POE Immigration Houston? 5-hour layover enough??

[Roxyroo 1]

Hi guys,

Can't believe we are here, but it is time to book my fiancé's flight. Now I feel like we got the visa, we don't want to screw anything else up!

We originally thought his POE would be New York City, which would be a direct flight from Bogotá, but now friends who live in Canada want to meet us in Boston first. It makes sense, time and money-wise, to just have him fly to Boston instead of wasting a night in NY. The NY flight is more expensive.

But...there are no direct flights between Bogotá and Boston. I can get him on a flight that leaves Bogotá at 8AM, POE Houston, 5 hour layover there, and then lands in Boston at midnight. It sounds like an awful day of travel. But we'd be already in Boston and we'd save a little money.

However, I am worried about him having a connecting flight. I feel that with a 5-hour layover, he would be safe even if he were kept in immigration for 4 hours, but I still worry--what if the first flight is delayed, what if then he is in immigration for hours...etc, etc. Worry, worry.

Any advice? If people say play it safe, do the direct flight to NY and take the bus to Boston, we will.

[blue123 0]

Hi guys,

Can't believe we are here, but it is time to book my fiancé's flight. Now I feel like we got the visa, we don't want to screw anything else up!

We originally thought his POE would be New York City, which would be a direct flight from Bogotá, but now friends who live in Canada want to meet us in Boston first. It makes sense, time and money-wise, to just have him fly to Boston instead of wasting a night in NY. The NY flight is more expensive.

But...there are no direct flights between Bogotá and Boston. I can get him on a flight that leaves Bogotá at 8AM, POE Houston, 5 hour layover there, and then lands in Boston at midnight. It sounds like an awful day of travel. But we'd be already in Boston and we'd save a little money.

However, I am worried about him having a connecting flight. I feel that with a 5-hour layover, he would be safe even if he were kept in immigration for 4 hours, but I still worry--what if the first flight is delayed, what if then he is in immigration for hours...etc, etc. Worry, worry.

Any advice? If people say play it safe, do the direct flight to NY and take the bus to Boston, we will.

You should be fine especially if you have a through ticket to Boston, if there was delays the airline would make sure he got there but 5 hours is a long time.

[payxibka 10,045]

should be plenty... it is difficult to plan for flight delays...

Edited May 17, 2009 by payxibka

[MonkeyJuice 3]

Oooh 5 hours seems like loasda time!

[Tygrys 143]

Five hours layover should be more than enough. You can never predict flight delays, but if he misses the connecting flight because of that, the airline will rebook him on the next flight to Boston.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

POE in Houston took my husband about 30 minutes in the processing room. It wasn't a particulary busy time in the immigration arrival hall so he got to that point pretty quickly. I've flown internationally into Houston many times and summer afternoons can be busy. It seems like half a dozen planes from Cancun, Cozamel, and other summer destinations all landed at the same time so the lines were long to get to the officers, but those were mostly Americans. Your fiance will go to the visitors side of the hall to get in line. The officers know what they're doing on K1 visas so it goes smoothly. There's always lots of Houston immigration officers that speak Spanish.

After he gets processed in a room close to the arrival lines, he will go down the escalators to find his luggage. There's often a little beagle walking around sniffing bags for drugs. Next your fiance will get in line to go past the customs guys with his luggage. There's usually 3 of those officers and often just a walk through. Once I got sent to random inspection, which is a glass room right by the customs guys. I guess they needed a token old white lady. They just opened my suitcase and the girl commented it was very neatly organized. LOL. The guy picked up a bottle and said what kind of medicine is this, and I told him it was shampoo. That took 5 minutes at most. They just took a look, but I was American and not coming from Columbia which is probably more suspect for drugs. So once you leave that area, some people go on into the lobby and the ones with connecting flights re-check their bags at a place before the exit. There's always people directing traffic and helping at the bag re-check. I don't know where the people go from that point because Houston is my final destination, but I guess he will remain airside and go to his connecting terminal via the bag re-check, rather than going into the international arrivals lobby. Five hours will be more than plenty of time to process, even if its busy.

