Procedure/time with custom sized at POE

[moeandlu 4]

Hi! What is the general procedure/length of time with customs at point of entry for immigrant visa? My husband has the visa, no criminal background or anything they should need to question about. I know obviously it’s probably dependent on arrivals as usual with customs, is it a different area than usual customs we would go to or is there a very long time to wait in any experience? 

[Just Paul 4,595]

Plan on 2 to 4 hours to be safe.  Sometimes they send you to secondary just to check documents (or the embassy packet).   Usually  not a big deal.  He has already been vetted to get the visa.

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

7 minutes ago, moeandlu said:

Hi! What is the general procedure/length of time with customs at point of entry for immigrant visa? My husband has the visa, no criminal background or anything they should need to question about. I know obviously it’s probably dependent on arrivals as usual with customs, is it a different area than usual customs we would go to or is there a very long time to wait in any experience? 

The length waiting time obviously will vary greatly depends on the airport, time of arrival, how many flights arrive at the same time, blah blah blah,...

The procedure is the same regardless where the POE is. He first will need to get to the Kiosk to scan his passport/visa and declares if he is bringing food, plants, live animals, ... or more than $10,000 or whatever, to the US. Then he has to wait until he gets to the first custom counter, where they will then bring him to secondary inspection, where the actual processing of the immigration visa and the packet the Embassy gave him will take place. The actual facing time with a CBP agent will be around 15 mins or so, and they might ask him several questions such as: who sponsored you, where will you stay, what will you do in the US, ... that type of questions, no big deal.

 

After all that is done, they will stamp his passport. That makes him officially a Lawful Permanent Resident. Then he can go to collect his luggage. The last step is to go through the Agricultural screening. Some airports may have dogs sniffing around people's baggage to see if there is any plants, foodstuff, live fish, ... that sort of things. 

 

I'd say plan at the very minimum 2-2.5 hours for the whole thing. My mom came in Nov at Chicago and got through probably in 1.5 hours, but she was on a wheelchair and they skipped a lot of the lines.

[usmsbow 801]

You might want to read the POE stories on VJ for the place your husband will be arriving. CBP also provides online average length of time to go through immigration/customs for every POE. 

 

When my wife arrived on her visa, it took her 2 minutes to get through immigration, but then another 45 minutes waiting for her bag to arrive (then go through customs). Since then, the amount of time to get through immigration/customs for her has ranged from a couple minutes to 2 hours. 

[ThomasNC1988 762]

Somewhere between 5 minutes and 4 hours. Smart to plan for longer then you just might have to sit around and wait a while if it is faster.

[usmsbow 801]

13 minutes ago, USS_Voyager said:

The length waiting time obviously will vary greatly depends on the airport, time of arrival, how many flights arrive at the same time, blah blah blah,...

The procedure is the same regardless where the POE is. He first will need to get to the Kiosk to scan his passport/visa and declares if he is bringing food, plants, live animals, ... or more than $10,000 or whatever, to the US. 

Can people who arrive with a visa use the kiosks now? I have never seen that. 

[JFH 12,190]

*~*~*question about POE procedures moved to “moving to the USA”*~*~*

[RLA 323]

20 minutes ago, usmsbow said:

Can people who arrive with a visa use the kiosks now? I have never seen that. 

I've used kiosks twice on my B2 visa. 

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

The last several I entered, everyone goes to a Kiosk. You scan your fingerprint, passport, visa, GC, whatever else you have. Then answer the questions that previously were on the I-94 paper form. This effectively negate the need to fill out the I-94 paper while on board the plane. The last several times, no one looked at the paper you fill out on the plane any more, though they still hang out the papers. The kiosk printout a small receipt-looking paper. You take that paper and go to the counter with the CBP agent.

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

The vast majority of the time will be spent in various lines waiting. Time actually spent in front of a CBP agent will only be few minutes to 10-15 minutes at most. So, the safest thing to do is to book the next connecting flight at least 4-5 hours out.

[Crazy Cat 41,904]

Too many variables to give a good answer...other than to say that my wife's entry at DFW in mid 2017 took 90 minutes........included CBP officers asking her to  recount the cash she brought  into the country.

[Elrona 101]

My entry through Denver took maybe 5min? It was far longer to wait for the luggage.

 

I was also told not to use the kiosk as it can't read the stamp that USA embassy put into my passport.