PoE Newark- experiences?

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

We are flying Dublin-Newark-Arkansas when I immigrate. I thought that I'd do immigration at Dublin, as is normal for US bound flights (similar to the Canada situation), but apparently the Continental flight we are on is an exception and immigration has to be done as normal in the US PoE, ie Newark. We have 2 hours 20 minutes to connect to another Continental flight. Normally plenty of time but with immigration, lots of lugage and 8 months old twins, are we cutting it too close?

I checked the PoE Newark reviews here but there aren't many, especially recent, so I thought I'd ask here.

[Big Papa Zone 93]

Sounds like plety of time to me, but even if it's not, I wouldn't worry too much. Only a complete arsehole wouldn't put you on a later flight if you expained the situation should you be delayed.

Let me tell you a story:

I flew with Continental once, on a date that I was convinced was the 11th August. It wasn't, it was the 1st. So dopey bollox here turns up a whole 10 days late, and gets laughed at, bsically (and quite rightly too!).

However, the upshot of it all was that the good folks at Continental saw that I'd paid for a ticket, accepted my reason for miising the original flight (that being that I was a spazzmong that hadn't read my itinery properly) and promptly stuck me on the next flight out.

So like I say, don't sweat it.

[Nearly Done 8]

I went through Newark with two children. I was with immigration for about 20, maybe 30mins at tops. That was 4 years ago!, they were fast and friendly and no problems. I always travel with Continental and always through Newark, they know there stuff there and are very fast and professional. I went back last October and had not changed my name on my passport, I took marriage certificate and greencard and they were fine about it.

I would say you have plenty of time, about the same time I had when we went through immigration. They took our paperwork, put something into the computer, asked a few simple questions and stamped our passports. Very friendly and swift!

Have a great trip and don't worry at all.

Margy

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

My husband's POE was Newark in August 2007. We waited for nearly an hour to get to the head of the queue to get our passports processed. When he was taken off for secondary processing (leaving me to get the baggage), he waited for two hours to have his CR1 visa processed -- they apparently "forgot" he was in the room! He saw numerous other people enter and leave the room -- he was literally the last person in the room, and he was too afraid of annoying any of the officers to ask why he hadn't been seen yet (he had already seen a few people get yelled at for asking questions). Meanwhile, I had no idea what was happening and was freaking out quietly in baggage claim. I kept getting asked why I was loitering in the baggage hall, and kept saying I was waiting for my husband to get out of secondary (this made everyone get nervous, until I mentioned he was coming in on an immigrant visa).

His paperwork was processed eventually, which only took about 90 seconds (!!!). Finally, he emerged and we went on our merry way. Total time from getting off plane to walking out the door: 3 hours. We were an anomaly, granted, but things can happen even when you do everything correctly.

[DanielParul 50]

We had about 2 hrs between landing at Newark and our connecting flight to Dallas and we kept stressing about how we are cutting it too close but when we got to Newark it was really fast and efficient. It took us about 20 minutes to get through immigration (including mine) and about 10 minutes to pick up the luggage and then we were off. We even had to sit and wait for 20 minutes or so before boarding the plane

You'll be alright. All the best

[*julez* 124]

We flew from the UK via Continental in July. Your main concern should be the ontime-ness of the flight, as in my experience Continental seem to have a problem with being timely. Ours was late due to the arrest of one of our passengers!

On the other hand, flights out of Newark seem to get canceled at the mere suggestion of bad weather. So, its really anyone's guess as to whether or not you'll have enough time.

Good luck!!

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Penguin, Ireland's PFI's do not work the same as Canada's; you can do immigration-clearance, but not customs (the Canuck ones do both--which has certainly been abused by some, including myself).

Are you sure that it's not just customs you have to clear @ EWR? (of course, that's still cutting a little fine if you have to clear customs and then catch a connexion).

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

Penguin, Ireland's PFI's do not work the same as Canada's; you can do immigration-clearance, but not customs (the Canuck ones do both--which has certainly been abused by some, including myself).

Are you sure that it's not just customs you have to clear @ EWR? (of course, that's still cutting a little fine if you have to clear customs and then catch a connexion).

Interesting about Canada, I didn't know that! Yeah I am pretty sure it is the actual immigration, as I asked the Continental rep when I was at Dublin airport for another flight last week. The added stress is that my USC husband is a very bad flyer and will be in an extremely bad mood, which won;t help my peacefulness when we have to queue for immigration! He is of the opinion we should not feed the twins on the flight so they cry when we get to Newark and they process us asap to get rid of us (joking!)