Passengers arriving through Heathrow can now pay to bypass UK immigration queues at the airport.
October 06 2009 by Liam Clifford
Passengers arriving through Heathrow who still have the older style non-biometric passports are being allowed to pay a 50 GBP fee to bypass normal UK immigration.
Heathrow airport, owned by BAA and the UK’s
largest airport, is set to introduce a new scheme offering non-biometric
passport holders a faster way to navigate UK immigration queues by stumping
up a £50 fee.
British passengers on the way back to the UK, will be allowed to pay to use
the new Automated Clearance System (ACS), also passengers will be offered the
chance to upgrade their passport to one of the new biometric versions.
Currently since the introduction of the new ACS system only people who have the
new biometric passports can use the faster UK immigration service for free.
In the UK
around 28 million people still have the older non-biometric passports. Most
people will almost certainly see the new rules as unfair, as they will have to
under-go normal UK
immigration passport control or, as is proposed, pay a fee. People migrating to
the UK will be subject to
normal passport procedures in terms of UK
visas and UK
immigration checks. However, customers travelling to the UK here for business and in receipt of a UK business
visa from within the EU will also be allowed to register for the fast-track
scheme.
BAA hopes that the new changes will be up and running from the start of 2010
and will greatly help to reduce congestion in Heathrow. This could help to relax
the burden on UK immigration
agents and lower queue levels for people repositioning themselves to the UK on various different visas, also those that are
returning to take up employment in the UK from abroad, that still have to
pass through immigration checks.
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