My POE experience - Chicago O'hare airport

[C&M14 0]

Hi everybody! I'm already here in the US, arrived last August 1. I've missed a lot of post here and I am glad to see so many recent approvals. Congratulations!

Just want to relate my POE experience via Chicago O'hare airport. We have a 2 1/2 hour layover and we thought there was plenty of time. But then we almost missed our connecting flight to Kansas City, we arrived on our gate to board 5 minutes before depature. Just in the nick of time. How stressful!

Our plane landed at Chicago O'hare airport at 2:15 pm, started lining up at Immigration at 2:30 pm. When we got there the lines were too long already, there were like 150-200 people ahead of us. By the time we were interviewed by the Immigration officer it was already 4:00 pm. I was already fidgeting because our boarding time for our connecting flight was 4:20 pm. I became even more nervous when we were directed to line up to this Immigration officer who look stern and doesn't smile. He already sent somebody to go back to the end of the line again, I don't know what's the problem, maybe she hasn't filled up her papers right. I thought the Immigration officer was Chinese or Korean but surprise, surprise he is Half-Filipino! While he was going over our paperwork he heard me and my daughters speak in Tagalog, and he said, "Tagalog?" I looked at him and ask if he is Filipino. He said he was born in the US but his mother is a Filipina. Then for the first time he started to smile and my nervousness was gone. Then my daughters started to speak Bisaya and he said "Cebuano?" I was surprised he can understand and he said that his mother came from Negros, which is very near Cebu, our hometown. That made the rest of the interview very pleasant for us. Actually, it didn't feel like an interview, he only asked two questions: "What is your fiance's job?" and then he asked my daughters, "did you left your boyfriends crying in the Philippines?". We were there for like 10 minutes, mostly he spent the time stamping our paperwork, and joking with another Immigration officer that he got all the kids, since he was processing three K2's. Then he handed back to us our passports with the I-94 attached. I was like "That's it?" But then i remember the time and said thank you and hurried to the baggage carousel to get our luggages.

It was 4:10 pm when we got out of immigration and we have to catch our 4:50 flight to Kansas. My kids and I were literally running to catch our connecting flight. After claiming our luggages, we still have to go through Customs, then go through a security checkpoint, rechecked-in our bags then take the ATS train to get from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1. Then at Terminal 1 we have to go through another security checkpoint again which was longer than the first one we went through, then have to find the gate where we need to board our plane! We didn't even have time to go to a restroom to freshen up before our next flight. I wanted to look pretty or at least fresh for my fiancee but no time for that anymore, i don't want to miss our plane. We got to our gate at 4:45 pm, just 5 minutes before the plane's departure. We were the last to board.

It was a little stressful but all my worries were gone when i finally saw my fiancee and his daughter waiting for us at Kansas City airport. It feels so nice to be in my fiance's arms again. The long journey is over. Now we can start our new life together.

While our flight was long but okay and we just breezed through Immigration, one snag we had is that we almost lost two bags. We brought 8 checked-in luggages and 4 handcarry's. When we got to Kansas, two of our checked-in luggages were missing. We can't understand how our six bags arrived but two were missing. We filed a missing bag report before we left the airport. But then after 5 days they were able to locate our bags, I don't know where, and delivered them to our house with apologies from United airlines.

So my advice for those who will go through Chicago as their POE and has connecting flights, maybe you should think of giving plenty of time for layover at the airport. We almost missed our next flight with just 2 1/2 hours layover. I don't know, maybe we were just unlucky that when we arrived the immigration lines were already long. We were lucky though that we had a nice half-filipino immigration officer who didn't ask too many questions and also having our boarding passes issued at Narita airport also helped speed us up. We didn't have to check in again at Chicago but only rechecked-in our bags.

Now we are here in the US and really liking it here a lot. One thing me and my daughters still can't get used to is the long daylight hours here. It is already like 7-8 pm and the sun is still shining so brightly. We would be surprised that it is already late but feels like it is still 4 pm in Manila. Don't get me wrong, we are enjoying it so much. Me and my fiance have been busy and have so many things to do. We are making up for lost time!

