US Customs

[Nigelblk 2]

My Fiancé got her visa via Pony Express today and I’ve booked a ticket for her arrival the 17th of July. Can someone tell me how long the customs process takes once arriving in JFK? Looking at the flights she will only have a two hour layover until her connecting flight to Florida.

[millefleur 5,035]

**Moved from the RUB regional subforum to Working & Traveling During US Immigration; POE and border crossings are usually discussed there**

[debbiedoo 2,339]

i can vary wildly im sure but 2 hours at jfk sometimes is barely enough time without the immigration stuff

[implife 318]

2 hours will not be enough. Give her at least 5 hours. Consider travel time to a domestic terminal, going through TSA again, etc., etc.

[Dashinka 23,238]

Agreed, 2 hours is no where near enough time at JFK.

[arken 4,197]

Agreed with others. You have to be really really lucky to get to the connecting flight with 2 hour JFK layover.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,078]

Don't know about JFK, but it would not have been enough time at LAX when my wife came in; she got to me in less than two hours (barely), but would not have made another gate in that.

 

If Anastasia hadn't managed to flag down someone in line, another woman on a K-1 who was on the same flight and had a connection to SF would have missed it.

[Juniper 62]

13 hours ago, Nigelblk said:

My Fiancé got her visa via Pony Express today and I’ve booked a ticket for her arrival the 17th of July. Can someone tell me how long the customs process takes once arriving in JFK? Looking at the flights she will only have a two hour layover until her connecting flight to Florida.

This is just my opinion.  Airline prices are the cheapest from Russia to JFK but I never would have my immigrant family member enter the USA going through JFK (unless I lived nearby).  Why? It's a madhouse ... international customs and then going through domestic security ... and doing it alone and never done it before.

 

For my situation, the airline prices to Chicago for my immigrant family members USA entry is not that much more and worth it that I can drive from Iowa and be there when they arrive.

 

Being that Florida is quite a tourist destination, I would suspect that having your fiancee enter the USA at a Florida International airport would not be much more expensive than flying through JFK.  So I am just saying IMHO that you should consider a USA port of entry that is in Florida (than especially JFK).

[implife 318]

5 hours ago, Juniper said:

enter the USA at a Florida International airport

My thoughts exactly! Aeroflot has direct flights to Miami.

[implife 318]

18 hours ago, Nigelblk said:

I’ve booked a ticket for her arrival the 17th of July

Well, and it looks like not something you can undo... So give her plenty of time, and if she goes through the passport control fast, she can ride the monorail and explore the wonders of JFK! I spent a lovely week there one afternoon.

[geowrian 22,335]

I've been through JFK in under 45 minutes.

It's also taken me hours.

Others have had it take over 3 hours.

 

Safest bet is to give yourself 4+ hours IMO, especially for the initial flight into the US.

[debbiedoo 2,339]

10 hours ago, geowrian said:

I've been through JFK in under 45 minutes.

It's also taken me hours.

Others have had it take over 3 hours.

 

Safest bet is to give yourself 4+ hours IMO, especially for the initial flight into the US.

yeah i fly a lot and jfk without immigration would need 2 hours, imo. and that can be pushing it

 

its a madhouse

[Pitaya 2,576]

On 7/15/2019 at 12:52 AM, Nigelblk said:

My Fiancé got her visa via Pony Express today and I’ve booked a ticket for her arrival the 17th of July. Can someone tell me how long the customs process takes once arriving in JFK? Looking at the flights she will only have a two hour layover until her connecting flight to Florida.

You may want to rethink your time schedule. Just maneuvering around JFK can take a couple of hours, and when you put the unknown time frame of POE immigration into the equation..... that is likely a recipe for undue stress, frustration, and missed connecting flights. Consider doubling or more likely trebling of layover time. 

 

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,078]

16 hours ago, implife said:

My thoughts exactly! Aeroflot has direct flights to Miami.

I was thinking that to start with, but if the OP's profile is correct and they're in Tampa, the timing isn't great for that (next MIA-TPA flight is too soon to make a connection when going through immigration, one after that is a near-4 hour layover, but it'd take over 4 hours to drive there, too).

Not sure how manageable a one hour and twenty minute layover in Amsterdam or a one hour layover in Frankfurt or Zurich would be.

 

/and that's just assuming the OP's fiancee is flying out of Moscow... which is usually the case for Russians when traveling internationally, but not always