port of entry

[saharajc2002 0]

My fiance is entering JFK airport when he is traveling here on his K-1 visa. When we booked the ticket we didnt know we needed more than 2 hours. He does in fact have 1 hour and 55 mins.. I am wondering what the proceedures are once the plane has landed? Will he be seprated and taken to a room then interviewd then given his I-94? Then off to gather his luggage and go through customs then to the next gate? Its rather confusing and I would like to know ahead of time. Also the envelpoe the consulate gave him came partialy open and the consulate taped it badly and he has tried to fix it and the stamed seal is broken. Hope this wont create issues. I think the flight it self will go smoothly unless he misses the last flight which is delta and I was told if u miss your flight with them then your basically screwed. Any info would be greatly appriciated....Jackie

[Bobby+Umit 161]

2 hours might be cutting it close. Depends on how many people pour in when the plane arrives.

Seal broken? oh oh. that may be a problem. Is he still in Morocco? can't he return to the consulate and get it fixed?

[saharajc2002 0]

Yes he is still in Morocco and the consulate just taped it he did try to have them fix it and they sure did a poor job! he s 5 or 6 hours away from the consulate so it isnt easy for him to go. They put 2 stamps ink stamps on the seal of the envelope plus a signature, the signature isnt broken.

2 hours might be cutting it close. Depends on how many people pour in when the plane arrives.

Seal broken? oh oh. that may be a problem. Is he still in Morocco? can't he return to the consulate and get it fixed?

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Ah - ok - as long as the consulate did it - I thought you meant your benificiary attempted the fix.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My fiance is entering JFK airport when he is traveling here on his K-1 visa. When we booked the ticket we didnt know we needed more than 2 hours. He does in fact have 1 hour and 55 mins.. I am wondering what the proceedures are once the plane has landed? Will he be seprated and taken to a room then interviewd then given his I-94? Then off to gather his luggage and go through customs then to the next gate? Its rather confusing and I would like to know ahead of time. Also the envelpoe the consulate gave him came partialy open and the consulate taped it badly and he has tried to fix it and the stamed seal is broken. Hope this wont create issues. I think the flight it self will go smoothly unless he misses the last flight which is delta and I was told if u miss your flight with them then your basically screwed. Any info would be greatly appriciated....Jackie

This will be close. Depends how many people are there and how far he has to go to his next flight, there are multiple terminals there and it can take time between getting between them. His entry into the US should be not much more difficult than anyone else. He fills out the I-94 when he arrives and they finish it and stamp it when he gives his passport. Get the envelope fixed. Does he have connecting flights booked together? Or separate tickets? If they are booked together the next flight will wait for all connecting passengers if the planes are on the ground. At least for a little while, and JFK is notoriously late in take offs, though sometimes they pull the planes away and make them wait away from the terminal.

He can be questioned or baggage searched, anyone can, so there is no telling about that. I can say this, and not to scare you, it is only true, when my wife arrived it was 2 hours just to get through passport control and pick up her bags and she had no delays of any kind except long lines. I usually figure an hour just to get through it all and out the door of the terminal.

[dimanuni 1]

If he misses his flight, he'll probably be able to get on the next one out, without a fee, if he explains that he was held up in immigration. Your worry probably should be whether there IS another flight the same day to your hometown? I flew Royal Air Maroc to Omaha over Christmas, and I wound up having to fly to Chicago and spend the night with friends, because I was worried I wouldn't make the 2 hour window (I was bringing my Moroccan cat - who doesn't need a visa, ha ha). There was only one flight which would get me home in one day, and I didn't want to miss it.

[lucyrich 20]

The basic procedure is this:

On the plane, he fills out an I-94 and customs declaration.

After getting off the plane, he goes through the visitors line at immigration, showing them his I-94, visa, and the envelope. It's very likely they'll escort him off into another room for secondary processing. He shouldn't get alarmed at that. In the other room, they'll open his envelope, type a bunch of things into the computer, perhaps ask a few questions, such as confirming his address (they typically won't repeat questioning that should have been covered at the interview, such as questioning the bona fide nature of the relationship). They'll eventually release him to continue on to the baggage claim area.

At the baggage claim, he'll pick up his bags, and then proceed to customs. They might inspect his bags, or they might wave him through.

Near the exit to customs, there will be a way to check his baggage on to his connecting flight, assuming the agent at the origin tagged the bag to go all the way to the final destination. If the agent just tagged it to go to JFK, then he'll need to go to the ticket counter/baggage check area and get his bag tagged and checked.

