US Immigration - Where not to meet it...

DKLS

TBH, I find US security a doddle these days after flying into Boston Logan the week after 9/11.

DaMaNiAc82

Had a 45 minute interrogation at the desk on arrival at Houston. However I had just flown in from Guatemala. Making the 1 hour connection was very tight!!

Flying out of JFK there were no problems at all. In fact no one even checked my passport until I arrived in London!

anguilla

lfc321 wrote: »

It's not as simple as different airports being better or worse - it's more down to the time you arrive and the number of other simultenous flights arriving, the day of the week, which terminal, the attitude of the individual immigration officer etc etc etc.

But as I said, circumstances probably more important than which airport.

I also maintain that, despite the horror stories, US immigration is no worse than what non-EU visitors experience on entry into the UK.

There is always that side of the fence that we don't see - ie the long wait at LHR although I have accompanied a non-EU person through T3 and that only took 30 mins for her to clear immigration.

I've done SXM (St Maarten) in less than 5 mins because I was first off the plane and that was the quickest anywhere in the world I've done.

Having said that some US ports like Miami can be a proverbial nightmare any time - it does not really matter how many flights in there are if they are training staff then those newbies tend to be excessively thorough and they dont care how long you have to wait. If you get a lot of those and a lot of flights 3-4 hours transit time can be too short That to my mind is a management decision that does not recognize the effect it can have on your tourist market.

Marty_J

I've never had to wait longer than 5 minutes at Newark.

The last time, I flew from Dublin, so was pre-cleared there. There were maybe about 30 people in line in front of me, but all the windows were servicing the one line, so it moved pretty fast.

BusinessStudent

Marty_J wrote: »

I've never had to wait longer than 5 minutes at Newark.

The last time, I flew from Dublin, so was pre-cleared there. There were maybe about 30 people in line in front of me, but all the windows were servicing the one line, so it moved pretty fast.

When you get to the US do they question you again or do random checks?

ferf1223

lfc321 wrote: »

I also maintain that, despite the horror stories, US immigration is no worse than what non-EU visitors experience on entry into the UK.

I would agree with that - as a US citizen who has lived here for 8 years, I have stood in far, FAR longer queues to get into the UK (especially since they no longer have a visa-holder's queue) than any queue my husband has experienced at ANY airport in the US and we have flown into a fair few. I think the record was over 2 hours at Gatwick and that was just being a queue - not detained for any reason. It does of course depend on what other international flights are arriving at the same time as has been stated.

IRIS is a godsend for me when returning to the UK - since I'm a resident, I qualify for it and can now skip the queue.

Marty_J

BusinessStudent wrote: »

When you get to the US do they question you again or do random checks?

I just had to collect my luggage and take it through customs; there is no US customs facility at Dublin yet.

dzug1

BusinessStudent wrote: »

When you get to the US do they question you again or do random checks?

You by-pass immigration but still have to take your baggage through customs.

Browntoa

BusinessStudent wrote: »

Why was you detained? What did they ask you?

they seemed to think I had 2 passports , think it because they had not logged the 2nd part of the entry card being handed in on my departure in 1991 (and of course I had replaced my passport in the meantime) but it still did not explain why I had not been picked up on the way INTO the country

mich_city

we had long, long queues at newark.. 2 hours till connection when we landed and they had started boarding the flight when we got to the gate.. phew!