[Closed] USA immigration

but heard some nightmare stories about US immigration, 2 -3 hours wait etc

I've only had that maybe once, the first time I ever went in about 1996. Most we've had is 45 mins and that was exceptional. Of course I've never flown into DC.

I've also never had a long wait at Heathrow either 🙂

I think the horror stories are the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps overloaded tourist destinations are the worst, I dunno.

Last time through US immigration it was pretty painless. Quicker than getting back in to Heathrow!

Just fill in the forms on the aircraft and breeze though. Remember to write down dates and addresses you are staying at if a little forgetful.

Its fast track visa for most people from Europe (unless you have a criminal record).

But if they decide to pull you out then there is nothing you can do about the grilling. Am American friend got a 2 hour questioning a couple of weeks ago, he has lived most of his adult life in Germany and goes back once or twice a year to visit friends and family, on his last visit the authorities deemed that is suspicious behaviour.

I think most people just go through no problem, but it does appear that they try to get a "rise" out of anyone they can so that they can throw their weight around and hide behind their "authority".

edit; just remembered as well my manager saying on one visit his first hotel was something like "captain fishes hotel" immigration took one look, decided he just made it up and decided to piss him around for a couple of hours, rather than just check if it was real (it was).

As above, just remember that US Immigration officials are the most miserable [i]* very rude expletive here *[/i] in the western world. Just smile, answer their stupid questions and ignore their 'you're not welcome here' demeanour.

Unless your name is Mohammed. Then you're going to get the rubber hose in a darkened room no matter what you do.

Edit: and as uphillcursing said, make sure you have the full address for your hotel.

Only had a big wait at Miami a few years back (more than two hours). I by pass most of that these days by going to the much shorter queues at the US citizens channel with the Mrs as she's from Texas. Only been sent to the back of the non resident queue once in 8 years by a grumpy immigration official!

You don't have that luxury so I would have a quick look to see what time international flights arrive and if a load roack up at a similar time, don't chose the flight that also arrives in that period as that's when it will be busy.

it's true that you can clear immigration in ireland before getting on the plane, by far the quickest way, especially if it means you can depart from a regional airport

It's not bad, certainly nothing to faff about trying to use routes around it. We go most years, having relatives on both coasts. DC airport is as good as most. There will be queues, but unlike UK, most of the desks will be manned most of the time, so the queue will move along reasonably enough. The only bad thing about the queues is listening to the moaning brits stood around you, . You need to do your ESTA form online before you travel, then either at check-in or on the flight, get a customs form to tell them you aren't bringing in prohibited materials or biohazards, this is usually handed in after baggage pickup. I've been travelling to the states regularly for twenty years or more and never found officials to be anything other than polite and professional, and they will often have fun and cheer up the kids, talking about the hols and stuff while they process the docs.

Their country (and ours) has had thousands killed in recent years by terrorists, they (we)are at war and see it as important, a genuine duty to protect the border and prevent terrorists being active on their soil. Why beat up on them?

oh, and with the exception of the one miserable bugger who sent me to the back of the queue, most of the immigration officers have been pleasent to deal with. Dare I say it but some have even been funny and able to have a bit of a joke with. But let them start up the funnies! 🙂

I by pass most of that these days by going to the much shorter queues at the US citizens channel with the Mrs as she's from Texas.

I get that luxury too. And at the other end, we go through the EU queue. Win!

It's not been too bad for the last year or so. I haven't had more than an hour wait and I went +10 times in the last year. The longest wait I had ever was in San Francisco when a jumbo of chinese visitor got to the queque before our plane. They gave them hell!

Just don't answer your phone in the immigration or baggage caurosel halls. They take a very dim veiw of this.

Finally I walked into a completely empty immigration hall at Heathrow T5 on saturday evening. Just walked straight up (in a zig-zag round the tapes :)) to the desk

DC isn't bad.

Do your ESTA in advance - it saves hassle at the border, and you then only need to complete the customs form.

As said - be polite and obey the rules and you'll get no hassle. I fly to the US a lot and rarely get held for more than 30 minutes.

Dulles in april was dire 2 1/2 hours on a sunday evening (9pm)..... won't be travelling at that time as they had no staff on.... delays are dependent upon arrival time I'd aim to arrive 4-5pm .....

Ahh yes Molgrips, I think I picked your brain last year ahead of my trip to Winsconsin.

BA do a Business Class only flight out of London City to New York that stops in Shannon for US immigration (and truth be told to refuel as the little plane can't make it all the way on one stop).