[alexandra8886 0]

congratulations!!!

and thank you so much for posting this here..it enlighten me a lot..considering i have a 2 year old girl going to fly with me (hopefully soon) going to US.

cheers!

alexandra

[TracyTN 237]

My fiance had just under 3 hours to connect to his flight after immigration/customs, and he got there with nearly an hour and a half to spare.

At O'hare, it REALLY depends on the time of day that you are going through. Because 2 1/2 hour layover is otherwise very do-able.

I found this site to be extremely helpful for planning POE experiences:

http://apps.cbp.gov/awt/

[Jasman0717 9]

Nice post, thanks for sharing. When Claudeth came through LAX she ended up finding a Filipino baggage handler that helped her with all the luggage. She is so friendly with everyone so who wouldn't help her

Welcome to America, I hope all is well for you and your children.

[alexandra8886 0]

I found this site to be extremely helpful for planning POE experiences:

http://apps.cbp.gov/awt/

thanks for posting this site...

[MaydayDas 1]

Hi everybody! I'm already here in the US, a

Congratulations...welcome

[joemaria 0]

Congrats and welcome to the US!

[vsmtghdy 2]

WELCOME to

And thanks for posting your POE experience. You will get used to the time difference and the long day lights. Have fun!

[essjay 0]

Congratulations and thanks for the review.

Good luck for the future....

[2_hearts_1_beat 0]

Congratulations! Its good that you and your kids love it there so far. Thanks for posting your experiences especially your interview experience. I've read it before my interview day and it helped a lot. My intended POE as well is Chicago O'hare and im so glad I had your experience about this POE to read again before I'll fly in September. Enjoy your life in the US!

[bszoom42 0]

Congratulations!

[DARUMA07 25]

Hi everybody! I'm already here in the US, arrived last August 1. I've missed a lot of post here and I am glad to see so many recent approvals. Congratulations!

Just want to relate my POE experience via Chicago O'hare airport. We have a 2 1/2 hour layover and we thought there was plenty of time. But then we almost missed our connecting flight to Kansas City, we arrived on our gate to board 5 minutes before depature. Just in the nick of time. How stressful!

Our plane landed at Chicago O'hare airport at 2:15 pm, started lining up at Immigration at 2:30 pm. When we got there the lines were too long already, there were like 150-200 people ahead of us. By the time we were interviewed by the Immigration officer it was already 4:00 pm. I was already fidgeting because our boarding time for our connecting flight was 4:20 pm. I became even more nervous when we were directed to line up to this Immigration officer who look stern and doesn't smile. He already sent somebody to go back to the end of the line again, I don't know what's the problem, maybe she hasn't filled up her papers right. I thought the Immigration officer was Chinese or Korean but surprise, surprise he is Half-Filipino! While he was going over our paperwork he heard me and my daughters speak in Tagalog, and he said, "Tagalog?" I looked at him and ask if he is Filipino. He said he was born in the US but his mother is a Filipina. Then for the first time he started to smile and my nervousness was gone. Then my daughters started to speak Bisaya and he said "Cebuano?" I was surprised he can understand and he said that his mother came from Negros, which is very near Cebu, our hometown. That made the rest of the interview very pleasant for us. Actually, it didn't feel like an interview, he only asked two questions: "What is your fiance's job?" and then he asked my daughters, "did you left your boyfriends crying in the Philippines?". We were there for like 10 minutes, mostly he spent the time stamping our paperwork, and joking with another Immigration officer that he got all the kids, since he was processing three K2's. Then he handed back to us our passports with the I-94 attached. I was like "That's it?" But then i remember the time and said thank you and hurried to the baggage carousel to get our luggages.