[Roxyroo 1]

Thanks for such detailed information! I really appreciate it and am no longer nervous about booking this flight.

[AbbynSheryl 0]

i came through houston lots of time and it is very fast processing for immigration

u should just relax and dont worry too much

he has lots of time , good luck

abby n sheryl

[letty 1]

My POE was IAH and I was sure that 3,5 hours were enough for a connecting flight. Well, I just made it after I had to run to the other terminal since I arrived international and had a domestic connecting flight. There are cerain times in the day a lot of planes come in at the same time (for example 2 pm is a time a lot of european flights come in KLM, BA, Continental), so I ended up waiting a long time in line before I made it to a customer. Than they made me wait more than 2 hours in a waiting room till they finally talked to me. This "interview" only took 2 minutes and was more giving information about the process and no questions at all. I thought it all took forever but it was much less than 5 hours so I guess you should be good.

Letty

[paciencia 0]

Thanks for all the details above! My fiance will get his visa in a week (hopefully..according to the embassy), after over a year of administrative processing. He just booked a ticket to IAH from the middle east, and I was hoping that he could catch a domestic flight after that..but..

-Is 3 hours cutting it too tight? His flight will arrive on a weekday, around 4pm. He's from the Middle East, too..

-Does he need to take his baggage out, and then re-check in, or can he check it right after customs before exiting?

Thanks so much!

[New Beginnings 32]

It took my husband about 2 1/2 hours at JFK but that was because there were several people in front of him that had problems with their papers and didn't speak any english.

Give yourself more than enough time... I wouldn't have felt comfortable with the 3 hours so I just flew to NY to meet him there and we spent the night and caught a plane home the next day.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Thanks for all the details above! My fiance will get his visa in a week (hopefully..according to the embassy), after over a year of administrative processing. He just booked a ticket to IAH from the middle east, and I was hoping that he could catch a domestic flight after that..but..

-Is 3 hours cutting it too tight? His flight will arrive on a weekday, around 4pm. He's from the Middle East, too..

-Does he need to take his baggage out, and then re-check in, or can he check it right after customs before exiting?

Thanks so much!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Thanks for all the details above! My fiance will get his visa in a week (hopefully..according to the embassy), after over a year of administrative processing. He just booked a ticket to IAH from the middle east, and I was hoping that he could catch a domestic flight after that..but..

-Is 3 hours cutting it too tight? His flight will arrive on a weekday, around 4pm. He's from the Middle East, too..

-Does he need to take his baggage out, and then re-check in, or can he check it right after customs before exiting?

Thanks so much!

Oops! Hit the wrong key.

The customs guys stand at podiums and collect the customs form. You walk through and hand them the form and they wave you on. Then there's a bit of a walk down wide corridors. Just before big automatic doors that slide open to the lobby/international arrivals hall, on the right is bag recheck. You see conveyor belts...maybe the xray type thing like security. I've never been in there, just noticed as I passed by. There's always somebody standing there shouting "connecting flights? Check your bags here." He will stay airside. He does not go into the lobby through the big glass sliding doors. If he has to go to another terminal, there is a newish high speed loop train that's only for airside passengers who have already been through security. International arrrivals is Terminal E. Most domestic flights depart from C (largest terminal and mostly Continental). Terminal A & B are for the little regional planes and some small airlines or ones that don't have that many flights to Houston. I don't know what they use D for now. It was the former International terminal before they built the new one (E).

Edited August 18, 2009 by Nich-Nick

[paciencia 0]

thank you so much for posting all the details. Sometimes those can make all the difference That's honestly wonderful that they don't have to go to a full check-in again, and especially nice that they don't have to go through security. I'm going to forward this all on to my fiance - thanks again. I'll let you all know if he makes his flight

[paciencia 0]

Another stupid question: does he have to have a boarding pass in order to check his bag? Because his connecting flight will be on a different airline-- he will probably have a boarding pass, but his bag won't have a sticker on it to the final destination. I guess if they need that, he'd have to go out and re-check-in at the counters.. I'm just worried it won't be enough time!