You land at NYC as a 'domestic' passenger to all intents and purpose so straight out onto the streets.

Pricey though being only Club class.

[i]Is it any better to fly into say Newark and then get an internal flight?[/i]

Didn't use to be as after 9/11 you were seen as 'odd' if you did this...

The Shannon/NY is ok, but tbh you don't really save anything over flying straight thru.

Went to NY last year and flew into Newark. Just under two hours queueing. Only one desk was manned for Non-US passports. There was one sensible supervisor who saw that there was no one queueing for the US booths (3 manned desks) and moved two of the people to the non-US queue! We arrived mid-week, mid-afternoon hoping to get quick queues. Just as well that our next flight was only delayed 4 hours then!!

I fly to the US on business a couple of times a year and usually have to go through Chicago. A total nightmare. One time I had a connecting flight leaving just a little over two hours after my flight from teh UK landed in Chicago O'Hare, I had to run through the terminal to make that one!
As I have an I visa the actual processing part is painless, it is the queue to get there and be processed that's the real killer!

Did Dulles in Sept 2010 - it was nasty about 2 hours queuing. Do not make any jokes or complain in any way. I got the full all hands fingerprints and photos. Tried being nice with guard who just looked at me with suspicion and not even a smile.

That was with Virgin from Heathrow both ways. The airport is miles out of the city by the way. I got a taxi that took cards only to get into DC to find that he wouldn't take cards and wanted the $60 (i think) fare in cash, which ate into my Oakley money I had took to get myself some cheap sunnies.

take a copy of itinery, don't take anything that looks like might have commercial value like samples

if you fly into Newark you'll have delay of collecting bag and customs as that is point of arrival unless don't check any

unless you are unlucky and a plane load arrives from somewhere that "needs" lots of checks arrives at same time then 30mins is typical

Been through Dulles a couple of times in recent months, and both times it's been fine. One of the staff even smiled!

On the whole, US immigration is improving.

SFO was a little slower, but that was mainly their moronic approach to queues!

Can I nominate Australian customs for a niceness award?

Can I nominate Australian customs for a niceness award?

You think? They were as miserable as sin in Sydney. By contrast, the NZ officials bend over backwards to be helpful - they even cleaned my brother in law's boots for him (they don't like foreign soil getting into the country)!

Only connection problems I've ever had on business have been at Chicago and DFW.

DFW can either be the slickest connection in the world, or everything seems to grind to a halt and hold you up. It's a big airport too, so running is often required 🙂

I've spent the night in the Hyatt Regency at terminal A quite a few times after missing a few (slightly optimistic) SFO connections in the last couple of years.

Never seem to have much luck at Chicago. Or Detroit actually. Maybe it's just me 🙂

I travel about four or five times a year. The queues have rarely been that bad. Maybe 20-30 mins max. As for the officers themselves, just be friendly and chatty and as Macgyver said, let them start with the jokes. Being jokey when you've got the officer on serious duty doesn't work very well.

"So you have a journalist visa //which takes a lot of jumping through hoops at the US Embassy in Britain to get// "So how do I know you're a journalist?"
"Well, your Embassy in the UK seemed to believe me"
"Do you have a copy of this 'Singletrack' magazine"
"No, they're in the bag that I can't get to until you let me through"
"Do you have a business card"
Proffers old, lighthearted business card that says 'Singletrack Magazine. Chipps. Editor and...'
"What does 'International Man of Mystery' mean then sir?"
"Er, it was meant to be funny..."
Waves resignedly... "Just go... And have better official documentation next time"

ebygomm - Member

it's true that you can clear immigration in ireland before getting on the plane, by far the quickest way, especially if it means you can depart from a regional airport

Go over quite a bit to west coast on business, have found this to be the least stress route. Immigration in US are humourless (with a U) twunts, save you witty banter until you are in the country. And Shannon is a nice airport, better than a transfer in Heathrow or Chicago both of which are hateful places at best IMHO.

You'll waste more time going to Shannon than you will in the queue,

The only US Airport I've had to have a long wait at is JFK.

Most others are fine especially if you have pre-done your forms.

We flew to Orlando for new year and changed planes at Charlotte so walked through Orlando as a domestic arrival very swift and painless and did the same on the return. One of the other Brits in our hotel said he took just over 2 hours to clear customs in Orlando but with the extra flight time there was only about 20 minutes in it.

