when we were placed just ahead - hissing, spitting, silent fury, they begrudged the simplest act of kindness to another human because it caused them a minor inconvenience.

So, what would I like to see most? Separate queues for families with young kids, for the U.S. I'd like immigration forms that were designed to be as easy as possible to complete, instead of the reverse, and I'd like Immigration officers that extend basic courtesy, instead of brusqueness, in other words that treat me as they would wish to be treated themselves.

Doesn't seem a lot to ask really, but apparently it is too much

[VnV2178B]

As an addition to Gibon2's point on documents:

Make the landing card obvious so that you can complete it as far as possible before hitting the front of the queue, and make the spaces big enoujgh to hold all the information required. AXA this means you!

VnV

[SLFAussie]

If immigration aren’t treating the majority of people passing through in a ‘nice’ way please change it. Immigration and customs is the first contact people have with the government of a country on their arrival, so it's the first impression of the country. The job might be to keep out people and things who aren't allowed in, but the vast majority of people entering a country through an airport are doing so legitimately.

The attitude of the staff and the physical environment defines the first impression of the country. Smiling, polite border control staff in a pleasant, well organised environment makes a big difference to surly unsmiling staff in a shabby dysfunctional environment.

Comparing something like Heathrow and Melbourne is instructive. Australia has strict customs inspections because of fierce quarantine laws, but what’s not allowed is advertised on the concourses and if you're honest about what you have in your bags, the staff are polite and friendly and bags are inspected in a pleasant well-lit area. It says that if you respect us we’ll be nice to you.

Contrast Heathrow's immigration area. Grim, shabby, poorly staffed. Carpet held together with gaffer tape. Last time I went through I joined the wrong queue because the lighting was so dim I couldn't actually see the person staffing the desk I was supposed to be at - I was one of the first off the plane to reach the desks. The customs area was deserted and looked like it was put together with bits left over from a building renovation. That sends the message “we don’t care”.

[GwynM]

1...get IRIS working EVERY time

2...more seating in the queues - not everyone can stand for an hour at a time

3...decent lighting and signage

4...proper manning levels

5...clean the toilets occasionally (they are usually cleaner anywhere else in the world than T3:yuk:)

[jethrobee]

I agree with the IRIS comment, those machines are always breaking down!

I am annoyed that when coming through T2 the other day there were 20+ desks with only 2 dedicated to UK/EU nationals. Other countries have more for their own citizens, especially now that they are going through this "extra care" security and actually taking time to look at passports.

Lack of a fast-track for UK/EU arrivals, but I don't always fly business class so would prefer for them to get the balance of open desks right. It irks me that as a UK citizen I cant use the fast-track, yet a non UK/EU citizen can.

Having said that, my last few experiences of the immigration officers have been positive, normally they say good morning, or greet you.

[ZFT]

Immigration (and customs) are a true reflection of the country you are entering. You will never change their attitude by legislation let alone suggestion.

[Diver_Dave]

I'm not convinced that having separate lines makes things any faster, on average, for anybody

Now we're into my area professionally allbeit telephony normally!

A single queue system will always have a time advantage
on multiple queue systems as each agent has a constant feed. Provided
the service required is the same, it does make sense to have 2 queues as
the work types are different with different handle times.

The actual calculations are fairly simple to do see:-
Erlang distribution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_distribution)

Now...

These are based on a known volume of arrivals, a known 'handle time'
for arrivals and the probability function describing when you need to staff
in order to deal with X arrivals in Y minutes.

This can be turned on it's head to say I have X officers available, Y Arrivals
therefore the queue will take Z minutes.

Now forgive me if I'm wrong but...
Don't airports have scheduled arrivals? They know when the offficers will
be needed, they know how long it takes so staffing *should* be simple.

IMHO T1 at MAN is chronic for this, arrive after 10 at night and it's 3 flights arriving at once,
no IRIS, no BIO, 4 desks open, three EU and one Non-Eu
and a queue halfway back up the tunnel.

Although my last two visits have been better.

As stated above it's the first introduction to the country, let's
face it, red tape and queues.. What's not to recognise!

DaveA

[Jarvy]

Single line for everyone. No kids so why should I have to wait longer??
It would also help everyone if passengers had passports and any immigration forms ready and filled out correctly.
On a brighter note US immigration at Boston Logan are starting to be almost friendly and helpful.

[Andy_S]

Contrast Heathrow's immigration area. Grim, shabby, poorly staffed. Carpet held together with gaffer tape. Last time I went through I joined the wrong queue because the lighting was so dim I couldn't actually see the person staffing the desk I was supposed to be at

I don't know which terminal you went through, but if it was T3 I don't recognise your description. It's well lit and the various channels are adequately signposted. The immigration officials are courteous and efficient.

The way it's organised, though, sucks big time. One channel for EU / UK passport holders which seems to immediately form into two long queues without any obvious instruction to do so. A random number of working desks which always seem to open from right to left, so if you're in the RHS queue then you're stuck with a couple of hundred other people queueing for one immigration point, while those on the LHS get split into 2,3 or more shorter queues as additional desks open. Surely someone could think of a better way. And there are never, ever enough passport control officers.

[Donkey497]

Simple answer - copy the Atlanta Hartsfield immigration halls.

Wide, airy, well lit & tastefully decorated. Double sided with passengers coming in from both sides, twenty to thirty desks a side, the majority of which are manned. There's plenty of room to queue with plenty of customer service and TSA agents available to direct people to join shorter queues and help folk who are having difficulty filling out the immigration & customs forms. There's also plenty of tables with extra forms and pens to help speed up the whole process.

Once cleared through, there's even more TSA agents to direct you through to the escalators to bagage reclaim & customs clearance.

Painless & Rapid process, there's even a whole host of (working) moving walkways to speed you from the gate to imigration & beyond.


Compare that to Theifrow. Boy do Ferrovial have a lot to learn about customer service.

[Load Toad]

Funny innit - places like Hong Kong and especially Singapore they can sort things out very efficiently. Also in HK I can use my PR ID card and go straight through the electronic gate at immigration.

[AUTOGLIDE]

Get rid of queues in the UK airports, they are all appalling and generally hateful to arrive in, then once you do get to the front the passport checker is usually the most miserable looking person on the planet. I like the system used at MUC/FRA, multiple passport control points, rarely a queue of more than a couple of minutes.
Then again, once Gordon 'thick as a 4 four foot plank' Clown increases the APD, there won't be many people flying in or out of the UK anyway.

[IB4138]

Apparently there is no room to install IRIS in MAN T3, UK Border Control Area.

Has anyone addressed this in the internal rebuild?

[Rush2112]

Funny innit - places like Hong Kong and especially Singapore they can sort things out very efficiently. Also in HK I can use my PR ID card and go straight through the electronic gate at immigration.

SIN I agree, it should be the model for just about everywhere. I do find though that the thumbprint machines never accept my thumbprint, and it's as quick to go down the old-fashioned route! HKG not so sure, the queues can be awful. Mind you, since I discovered the Frequent Visitor card, it's OK!