MomC Posted March 5, 2012 #1 Share Posted March 5, 2012 We are spending 4days in Ireland prior to flying into London. When we land at Heathrow, will be subject to the same strict customs and immigration scrutiny as those flying in directly from the USA? I have read that it can take 2 hours to clear customs & immigration at Heathrow. Is this true? We are American citizens flying from another British country. Mom C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wotaripper Posted March 5, 2012 #2 Share Posted March 5, 2012 We are spending 4days in Ireland prior to flying into London. When we land at Heathrow, will be subject to the same strict customs and immigration scrutiny as those flying in directly from the USA? I have read that it can take 2 hours to clear customs & immigration at Heathrow. Is this true? We are American citizens flying from another British country. Mom C Alot depends on what time of day you arrive we flew in from Hong Kong at 5.30 am last year and found it hard to even find anybody to check us in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celle Posted March 5, 2012 #3 Share Posted March 5, 2012 We are spending 4days in Ireland prior to flying into London. When we land at Heathrow, will be subject to the same strict customs and immigration scrutiny as those flying in directly from the USA? I have read that it can take 2 hours to clear customs & immigration at Heathrow. Is this true? We are American citizens flying from another British country. Mom C If you were staying in Northern Ireland then, yes, you would be flying from another British country. Shannon is in Ireland. Ireland itself (Eire) is not part of Britain. It's a separate country. The rules may be different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mairnealach Posted March 5, 2012 #4 Share Posted March 5, 2012 A common travel area exists between Ireland and the United Kingdom, and there are no passport controls in operation for Irish citizens travelling to the UK. I have never flown into Heathrow, but for the other London airports - Stansted, Gatwick, Luton - passengers on flights from Ireland are only required to show their boarding cards. There is minimal formality, normally you just walk through, and there does not appear to be any effort made to distinguish non-Irish citizens. Dermot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare VMax1700 Posted March 5, 2012 #5 Share Posted March 5, 2012 You will clear customs and immigration at Shannon as you will be entering Europe there. You will need your passports again for your flight from Shannon to Heathrow. At Heathrow there are no further formalities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MATHA531 Posted March 6, 2012 #6 Share Posted March 6, 2012 A lot of construction is going on at Heathrow but the last time I did Dublin to Heathrow we can in almost as if we were a domestic flight within the UK...no boarding card (required when entering the UK for non eu passpot holders who only need show their identity cards), no customs, no nothing to declare chute. From what I've read, there is some debate about this especially within the UK but to the best of my knowledge, the UK and Ireland still do not have formal border controls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bull Posted March 7, 2012 #7 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Neither UK nor the Republic of Ireland are signatories of the Schengen Agreement, ie no "open borders" with mainland Europe, thus both have border controls with all other countries. So someone wanting to smuggle into the UK, or enter/leave the UK illegally, would face border controls in the UK - unless they did this via the Rep of Ireland, in which case they'd face the Republic's border controls instead. As long as each has confidence in the border controls of the other, and as long as there's good communications between the two, they can have a reasonably "open border" between themselves. JB :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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