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Port of Entry Member Review #16347

Fort Lauderdale Entry Date: 2017-04-17

Scodavvyy




Difficulty:
Review Topic: Port of Entry Review

I entered the US using my K-1 visa at Fort Lauderdale International airport. I have entered at this airport 3 times previously using ESTA, the 1st and 2nd times were painless, the third time took 2 hours from plane landing to walking out of airport. This was due massive construction that is still ongoing at the airport.

I flew on Norwegian airlines Dreamliner shuttle from Gatwick UK and we landed a little before 8pm local time. The Norwegian flights always seem to land and taxi up to a domestic terminal which means they have to bring stairs to the aircraft and transfer us to buses for the trip to immigration section. This time it took them nearly thirty minutes to bring the stairs and buses to the aircraft. Not a delay you want after spending 9 hours on the damn thing. A flight from Haiti had disembarked just before us and so the Visa line was a long one. After an hour of shuffling forward I got to the front and handed over my passport and Embassy packet. After opening it and taking my fingerprints he told me to follow him to secondary and told me "it's gonna be a while". He directed me to the queue outside the door to secondary and took my stuff inside. After another 15 minutes of 1 in 1 out I made it into the room. The room has a seating for about 25 people and these were all full with about another 15 of us standing. The aircon was broken and portable units weren't quite covering it. There was a counter where 2 CBP agents were processing people as fast as they could. One of the airport staff came in after about 30 mins to ask if any of us had been on the London flight and took our names and what checked bags we had as they had been going round and round the baggage carousel for over an hour at this point. About 10 mins later one of the agents gave me my passport and told me to go. No questions asked, no advice about getting married within 90 days, just go. I collected my baggage and handed my customs card to an agent who barely looked at me and didn't interrupt his conversation about cars to say anything to me and I walked out to my fiancees waiting arms. I was relieved to be out of that airport



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