I don't know if this is the right forum or not to ask this question, OK, we finally got our visa and bought our tickets to head back to the States from Nicaragua. We'll be going through the POE at Miami to clear customs. We arrive in Miami at 11:20 AM, our connecting flight leaves Miami at 1:10 PM, we'll have 1 hour and 50 minutes to clear customs and get to our gate, or almost 2 hours. How long does it take to bring your wife, no kids through customs at Miami POE? Anyone been through Miami POE lately? if so, how long did it take you to go through the process? I might be cutting it too close, I didn't think about how long it would take to go through customs when I bought the tickets. Would they help out if you told them your flight is leaving soon? Anybody who can offer any help, I would really appreciate it

captainButch

hi butch,
Less than 2 hours and you're asking for stress. It might work out, but will you be sweating it the entire time?
Things to consider:
-How many other international arrivals come in same time/right before you?
-How long to unload your luggage? Don't forget you'll still have to clear Customs--for us, that took longer than immigration.
-How far to your connecting gate? In some airports, you have to hoof it to the next flight.
-With above, will you have to go thru TSA security again? One notable flight thru Houston last year had us with a one hour wait to go thru the line.. all for the sake of going outside for TheBadThing.

Read the Arriving in America thread for POE experiences (link in my siggy) & I'd advise a backup plan/connection. We had 3 hours, and didn't need most of them, but our POE was the much calmer MSP. People told us that was cutting it too close, too. It's a hard call to make!

Happy Travels!

I thought I answered this yesterday; but I guess now. Here it goes:

We came through Miami last June. We had 2 hours between flights. Made it through immigration, mini-interview, customs, and got something to eat with time to spare.

Please note: the guy in immigration did not take Andre's sealed envelope. Luckily I asked someone before we left the area and they sent us back to take care of it. Watch that.

I have to agree with meauxna... there are too many variables... 2 hours may be fine.. and 2 hours may mean that you're going to wait for the next flight out of town...

The length of the layover is something that you do have control over... I would make it at least 3 hours at a minimum to prevent you missing your connecting flight... and if you have to wait .. no big deal.. it's a lot less stressful than trying to get another connecting flight to your location...

hey! You did--I remember reading it... must be x-posted elsewhere...

The thing is, when I was booking our flights, we made two seperate ones, I was looking at the flight times, the cost, the time I'd be getting there, everything else but factoring in how long it would take to get through customs. I went ahead and bought the tickets without considering Customs. My plan was, I'm going to Southern Indiana from Nicaragua so Ligia can meet some of my family. When we get to Indiana, I'd rent a car and we'd drive up to Chicago to visit more family. Then fly out of Chicago to Albuquerque. The problem was, when I was buying the tickets and renting the car and so forth, I put the wrong city in for flying back to Albuquerque. I wanted to leave out of Chicago, but I put Indianapolis in by mistake. When I took a second look at everything, I realized I hadn't factored in enough time for Customs as well. I'm in too much of a hurry to get back to the States and i have made some mistakes i can not correct.

I think the biggest mistake I made was going with American Airlines, (avoid them) in the past I have had nothing but bad experiences with them. When I called to try and correct my mistakes, they told me I was screwed, they were not going to change a thing. If I wanted, I could eat the price for the tickets and buy new ones. So now, I'm stuck. I'll just have to get through customs before my connecting flight leaves.

Back in February, I had to go back to the States for my sister funeral, I went with Continental and needed to make a change after I bought the ticket, no problem. I wish I would have gone with my gut and went with Continental, I have never had a problem flying with them. But I was trying to save a couple of dollars, and I mean just a couple of dollars is all the difference was.

Sorry about the double posting, I wasn't sure which one was the right forum, somehow it got re-posted again here. I thought I'd use the shot gun approach for getting information. I think I'm starting to stress about it already.

