4 hours not enough time at POE.

[DakotaKid 38]

My fiance arrived at LAX on Thursday evening, 5 Jul at 8:00 PM PDT, about 25 minutes late.  Her flight out of LAX was at 11:55 PM PDT.  She called me at 2:00 AM CDT or midnight at LAX.. She was frantic, it took her too long to clear immigration to make the connection.  She gets to the Sun Country Airlines ticketing area in Terminal 5, and they are closed down for the night.  Unable to talk to anyone until 6:00 AM CDT.  I booked a ticket on Delta to leave there at 6:22 and arrive in the Twin Cities at noon.  I would have thought that 4 hours would have been  more than sufficient to clear immigration and make the connecting flight with ease.  She said that there were so many people in the queue, that it took a long time to finally get to an agent.  She said that once there, it was a piece of cake.  He asked her what my name was.  He then asked her if she knew what had to be done once admitted to the USA.  She told him, yes, we must marry in 90 days or I need to leave.  Welcome to the USA, and he stamped her passport

 

Be wary of booking flights that involve budget carriers. 

[Sunnyland 639]

Glad she made it safe and she is with you now. When I entered POE Miami in 2012 they kept me in the secondary inspection area for like 2 hours, I was the last to be admitted in. Thanks God I did not have a second flight that night.

[Amadia 711]

Sorry the transition was a pain but it's good news that she arrived safe and sound!

 

[geowrian 22,338]

Rough trip, but I'm glad she made it. Congrats!

 

Four hours is usually sufficient for immigration + getting to your gate, but it sounds like the closed ticketing office overnight was an issue. It's not just budget carriers that do this...those late night and red eye flights are always a risk of something  going wrong. =_=

[Chris Duffy 1,257]

I avoid LAX at all cost

 

It's like a 3rd world airport

 

SFO is greatness compared to LAX

[iulia.matey 25]

After spending 5 hours entering with a B2 thro JFK, i made sure to leave 6 hours between my flight and my bus for K1. Luckily i was out of there within an hour. If you haven't already left a review of the POE, could you include that? I'm sure people look through them when preparing their trip.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,096]

Fortunately, presuming Aeroflot's schedules don't change (there's exactly one direct flight from Russia to the west coast, and it's from SVO to LAX), Anastasia will be arriving in the middle of the afternoon... and leaving by car from there. Unfortunately that means navigating LA traffic to get back to San Diego. Maybe we'll stop for dinner somewhere nice or something. 

[Loren Y 2,756]

I travel internationally quite a bit, and I have had no issues at LAX coming or going. Global Entry, Mobile Passport and all the current electronic forms are in use there. I don't think it qualifies as a third world airport, and my past 6 trips thru there I have been talking to many people coming thru on K1 and CR1, and other immigrant visas because I just received NOA2 on my K1 so my fiancee will be hopefully coming back with me this November. I have personally seen Immigrant visa holders going thru the POE, and I have talked to many after they get thru, and I want to say the majority of them are processed in under an hour. One time the electronic system was down for some reason and I watched a K1 visa holder get thru the POE before I did, I was like really? It happens and I don't really mind a wait but it sounds like she just came thru on a bad day. I transfer from the International Terminal to Domestic terminals all the time ( Usually to Southwest as I live in Las Vegas, and can get a 39 or 49 dollar flight all the time) and that can get confusing at LAX. It is a big circle of terminals and when you hop on the bus for the terminal transfer( Not the easiest to find) then figure out what terminal your airline is in it can take some time. It could be confusing for a first timer there no doubt, and you are dealing with a lot of action there just about 24 hours a day. Sorry to hear she had a hard time, it really sucks to miss a flight ( Been there, Done that, but my premiere Lounge access makes a missed flight for me like a mini vacation in the terminal) I have been thru SFO many times also, and I agree to some extent it is a nicer looking airport, and easier to navigate, plus they have been doing improvements to handle the increased traffic where LAX always seems under construction and behind in this regard. This is just my 2 cents, actually it probably isn't worth that, but I'm throwing it in.LOL And in November I am going to drive to LA ( Yes, that sucks, driving in LA) and park my car at a friends house so I don't have to worry about entry time at POE because I just have to get to my car this time, not another flight, the cost for flights was astronomical because I come back the day before Thanksgiving holiday, should have thought about that before I booked my International ticket. Now a one way from LAX to Vegas went from 39 to like 159 dollars on the day I need to fly back, and I would have to buy 2 tickets for that flight.

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

On 7/7/2018 at 4:08 PM, DakotaKid said:

My fiance arrived at LAX on Thursday evening, 5 Jul at 8:00 PM PDT, about 25 minutes late.  Her flight out of LAX was at 11:55 PM PDT.  She called me at 2:00 AM CDT or midnight at LAX.. She was frantic, it took her too long to clear immigration to make the connection.  She gets to the Sun Country Airlines ticketing area in Terminal 5, and they are closed down for the night.  Unable to talk to anyone until 6:00 AM CDT.  I booked a ticket on Delta to leave there at 6:22 and arrive in the Twin Cities at noon.  I would have thought that 4 hours would have been  more than sufficient to clear immigration and make the connecting flight with ease.  She said that there were so many people in the queue, that it took a long time to finally get to an agent.  She said that once there, it was a piece of cake.  He asked her what my name was.  He then asked her if she knew what had to be done once admitted to the USA.  She told him, yes, we must marry in 90 days or I need to leave.  Welcome to the USA, and he stamped her passport

 

Be wary of booking flights that involve budget carriers. 

