Stamping passport of non-EEA family member with ILR under EUSS

My wife is a non-EEA citizen, who has ILR under the EUSS. Her ILR status was "grandfathered" from her pre-Brexit Permanent Residence status. She has a biometric residence card confirming her EUSS-ILR

I hold dual EEA and British citizenship. I was naturalised only after she got her PR (now ILR) so she got her PR and subsequently ILR status by using the Lounes precedent.

We travel a fair amount, and I had 3 questions

1) when we arrive back in the UK (usually at LH) - sometimes the immigration officer (UKVI I believe they are now called?) will stamp her passport, sometimes they will just waive her through.
Is there a rule on that? Or is it really just at the discretion of the UKVI officer? All those stamps are filling up her passport rather quickly...

2) ditto on fingerprinting - sometimes they'll insist on it, sometimes they don't do it all. Is there a rule or is it up to the officer?

3) lastly, and this may be specific to Heathrow, does she have a right to use the UK / EEA citizens lane when going through immigration?
Note her non-EEA country is not on the list of countries whose passport holders can use the e-gates, so in any case she'd need to see an officer.
But sometimes the 'any other citizen' line can be very long, and I would think that in principle she should be allowed to use the EEA lane given her status is derived from the EUSS.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this

robbie296 wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 19, 2022 3:47 pm

1) when we arrive back in the UK (usually at LH) - sometimes the immigration officer (UKVI I believe they are now called?) will stamp her passport, sometimes they will just waive her through.
Is there a rule on that? Or is it really just at the discretion of the UKVI officer? All those stamps are filling up her passport rather quickly...

2) ditto on fingerprinting - sometimes they'll insist on it, sometimes they don't do it all. Is there a rule or is it up to the officer?

It's been my experience as well, so I don't think there is a rule. Sometimes I got my passport stamped, sometimes not. Before Brexit, you definitely had the right not to get your passport stamped, and they didn't.

But you also had the right to request a stamp, for example if it was useful for you to prove specific dates of travel (this becomes evident when you apply for British citizenship. Usually non-EU passports only have to supply passports to prove UK residence because there are entry/exit stamps all over it. EU nationals and their families usually have to supply more documents, so having stamps is not always bad / no stamps is sometimes a double edged sword.)

3) lastly, and this may be specific to Heathrow, does she have a right to use the UK / EEA citizens lane when going through immigration?
Note her non-EEA country is not on the list of countries whose passport holders can use the e-gates, so in any case she'd need to see an officer.
But sometimes the 'any other citizen' line can be very long, and I would think that in principle she should be allowed to use the EEA lane given her status is derived from the EUSS.

Before Brexit and at Heathrow, definitely yes. In Birmingham, big No (they shout at you if you are non-EU even if you try to explain you're a EU family member, they are quite agressive and abusive). After Brexit... I have managed to still do it at Heathrow, but somehow I think people leading you to a certain queue are not always helpful/don't know... it has always depended on the situation. My EU partner and I have usually just gone to the shortest queue. Sometime it's the EU queue, sometimes the international one, if the airport is quiet.