Anyway, I want to thank all of you for your help, support and understanding. I really think this site is great.

captainButch

I'm sorry you feel that way about American, since I work for them and really try to go above and beyond when I can for people, BUT the fact of the matter is when one buys a non refundable non changeable without penalty ticket, and makes their own mistake on it, the airline is not obligated to let someone change it for free. Every day I get phone calls to help with a ticket because a passenger booked the wrong date on the internet or booked San Jose Costa Rica instead of San Jose California, etc...and they want a free change to the botched ticket. That would be kind of like I go to Nordstrom, buy a pair of pants in a size 6 ( not looking at the tag inside or trying them on) I take them to be altered because they are too long, then when I get the altered pants back, I cannot wear them because they are 2 sizes too small. I canot expect Nordstrom to take them back because I didn't pay attention to what I was doing. The funeral of your sister on the other hand was most likely a bereavement ticket, in which all airlines sell at a discounted rate and they allow changes because of the situation of the special ticket. Like I said in my other post, Miami tends to be a zoo, especially lately. Customs is intercepting plane loads of bags, sometimes delaying their arrival for 45 minutes, and the people stand waiting for their bags, etc. When you are leaving Nicaragua, the best advice I can give is nicely explain to the agent your situation about having to take extra time through customs and immigration and I bet they will change your connecting time. Good Luck.

Thanks for reading my post and offering me some advise. I think at this point that is about the only thing I can do. Let Customs know how tight of a time frame I am on. Or, offer someone in front of the line money for their spot in line.

You sound like a consentaneous employee of American Airlines, I have nothing against you personally. What you are saying is true and I understand it, and if I was buying a ticket a month or less ahead of time and wanted to cancel it to fly with another airlines, I could see the airlines refusing to do so, it would be lost revenue for them. Perhaps there is not enough time to resell the ticket. I bought the tickets in March for a flight at the end of May, there is no way in the world I am jamming them up, there is plenty of time to resell the tickets. Also, I'm not canceling to fly with another airline, I just want to change a existing reservation, they would not lose a thing. And NO, it was not a bereavement ticket, just a regular non refundable ticket, just like the one I bought with AA. Also, there was a lot shorter time fame for issuing another ticket, less then a week. And they did it. I'll remember that when I'm buying tickets in the future.

I'm a resident of Nicaragua and a USC and now I have family here. I know for a fact I will be traveling back and forth a lot in the future. Do you think I'll fly with AA again? Sure, they may not have lost this ticket, but they lost all future ticket purchases from me. In the future when I fly back, I'll go with Continental. Like I said, I was in a similar situation with Continental, they have a great customer service and they made a change for me when I really needed it. Customer service is what it is all about, companies that work with me within reason, I'll reward them by using them again. AA is very short sighted and now I understand why they are having financial problems. If you want an eye opener, go on the Internet and read about what other people are saying who have complaints against AA. I just wish I had went with Continental and read what others were saying about AA before I bought my tickets. I stand by what I said, AVOID American Airlines, don't just take my work for it, read about them on the Internet. See for yourself how poorly they treat their customers.

If you are held up in customs they will get you scheduled on another flight anyway, so not sure you need to worry much. The airlines have an allotted time scheduled for connecting flights and they do consider customs and immigration, so I was told. It is beyond the airlines or your control as to how long customs and immigration takes, so relax and have a safe trip home with your bride.

Two hours may be cutting it close, or maybe not. There are a lot of variables. A big one is the amount of crowds at the particular date and time when you go through.

I assume this is the non-USC's first entry on an immigrant visa? Expect to spend some time in secondary inspection, maybe 5 minutes, maybe 45 minutes.

Try to sit near the front of the plane when you arrive at Miami, so you'll be near the front of your plane's crowd (but at busy times of the day, you still might be behind a few other planes' crowds).

Realize that after exiting customs, you'll be in the non-secure part of the airport, so you'll have to get through the standard TSA screening in order to get back to the gate areas. At busy times, the TSA screening lines can be long. Don't relax too much until you're sitting at the gate of your connecting flight.

