POE time requirement

[pamawemo 78]

Do you think 2.5 hours is enough time for immigration processing in Seattle? We have the option of 2.5 or 4.5 hour layover.

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

Take the 4.5

[Hank_ 9,171]

Ditto on the 4.5 hrs

 

2.5 would be real tight

 

 

At POE there is immigration and also customs then rechecking your luggage for continued flight  ... long lines would eat through 2.5 hrs pretty easy

Edited March 3, 2019 by Hank_

[Greenbaum 12,258]

4 minutes ago, pamawemo said:

Do you think 2.5 hours is enough time for immigration processing in Seattle? We have the option of 2.5 or 4.5 hour layover.

4.5 is my recommendation. If you are interviewed in a secondary location then you should have plenty of time to catch your upcoming flight. 

[Crazy Cat 39,194]

I agree with 4.5 hour option.......Better to be a little long on waiting time than short.....

[bakphx1 785]

Customs is such a wild card.  Most of the time it’s under an hour.  I did miss a flight months ago as it took over 3 hours.  

[payxibka 10,044]

31 minutes ago, pamawemo said:

Do you think 2.5 hours is enough time for immigration processing in Seattle? We have the option of 2.5 or 4.5 hour layover.

What is your POE and what time of day will you be arriving?  Airports like JFK, ORD, ATL and LAX would or could be problematic but lesser busy POE's might be OK.

[Cyberfx1024 7,978]

56 minutes ago, pamawemo said:

Do you think 2.5 hours is enough time for immigration processing in Seattle? We have the option of 2.5 or 4.5 hour layover.

I would take a 4.5 because you never know if 2.5 will be enough. The first time my wife and flew in to the USA our POE was Detroit and it was a 2.5 hour layover as well. We were literally running to the next gate because we almost ran out of time. 

[geowrian 22,335]

Agreed with everybody else - go for the 4.5 hours. The extra wait probably isn't needed, but you will be very glad if it was. An extra 2 hours wait isn't going to kill anybody.

[payxibka 10,044]

You can look up the wait times by time of day for any POE.  For Seattle the average MAX wait time in minutes over the past three months for Non USC's is for each hour is as follows

Time             Minutes

0600 - 0700 24

0700 - 0800 60

0800 - 0900 52

0900 - 1000 52

1000 - 1100 75

1100 - 1200 76

1200 - 1300 55

1300 - 1400 29

1400 - 1500 15

1500 - 1600 26

1600 - 1700 33

1700 - 1800 17

1800 – 1900 38

1900 – 2000 19

2000 - 2100 30

2100 - 2200 29

2200 – 2300 22

 

So based on the above 2.5 hrs might be OK.  If you are jittery, take the added hours

Edited March 3, 2019 by payxibka

[pamawemo 78]

49 minutes ago, payxibka said:

What is your POE and what time of day will you be arriving?  Airports like JFK, ORD, ATL and LAX would or could be problematic but lesser busy POE's might be OK.

Seattle (SEA). And she will be arriving at 9 a.m. She may be more comfortable with the 4.5 hours the more I think about it. She will have to manage all of her luggage and that is already stressing her out. 

[payxibka 10,044]

1 minute ago, pamawemo said:

Seattle (SEA). And she will be arriving at 9 a.m. She may be more comfortable with the 4.5 hours the more I think about it. She will have to manage all of her luggage and that is already stressing her out. 

0900 is the middle of the POEs busy period

Edited March 3, 2019 by payxibka

[Carpe Vinum 2,308]

If she is by herself definitely take the 4.5 hours. 

[Chris Duffy 1,256]

4.5 for sure

 

If you were with her then 2.5 would be good in case you missed the next flight then you could rebook, but being solo take the 4.5

[Nerizza 0]

Go for 4.5 hours

With our experience, we had a 4-hour layover in our POE (Dallas). Maybe because we arrived during the government shutdown, but we were still running to board our next flight. We spent around 2 hours in the immigration line, ~30 minutes in secondary inspection, and about an hour in the customs line.