Does anyone know if CBP/Immigration is 24 hours at airports?

[SkruDe 311]

I'm planning to fly into Newark airport with my fiance from Colombia.  The arrival time is 5:45am in the morning.

 

I once flew into Atlanta arriving before noon and we had to sit in the airplane until customs opened up for the day at noon.

 

So that made me think.... are international arrivals only processed at certain times of the day?  Why did I have to wait in plane till customs and immigration opened at a major airport like Atlanta?  And if I arrive at Newark at 5:45am, am I going to have to wait 6 hours till customs and immigration opens up?

 

I'd be very very appreciative and thankful to anyone who can shed some light on this. 

 

Thank you!!!!!!!

[glmg21 330]

At somewhere like EWR, it's unlikely that will happen. Could have been a one-off at Atlanta, where did you fly in from? It's been known to happen at LAX from time to time but I can't imagine international flights would be scheduled to arrive when CBP isn't capable of processing them. You're gonna get a better answer from your airline or just by calling EWR than here though, most likely.

[Crazy Cat 39,375]

San Francisco opens at 6:00 am.  I arrived there from Taiwan at 5:30 am.  We had to sit on the plane until they opened.

[JB209 60]

I've never heard of an airport having CBP/immigration closed at any time. They do reduce the number of agents during the night hours but there is ALWAYS someone there. Don't know what happened to you specifically that day at Atlanta but sounds to me like the airline gave you a silly excuse. 

With all this being said, there will be CBP officers at that time at Newark but the lines could be long so make sure to have a very good connection time

[SkruDe 311]

1 minute ago, JB209 said:

I've never heard of an airport having CBP/immigration closed at any time. They do reduce the number of agents during the night hours but there is ALWAYS someone there. Don't know what happened to you specifically that day at Atlanta but sounds to me like the airline gave you a silly excuse. 

With all this being said, there will be CBP officers at that time at Newark but the lines could be long so make sure to have a very good connection time

Thanks for your reply.  I plan on Newark being the final destination and then driving home via a little road trip.

 

Right now we are deciding to either fly from Bogota to Atlanta, or Bogota to Newark.  So just scoping out each place.

[Dashinka 23,301]

Most airports will always have CBP officers there for any scheduled international arrival.  I expect Newark and Atlanta would be 24/7.

 

Good Luck and Safe Travels!

[Boiler 43,588]

Denver is not 24/7, does not have International flights arriving at all hours.

 

But they are open when International flights are due to arrive, perhaps there could be a delay if the first flight got in early.

[SkruDe 311]

2 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Denver is not 24/7, does not have International flights arriving at all hours.

 

But they are open when International flights are due to arrive, perhaps there could be a delay if the first flight got in early.

Yeah, I must of been first flight of day and arrived a little early.  That makes the most sense if they schedule around the anticipated arrivals.

 

Thank you.

[Sunnyland 639]

I know Miami is 24 hrs mostly. There is always 1 or 2 agents at night. Can you do Bogota-Miami? And then from there make a connection? 

[T_McCann 10]

1 hour ago, Sunnyland said:

I know Miami is 24 hrs mostly. There is always 1 or 2 agents at night. Can you do Bogota-Miami? And then from there make a connection? 

Or even Orlando  JetBlue does Columbia and has connections. 

[SkruDe 311]

I'm traveling with pets and we want to just make it one flight, then enjoy a little road trip.  Flying to Miami is wayyy to long of a road trip up to Ohio

[mallafri76 1,012]

CBP work during hours when international flights are scheduled to land. Hence, if the first international flight land at 10 am, CBP is there to start processing at 10 am. If the first international flight of the day is early, then yeah, you're probably gonna have to wait for CBP. The same if there are a congestion of international flights due to some being late and some early, due to fire safety, some fligts may have to wait before letting their passengers off and into the international arrival hall.

[Hypnos 6,576]

3 hours ago, JB209 said:

They do reduce the number of agents during the night hours but there is ALWAYS someone there.

This is certainly not true. Even some major airports may have their CBP facilities closed during periods when no international flights are scheduled to land.

 

For smaller airports, this period of time with no CBP staffing would likely be longer, and more frequent.

[JB209 60]

12 minutes ago, Hypnos said:

This is certainly not true. Even some major airports may have their CBP facilities closed during periods when no international flights are scheduled to land.

 

For smaller airports, this period of time with no CBP staffing would likely be longer, and more frequent.

I'm gonna rephrase myself. Big international airports such as Atlanta (Busiest airport in the world) and Newark will always have someone there, because international flights are arriving almost 24 hours and if you take possible delays on those flights, CBP will make sure to always have someone there. Anyway we all agree that an international flight will not EVER arrive to an airport and be told "Sorry, CBP is closed, please come back tomorrow during office hours".

Edited July 9, 2017 by JB209

[Hypnos 6,576]

I vaguely remember reading a news story recently where an international flight had to be diverted to another airport in the US, and there were no CBP staff present at that time. They had to get people over there, and the passengers in the airplane had to wait for several hours on the tarmac for this to happen.

 

I grant you, this is not an everyday occurrence.

Edited July 9, 2017 by Hypnos