I think it took about an hour and a half between the time we got off our plane until we were in the gate area for our connecting flight in Miami. We had allowed a much longer layover, so we had a leisurely dinner.

Try not to stress too much. The worst that'll happen is you'll miss your connection. You'll get on a later flight. Inconvenient, and maybe unpleasant, but in the grand scheme of things, you'll hardly remember it.

I really appreciate everyone advise and help. Perhaps a little back ground is in order. I'm a USC by birth and also a resident of Nicaragua. Back in January I filed DCF and everything was approved, when we went on January 25 for our final interview we got caught up in the Adam Walsh thing, We finally got everything together and received our CR-1/IR-1 visa on March 23rd. And now we are going back to the states. we're leaving May 23. I wanted to get our tickets early, we have a lot of lose ends to tighten up before we go. I'm an Artist and I have to finish some commissions before we leave and some.. the list is long.

I think what I'm going to have to do is travel light, just take carry-on luggage with us. The actual time I have between connecting flights is 1 hour 50 minutes. I'm thinking we'll get off the plane and run to immigrations, bypassing the baggage claim hassle and with some luck we'll make our connecting flight.

We're shipping some things to the States anyway, we have too much stuff to pack and get on a plane. So, we'll just throw in what we would have packed in a suitcase and ship everything. The only problem with that, I wanted to take a week introducing my bride to my family in the Midwest before taking the final flight to our home in New Mexico. You can't pack a whole lot of stuff in a carry-on, somehow, we'll just have to manage it.

Tim and Bethanie, LaGreenEyes, lucyrich and the rest, I want to thank you for your well thought out advise and for your caring support.

captainButch

Luggage won't delay you very much. You first get off the plane, then go through immigration. This is where most of the delay would be expected, at least when entering on a new visa. After immigration, you go to the baggage claim area, but by the time you get to the baggage claim, your luggage will have been circling the carousel for quite awhile. Then you go through customs, where they may want to inspect the luggage, but most likely, they wave you through. After exiting customs, you hand your checked baggage off to the people who send it on its way to the connecting flight. Then you go through the TSA screening line to get to the gate area for your connecting flight.

Having a checked bag may actually speed up the whole process slightly, if you use it to store liquids, toiletries, toothpaste, and all those other things which the TSA restricts in carry-on baggage these days. It costs you virtually no time through immigration and customs, and it could slightly speed up the TSA screening process.

If you get to the baggage claim area before your bags, you must've made it through immigration very fast, and you'll have nothing more to worry about regarding a 1:50 layover.

I got through customs in Atlanta in 20 mins. Detroit 45 mins. I know these aren't your POE but just my experiences. If I have a long wait I usually just go to the gate for the flight that is next to where I am going and ask them if they can move me up to the earlier flight and I've never had a problem with it. Also, if you miss you flight because of customs they will put you on the next available flight to your destination.

Thanks for all the help from everyone, I have a friend down here who is from Florida and has been through Miami customs many times, and his advise was the same as yours. (I forgot he is from Florida) This is all new to me, I have never been through Customs before with someone who is Immigrating. I have heard all the horror stories and was thinking, "what if that happens and we get delayed"? And if we get delayed, I feared that American Airlines with it's Draconian Customer Relations policy would force us to buy another ticket if we missed the flight. I feel a lot better about it now, thanks to all the great advise I have received from all you good people here. We're going to pack our suitcases and take what we need, and not try to race through customs with just a fanny pack and carry-on luggage. We'll let people know about our connection flight and how little time we have, and if we do miss the connecting flight, then American will have to put us on another flight.

Thanks everyone

captainButch

Since time transiting the POE is not controlled by the airline, they are not responsible for your missed connection. They will however do there best to get you on the next flight that has seats available (this should not be confused with getting you on the very next flight).

