Fiance got her visa! Can she arrive in uk at 11pm on day before visa starts?

The flights are much more convenient for my fiance to arrive the evening before the day her visa starts.  She could wait in corridor on the way to immigrations for an hour. Would this be a big problem for immigrations?

She can wait airside.  But it's more practical to join the queue and just get on with it.  If the IO wants to quibble over an hour, she can pull out a copy of Paragraphs 31 and 31A and quibble right back.     But be nice cuz it's discretionary.

Congratulations on the visa, but then, with hindsight, of course there was not going to be a problem.

Arrive before visa start? If she is US, and therefore not a Visa National, she will encounter no problem boarding the plane. The plane could of course be delayed a bit, and it probably would not be a good idea to get to the head of the queue to speak to the Immigration Officer before the start of her visa ..... but can she help it if she needed to use the toilet as soon as she got off the plane?

She is landing at Heathrow? The queues for non-EEA/Swiss can be quite long so no way she would need to loiter in a corridor until Midnight.

She is landing at Heathrow? The queues for non-EEA/Swiss can be quite long so no way she would need to loiter in a corridor until Midnight.

I wouldn't always count on that. Last month flying United (thus coming in terminal 1) we spent less than 10 minutes from hallway to the nice young gentleman stamping my US passport.



I'd personally say no one could blame her if she needed to stop and freshen up, especially given those airplane lavs  But depending upon how far back she is on the plane, most of that hour might get taken up anyways.

We entered through Heathrow last month as well and there was actually no one in line!  I couldn't believe my eyes.

Yeah, it really depends on the time of day.  Early morning is the busiest for queues - so if she's arriving late at night, there likely won't be much of a wait.  However, if the IO wants to get technical, he/she'll probably just have her sit in a chair until the clock hits midnight .  An hour isn't really much of a deal - and it sometimes takes that long to get off the plane anyway!

Each time I flew into Heathrow I landed around 8 am.  Once there was no queue at all, once there was a crazy long one, and once there was a so-so wait of about 15-20 minutes.  I suppose it can vary greatly. 

Yeap, she can hang out on the plane until everyone has de-boarded and then finally go, and then go into the loo and freshen up...and then wait in any possible queues...  I think an hour is pretty easy to kill!