Can be a bit of a lottery I’m afraid. If you’re unlucky to come in to the hall behind a plane full for non English speakers then it’ll take a while, happened to me at Dulles with a plane full of mainly elderly Japanese. Not their fault, more the system. Don’t recall a fast track system as such like here. Maybe a biometric line if you have that. Allow an hour minimum, more for transfers.

Dulles is also a bit of pain with the strange Thunderbird like buses between the terminals.

Went through BWI last autumn no problems.

Came back through Heathrow T5 last month the quickest ever. Looking at the time stamps on text messages, entering the passport hall at 12:20, waiting for the car park bus at 12:31 including collecting bags.

Just go... And have better official documentation next time

Erm, isn't a visa itself about the best official documentation you can have? He's expecting a magazine and a business card as backup documentation, even though you could obtain them at any newsagent?

Doesn't have to be Shannon, you can go via Dublin too.

Flying Birmingham to Chicago via Dublin was quicker for me than travelling down to Heathrow and getting a direct flight. I was outside the airport in Chicago 20 minutes before my plane was scheduled to land.

Chicago O'Hare is particularly slow for getting through immigration too, I know many people who have missed their connection due to delays in immigration

been to States twice in the last year (Nov/Feb) Flew into Philadelphia first time, Newark 2nd time.
We were pretty much first off the plane got to immigration, got straight through immigration. Looked slightly shocked it was so easy..

Newark was about 25 minutes.
We were also traveling on work visas. I thought it would be a nightmare. It was really easy.

Those complaining about US immigration have obviously never had to use the non-eu channels to get into this country then. On balance, the least welcoming and sourest bunch I've encountered in the western world.

Flew in to Washington DC last year for work. Only delay was getting stuck behind a flight from Korea. Only one translator running back and forward so there was about an hours delay, my OH went through a few months later in about 10 mins.

It seems to me the trick is to schedule your flight to land in the US at a 'quiet' time, check a typical day of arrivals at your airport and if all the transatlantic flights land between 6-7pm and you are in that queue you will have to wait along with the other 1000 or so recent arrivals. So be smart and plan to arrive mid afternoon so its only your plane full that arrive at immigration at the same time

Failing that there is also the get off the plane quick sharp and then the shameless brisk walk/jog/full on sprint past all the slackers to the front of the immigration desks- and have your paperwork ready, nowt worsed than missing a detail on the I95 form and being sent to the back of the line 😕

Dulles is getting a slating here- quite rightly. So it's a pity that we are opening our first US office 10mins down the road from Dulles!

The only interesting bit of Dulles - the bizarre buses to the terminal - have gone.

At least it isn't La Guardia - what a dump!

Going back a ways, '93, in fact, I won a trip to LA, and took a mate with me. His passport photo showed him with long hair and a bushy Fleet Foxes type beard, but he'd shaved it off when we flew in.
The guy on the immigration desk took our passports, looked at them, looked hard at my mate, then back at his passport, then at me, and deadpanned, ‘hmm, d'you think we really ought to let him in?’, to which I replied, ‘well, he's come a long way, and it [i]would[/i] be a shame not to’, at which point he grinned and said ‘yeah, it would’, wished us a good holiday, and waved us through. Good to know they can show a sense of humour.

First time I went to the US, 16 years ago (before ESTA's, etc.) I got to the front of the line with my green Visa waiver card and was promptly asked why i didn't have a visa.

- Because I don't need one, I'm British and we have the visa waiver program.
- but why haven't you got one?
- because i don't need one
- but you could have got one
- but I didn't need to
- but why didn't you get one
- because I don't need one
repeat variations thereof for just about an eternity, until finally

- do I actually need a visa then?
- no.
- [silence, punctuated by passport stamping]
- enjoy your visit.

Luck of the draw. If you arrive just after another plane then you're at the back of a very long queue.

I used to often see people pegging it through to the immigration hall thinking they would beat the queues only for the look of utter horror on their face as they spot a full 747s worth of passengers from Schipol or somewhere who arrived 10 minutes earlier.

Worst I heard was a group on a bike holiday who were faced with a 4hr queue and a 3hr transit time, the organiser asked an official if there was anything that could be done, they were lead from the queue round a bit to the end of the queue. Answer you would have missed it anyway best let some others get through.

As for Oz great every time, the missus (Oz citizen) goes through on the fast track scanners and collects the bags as I chill out in the queue.

I remember the Canadians being interested that I worked in engineering as worried I might stay and that we may have cheese with us (takes all sorts)