Let me add my POE experience in Miami back in December,

I had flown into Mia intl' as a tourist countless times before, so I knew my way around pretty well, but as a new LPR I knew it would be different so I was concerned about time. I had budgeted 2:30 hours between landing, immigrating, and catching a plane for Pittsburgh, so as soon as I got off the plane, I started running. (Ignore the walkways, you can definitely go faster just running on the side).
When I got there I kept going straight past the visitor lines, into the lines for residents and USC's (I had read here before that technically this wouldnt be the correct line, so I asked, and an officer confirmed I was in the right place). At the booth I presented my brown envelope, and a very nice officer welcomed me and said "these are processed in the office", so she pressed a button, a red light turned itself on and a second officer came over took my envelope from her, and showed me the way to the secondary inspection office. He took my envelope and put it sideways on a rack. There were like 5 or 6 more before mine. I kept checking it, kept checking the clock on the wall and the sign on the wall that read "we are the face of our nation". Quick note: No cellphones in this area, not allowed, (and no cellphones in baggage claim either just so you know, no reception).
Now here's where all the running paid off: 5 minutes after I sat to wait, a plane must have arrived from Cuba, for at least 30 people came chatting excitedly, with their envelopes, into the office. (I read somewhere there's a direct flight from Habana to Miami, that has something like a 3 month waiting list)...
Their envelopes were placed in the rack behind mine. Phew.
I kept checking the envelope rack. They dissapeared one after the other, until they finally took mine. An older officer, white hair. He ripped it open -*careful!* I thought-, he removed all the paperwork from it and started typing away. He typed for the longest 10 minutes ever. Then he called my name.
-Colombian, huh?
-erm, yes..
-where are you going to?
-Pittsburgh
He lifted his eyebrow. The left one.
-Says here you should be going to Vegas
-Yes, i'm going to Pittsburgh for the holidays. My wife's sister is having a baby. She lives there. Our residence will be in Vegas.
He looked at me again. Not entirely convinced, so he pulled out the big guns...
-When's your wife's birthday?
-(ha!, I thought)..August 18th.
-Have you ever been in trouble with the law?
(hunh?)...I gave him a big smile.
-No.
He grunted. Stamped my passport and said,
-This way
He moved out from behind the counter and led me towards a desk on the corner, where he took my fingerprints (with proper ink, not the fascinating little red device). He gave me a tissue to clean my fingers, gave me back my passport, and finally smiled.
-That's it. Welcome to the United States.
I looked at the clock again before leaving the office. 40 minutes had passed since my arrival.
I walked out of the office, and followed the sign towards baggage claim. My bags were sitting on the floor, someone had already taken them off of the carousel. I grabbed a little smartcart, and followed the directions to customs. There were some officers sitting at some booth desk things. I handed my form and was waved through. I noticed that the people that hadn't been waved through had to go to a sideline where they screened their bags on a conveyor belt. Quite fast, actually.
Shortly after that, I asked a worker how to get to connecting flights and they instructed me to follow the yellow dots on the floor. So i did (Why isn't that clever? I remember thinking).
some meters later I ran into one of the stations where they receive your baggage for screening. I gave them my bags and kept walking. Since I was already in the secure area, all I had to do now was find my gate, and sit down. I had over an hour before they started boarding. But I wonder how differently things might have gone, had i arrived to the office after the Cuban flight.

Sorry. Got carried away.

afdp, thanks for the gerat story, but i wonder like you, how long would it have been if you got stuck behind the plane load of Cubans? I just hope we have the same luck you did, 40 minutes? ew can do that.

Also, YMMV, thanks for the "heads up".........Oh My God, if I miss my connecting flight out of Miami, (there is a good possibility that will happen) I'm at the mercy of American Airlines?. That is not a very comforting thought. My connecting flight is to Chicago where I'll be taking another flight to Indianapolis. So now, instead of thinking how many hours this will take, I am starting to think how many days will this take?

So, I guess it all depends on luck, if we are lucky enough to get through Customs in time to catch our flight, no problem. We will be running as fast as we can to make it. I just hope we do.

thanks for all of your help.

captainButch