DakotaKid!

Just found your profile. Here is the link to the Minneapolis-St Paul AOS filers. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/656415-minneapolis-st-paul-mn-office-aos-filers/?page=12&tab=comments#comment-9279631 Here are the names of most people who are in the Minneapolis Field Office jurisdiction. I took the liberty of adding your name. 

 

All the best, 

 

USC4SPOUSE

 

 PD                           Interview   Member                         Notes                                    

04-07-16                 03.23-17     aichteeque                 *Approved 03-24-17
04-21-16                 05-31-17     elenamimimi

06-13-16                                      mfbg                           *Pending as of 01-08-18

11-10-16                 12-19-17     Datallone

12-07-16                 10-31-17     sausa                              01-26-18 *Approval 

12-08-16                 01-22-18     sebastianshaw    

12-15-16                 NONE          Nicole&Ryan               K-1   

12-19-16                 01-25-18    apricot123                      K-1

02-14-17                 02-28-18 

02-21-17                                     Throwaway3882828  K-1; Pending as of 06-20-18

02-22-17.                02-28-18     USpatial                       F-1 

02-99-17                 03-07-18     Daithi182

04-27-17                                     Matisyahu                     F-1 

05-05-17                 07-10-18     clacknark                     K-1

05-09-17                 08-14-18     mangorange                F-1

05-10-17                                      cool_beans                  *"Interview scheduled" email on 07-08-18 

05-17-17                                      Roy2017                       F-1

05-22-17                                      Vik77

06-07-17                                      Mar_31

06-16-17                                      MapleLeaf29               K-1

09-15-17                                      Chelleyandaaron        K-1

09-18-17                                      natsusnowy1204        K-1 

09-27-17                 08-01-18     Mike V                          K-1

10-04-17                                      itsdonealready           F-1

10-30-17        

01-08-18                                      Luciana Castro              K-1

02-01-18                                      MelandJason 

03-12-18                                      mysticdolphin95         K-1

03-16-18                                      USC4SPOUSE              F-1 (out of status)

03-30-18                                      ELTCBO18                    K-1  

                                                      DakotaKid                    *Soon to file for AOS

                                                      Danny70                        *Soon to file for AOS   

 

[JFH 12,191]

*~*~*moved from “K-1 fiancé visa process and procedures” to “moving to the USA” - discussion about POE connection times*~*~*

[Danny70 11]

DakotaKid, congratulations on the approval and getting her to the Cities!!! 

[crono_clone 213]

Yikes, this is why I'm aiming to make Houston the POE for my fiance when he flies here, to minimize the chances of this happening to us. 

[Paulonto 29]

Sorry about my innocent ignorance but....

I always thought that Port of Entry was when you actually EXIT the airport and that before that you were in Air Space.

 

I am correct to understand that POE is actually at the place where your plane first lands on America?

I've booked a flight to Ohio connecting at JFK..... 3hours connection wait. 

I'm now really worried that 3hours won't be enough !!!!!!!

[geowrian 22,338]

5 hours ago, Paulonto said:

Sorry about my innocent ignorance but....

I always thought that Port of Entry was when you actually EXIT the airport and that before that you were in Air Space.

 

I am correct to understand that POE is actually at the place where your plane first lands on America?

I've booked a flight to Ohio connecting at JFK..... 3hours connection wait. 

I'm now really worried that 3hours won't be enough !!!!!!!

POE is generally considered when you pass through immigration and customs upon entry.

This is usually the first stop within the US, although there are a small handful of airports with preclearance outside the US. You go through immigration at the preclearance area in those airports. In that case, your POE is actually physically outside the US (weird, right?).

JFK isn't nearly as bad as LAX waiting-wise for immigration. It's not fast, but I've never personally had it take over 2 hours.

[Paulonto 29]

26 minutes ago, geowrian said:

POE is generally considered when you pass through immigration and customs upon entry.

This is usually the first stop within the US, although there are a small handful of airports with preclearance outside the US. You go through immigration at the preclearance area in those airports. In that case, your POE is actually physically outside the US (weird, right?).

JFK isn't nearly as bad as LAX waiting-wise for immigration. It's not fast, but I've never personally had it take over 2 hours.

Thank you so much geowrian!

Very weird yes.....

So I've got the one single ticket to columbus via JFK, and although I exit at Colimbus, still my POE is JFK...

Thank you.... I think I'm just going to have to waste no time with luggages etc because it might get tight...

 

So....if my visa/passport is looked at JFK, will they still go through it at Columbus or will they there just look at me as a LPR please?