Immigration is a mess at IAD

[Anonymous]

IAD is the worst for US citizens too

[Anonymous]

I traveled a ton recently - visited 18 countries in 1.5 years. The only one worse than IAD was in Vietnam. I just traveled to Europe through Iceland, and it took about 20 minutes to get from one flight to the gate of the second flight, including immigration control!
When I came back from Mexico and China, there were no lines for immigration in Houston and SF airports.

[Anonymous]

Sign yourself up for Global Entry, please. It's a total gamechanger. Even if you only leave the country once a year, it's worth it - $100ish for 5 years and it comes with TSA precheck.

Mobile passport control can also be a big asset - easy to download while you wait in line. But if you have GE you will not wait in lines!

[Anonymous]

Maybe I've been lucky but I always had a good to great experience at IAD. The Mobile Passport app is a game changer. Once we began using it, we never waited more than 10 minutes to clear immigration. I'm a green card holder and my children are citizens. I grant you it may be harder for non-green card holders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree IAD is worse to arrive at than BWI internationally. They routinely have 3-5 agents working and then 3 flight arrivals at the same time. It’s bad management.

BWI has a handful of international flights arrivng per day. Dulles has that in a span of 15 minutes if you're arriving in the late afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Thanks maga this is on you and your stupidity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I've been lucky but I always had a good to great experience at IAD. The Mobile Passport app is a game changer. Once we began using it, we never waited more than 10 minutes to clear immigration. I'm a green card holder and my children are citizens. I grant you it may be harder for non-green card holders.

Closed last Saturday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks maga this is on you and your stupidity

This happened before MAGA too. International arrivals are very predictable at IAD. You can schedule employees for this. But Customs and Immigration at IAD have always been a pain for everyone. Understaffed. Rude. Belligerent. Slow. It's like they only hire the worst of northern Virginia - angry low IQ people.

But this is a choice Homeland Security makes. These are government employees. And they don't give a damn about anything and take pleasure in small cruelties. Making life unnecessarily miserable is a motivating force for those that choose to work for Homeland Security and their agencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IAD is the worst for US citizens too

I waited five minutes in line when I got back from Sao Paulo in early December at 5 am.

[Anonymous]

We just waited almost 2 hours to get through immigration last night in Tokyo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only worse place I have ever come through for customs was Rome. The lanes were super wide so the Indian families behind me kept trying to sneakily shift around us (only two of us) the whole time. Then one of them actually did jump the line because there was a part of the queue where it bent and a portion of the bend was missing a rope. It was so slow but mostly frustrating because it seemed designed to allow / encourage mobbing vs queuing.

that is what Indians do.

They also lie about the need for wheelchairs.

Air India says 30% of passengers on India-US flights ask for wheelchairs.

Most are able bodied travelers scamming the priority boarding system.

Real disabled passengers get left short.

and

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/125418277.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only worse place I have ever come through for customs was Rome. The lanes were super wide so the Indian families behind me kept trying to sneakily shift around us (only two of us) the whole time. Then one of them actually did jump the line because there was a part of the queue where it bent and a portion of the bend was missing a rope. It was so slow but mostly frustrating because it seemed designed to allow / encourage mobbing vs queuing.

that is what Indians do.

They also lie about the need for wheelchairs.

Air India says 30% of passengers on India-US flights ask for wheelchairs.

Most are able bodied travelers scamming the priority boarding system.

Real disabled passengers get left short.

and

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/125418277.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

I saw this too re: the wheelchairs when I flew to New Delhi.

[Anonymous]

US citizen. In the past few months I've traveled to both London and Rome. In both airports I was through immigration and customs in 20 minutes tops. There was heavy use of technology and less interaction with humans. It can be done, USA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Customs? They are long and tedious, no matter what country or airport you are in.

Customs is your stuff. Immigration is getting yourself into the country. And we found Immigration into both the UK and France to be nearly seamless this summer. Very very easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:US citizen. In the past few months I've traveled to both London and Rome. In both airports I was through immigration and customs in 20 minutes tops. There was heavy use of technology and less interaction with humans. It can be done, USA!

I’ve waited for a long long time in Heathrow. It’s dependent on a lot of factors.