If you want to get an idea on how long the wait time will be when you get to your POE in the States go to US Customs and Border Protection web site

click on site map and scroll down to "Wait times Borders and Airports" Every POE is there. You can get an average for a month a day, or like I did, from the beginning of the year. What I found for Miami was:


The Minimum time was .........22 minutes
The maximum time was ........70 minutes
Average time was .................40 minutes

I also read where it helps to be one of the first people off the plane. Out of my way! I'm coming through!

captainButch

It's kind of hard to really tell you because it depends on how many other international planes are coming in at the same time and how prepared they are for it. Atlanta and Miami, two of the larger I have been through, have many more agents and seemed to do well. Raleigh was pretty ill equiped. IMHO.

You are absolutely right, and remember, this is our Government giving us this information. So you have to consider the source. But, I have checked into as best as I can, Miami is not my choice of cities to go to. I have heard a lot of horror stories and I've heard other stories where people just flew through Miami immigrations. You have to remember, you are going to hear more bad reports then good ones. The majority of people who get through in what must be a reasonable amount of time usually don't go posting stories about their experience on the web, it's a non issue. However, I think the site was useful, it will give you an idea of how long it will take to clear Customs. And more importantly, it tells you how many people go through Customs at a certain time. You can use this to pin point a time to get there when there when there are less people going through. Avoid a time when all the planes are landing at once. Then, when you are buying your tickets you'll know which flight to choose that will get you there when the lines are the shortest.

Isn't hindsight wonderful! After I bought the tickets and made mistakes, now I know the right way to go, but it doesn't do me any good. Maybe someone else can use this information and they'll be able to breeze through the POE.

Yeah, looking back, the biggest mistake I made was going with American Airlines. I know there is someone out there who works for AA and I appreciate their loyalty to their employer. That tells me he/she is a good person. However, American Airlines Customer Service sucks. Don't take my word for it, if you want an eye opener, just read what other people are saying about AA on the Internet. Go to any search engine and type in American Airlines complaints. Read before you buy. In retrospect, that was my biggest mistake.

captainButch

Does this include times for both the USC and NonUSC line or just general wait times? As a USC I've always gone through fast and that could skew the wait times. when my husband entered on his visa, he was the first in line at the secondary area. Took him just under an hour from wheels touching the ground to walking out of the customs area with his baggage.

It is just general wait times. You go to site, US Customs and Border Protection web site click on Travel at the top tool bar, then click on Wait Times-Airport and Borders, then Airport wait times. A screen will open up and you'll read First you must select the airport you will be arriving at: select either Specific Date or Seasonal-Average for a specific month or Average for Date Range. What you'll get is a report showing the time and the amount of people who went through at that time and how long it took them, shortest time, average time and longest time. You can work this back and forth for different amounts of time, or just a single day. You'll be able to get some kind of idea of what you might be in for on the day you are leaving.

For us, we only have a 1 hour and 50 minute layover till our connecting flight leaves (almost 2 hours) I would feel a lot better if we had a 3 hour layover. For us, we are going on a Wednesday and the average wait on a Wednesday for the range of time they had data for, January 4 to March 20 of this year, the average wait was bouncing between 1/2 hour, and almost an hour.

That's just cutting it too close for me. As a result of the information I've seen at that site I've made a decision not to bring any checked luggage with us, carry on only. Once off the plane, we'll run straight to Customs and skip going to the baggage claim area all together. With luck, we'll make it in time to catch our connecting flight.

I had already planned to ship some things back, so now I'll just ship all the stuff we would have put in our luggage and ship it back as well. I'll send it so that it will arrive a few days after we get home. Man, I wish I hadn't went with AMERICAN AIRLINES and I'm not even on the plane yet. I know, it's my mistake, hey, I'm only human, but other airlines, like Continental would have allowed me to correct my mistake and I would not be going through this now.

Anyway, I cut and pasted this information from the wait times section of US Customs and Border Protection web site



captainButch

Over the course of the day, incoming flights may not occur for extended periods of time due to flight arrival patterns. When 'Hourly Average' is selected for the Arrival Time option, wait times are calculated in hourly time intervals for all flights arriving at the selected airport/terminal. For example, the 1:00 PM interval covers the time period from I:00 PM to 1:59 PM. The wait time summary report will only display time intervals during which at least one flight arrival was recorded. If no flights arrived during the 1:00 PM time interval, it will not be displayed on the CBP Flight Processing Times report.

The term "wait time", as used to describe the delays experienced by individual flights arriving at international airports, does not represent the average delay experienced by all travelers. It represents the total flight processing time from arrival to the time the last passenger completes screening at the primary inspection area. It is the longest time that any passenger on a given flight had to wait. The average passenger on the flight would have a shorter wait and the first passenger off the plane will typically be processed in a fraction of the wait time shown above.