It was 4:10 pm when we got out of immigration and we have to catch our 4:50 flight to Kansas. My kids and I were literally running to catch our connecting flight. After claiming our luggages, we still have to go through Customs, then go through a security checkpoint, rechecked-in our bags then take the ATS train to get from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1. Then at Terminal 1 we have to go through another security checkpoint again which was longer than the first one we went through, then have to find the gate where we need to board our plane! We didn't even have time to go to a restroom to freshen up before our next flight. I wanted to look pretty or at least fresh for my fiancee but no time for that anymore, i don't want to miss our plane. We got to our gate at 4:45 pm, just 5 minutes before the plane's departure. We were the last to board.

It was a little stressful but all my worries were gone when i finally saw my fiancee and his daughter waiting for us at Kansas City airport. It feels so nice to be in my fiance's arms again. The long journey is over. Now we can start our new life together.

While our flight was long but okay and we just breezed through Immigration, one snag we had is that we almost lost two bags. We brought 8 checked-in luggages and 4 handcarry's. When we got to Kansas, two of our checked-in luggages were missing. We can't understand how our six bags arrived but two were missing. We filed a missing bag report before we left the airport. But then after 5 days they were able to locate our bags, I don't know where, and delivered them to our house with apologies from United airlines.

So my advice for those who will go through Chicago as their POE and has connecting flights, maybe you should think of giving plenty of time for layover at the airport. We almost missed our next flight with just 2 1/2 hours layover. I don't know, maybe we were just unlucky that when we arrived the immigration lines were already long. We were lucky though that we had a nice half-filipino immigration officer who didn't ask too many questions and also having our boarding passes issued at Narita airport also helped speed us up. We didn't have to check in again at Chicago but only rechecked-in our bags.

Now we are here in the US and really liking it here a lot. One thing me and my daughters still can't get used to is the long daylight hours here. It is already like 7-8 pm and the sun is still shining so brightly. We would be surprised that it is already late but feels like it is still 4 pm in Manila. Don't get me wrong, we are enjoying it so much. Me and my fiance have been busy and have so many things to do. We are making up for lost time!

Your experience was all too familar! I flew up to Chicago to O'hare to meet Ruchie and Mathew as they flew in from Hong Kong. We had 2 1/2 hours for them to get through immigration, so we could all fly back to Kansas City together. Needless to say, we had to hurry and get on the ATS to get back to Terminal 1.... They were boarding our United flight when we reached our gate.. Our advice to anyone flying into Chicago O'hare as their POE.... Try to book your connecting flight maybe for 3 1/2 hours after your arrival. Afternoon hours are very very busy for the Immigration.. Anyway, Good Luck to you and WELCOME to the USA.

[island_princess 2]

Just what I need. Thank you for sharing.

BTW, did they open your luggage during the security checks? As in, looking at the contents, one-by-one?

[chipsahoy 3]

Just what I need. Thank you for sharing.

BTW, did they open your luggage during the security checks? As in, looking at the contents, one-by-one?

Thanks for asking. I was about to..

Congratulations C&M14. You've fin'lly made it. Thanks for sharing your experience. My POE will be Ohare too.. I hope having 3 hour interval is good enough that may not cause any delays.

[C&M14 0]

Just what I need. Thank you for sharing.

BTW, did they open your luggage during the security checks? As in, looking at the contents, one-by-one?

No, they don't open and check the contents of your luggages one-by-one. All your luggages will go through the security x-ray and I think when they only see something suspicious that's the time they will open and check the contents of your bag. Our luggages were never open at the security checkpoints from Manila to Narita to the first security checkpoint in Chicago. But I don't know why on the second security checkpoint in Chicago, the security officer asked me to open one of our handcarry bag. She checked them one by one but didn't find anything prohibited or dangerous, so she let us go. I don't know what set her off. Our handcarry bag only has our paperwork, some clothes and some toiletries and make-up kits.

Put all your toiletries and make-up in a clear zip-lock bag so they can easily check them. All aerosols and liquids like perfumes are prohibited in your handcarry. They should all be in your check-in bag.