Flying into Heathrow from Shannon--will the customs & immigrations be as strict?

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 :)