After exiting customs, he will be in the unsecure portion of the airport. Perhaps near the ticket counters, but I don't know the layout of JFK.

He'll have to go through the standard TSA screening that all domestic passengers have to go through.

Then he'll go to his gate and get on his plane.

[Kinito_2k3 5]

My fiance is entering JFK airport when he is traveling here on his K-1 visa. When we booked the ticket we didnt know we needed more than 2 hours. He does in fact have 1 hour and 55 mins.. I am wondering what the proceedures are once the plane has landed? Will he be seprated and taken to a room then interviewd then given his I-94? Then off to gather his luggage and go through customs then to the next gate? Its rather confusing and I would like to know ahead of time. Also the envelpoe the consulate gave him came partialy open and the consulate taped it badly and he has tried to fix it and the stamed seal is broken. Hope this wont create issues. I think the flight it self will go smoothly unless he misses the last flight which is delta and I was told if u miss your flight with them then your basically screwed. Any info would be greatly appriciated....Jackie

You are not screwed if you miss with Delta, depending on you ticket class you are either rescheduled for free to the next flight or you are rescheduled for $50. That said, the Delta Terminal in JFK is pretty small, their policy oblige them to put you on the next flight if you don't arrive 45 minutes before your flight and have a luggage to check in.

I arrived in JFK at 10am, my Delta flight was 1h55 later, I made it 35 minutes before the flight in front of the check in desk and had to reschedule. You might want to be pro-active and change his flight right now, it might be cheaper and more importantly, it will prevent him from being stuck in NYC if they don't have any seats available for his final destination...I am pretty sure he won't make it on time

Edited May 28, 2009 by Kinito_2k3

[JeremyR 8]

I arrived in JFK at 10am, my Delta flight was 1h55 later, I made it 35 minutes before the flight in front of the check in desk and had to reschedule. You might want to be pro-active and change his flight right now, it might be cheaper and more importantly, it will prevent him from being stuck in NYC if they don't have any seats available for his final destination...I am pretty sure he won't make it on time

Whether it will be cheaper to change the flights now or at the airport if needed depends on how they bought them in the first place. If they're non-changeable, non-refundable tickets (which most economy tickets are these days) then they're better of paying only the transfer fee (if any) at the airport if they have to.

2 hours to make the connection was ample for me (albeit at ORD not JFK) and I was at the gate just under an hour before the the flight closed. Basically it comes down to luck - if you whistle through the various stages, 2 hours will be way more than you need but if you're put into secondary by immigration and pulled by customs for a baggage inspection and the checkpoint queue is long and the inter-terminal transit is busy, and so on, and so on, then in theory 4 hours may not be enough. There will always be circumstances under which more time was needed.

[Kinito_2k3 5]

I arrived in JFK at 10am, my Delta flight was 1h55 later, I made it 35 minutes before the flight in front of the check in desk and had to reschedule. You might want to be pro-active and change his flight right now, it might be cheaper and more importantly, it will prevent him from being stuck in NYC if they don't have any seats available for his final destination...I am pretty sure he won't make it on time

Whether it will be cheaper to change the flights now or at the airport if needed depends on how they bought them in the first place. If they're non-changeable, non-refundable tickets (which most economy tickets are these days) then they're better of paying only the transfer fee (if any) at the airport if they have to.

2 hours to make the connection was ample for me (albeit at ORD not JFK) and I was at the gate just under an hour before the the flight closed. Basically it comes down to luck - if you whistle through the various stages, 2 hours will be way more than you need but if you're put into secondary by immigration and pulled by customs for a baggage inspection and the checkpoint queue is long and the inter-terminal transit is busy, and so on, and so on, then in theory 4 hours may not be enough. There will always be circumstances under which more time was needed.

True - Although Delta tickets are all changeable and can be changed for free if done online - Delta.com

If she doesn't do that:

- That means that she has to make it before the flight at the checkin time and reschedule for 50$ and/or she will have to pay the price difference between the full fare on that day and her ticket's price

- Depending on the destination, Delta might not be able to reschedule the traveller just because JFK is hectic, packed, and some destinations have only 1 or 2 flights a day and the chance to have an available seat on such flight is very small...in that case, spending the night at JFK might be costly unless you wanna sleep on a bench.

That's just my two cents

Edited May 28, 2009 by Kinito_2k3