Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS arrives home from college overseas at 3:30 pm on Friday. It suddenly dawned on me that I will have to contend with beltway traffic to pick him up. A huge factor of uncertainty is that, as a green card applicant, he has to do double immigration. The fastest time in which has emerged was about 2 hrs but last time he came, he didn’t make it out until 4.5 hours after landing.

What strategy would you recommend for picking him up? I’ve never been on the beltway on Friday of Memorial Day weekend. We live in Bethesda.

There is the possibility of delaying his flight by one day. It would arrive at the same time. What should I expect of traffic on the beltway on a Saturday? Would you change?

I would delay it. I live right by the last exit from VA to MD. It's not getting TO the airport that's going to be a nightmare, it's getting home. Given that immigration is hard to guess or control, you don't need to spend hours in traffic with every a$$h@le who lives in MD but wants to work in VA clogging up the roads. And they do, daily. Holidays are worse.
Alternatively maybe get him to take an Uber Black or Washigton Flyer home. Understandable that you want to pick him up, but he will likely understand as well that you given the immigration lines it's hard on you to wait for somewhere between 1 and 4 hours.

Anonymous wrote:Which direction is generally worse on the beltway?

Is there anywhere nearby where I could spend a few hours on Friday afternoon? Perhaps a little town centre with a nice coffee shop or two? I would still have to make the final hop over to IAD but at least I would remove some of the uncertainty of the traffic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're foreigners (now green card applicants too!) and it's not a double immigration he has to do - just the long line, with the grumpy officers who hate you and automatically think you're out to defraud the United States My kids slept on the floor when they were little, in the line. We're treated like cattle.

If he's unlucky, he or any other foreigner (regardless of whether they're on a visa waiver, visa or green card application) will be asked to wait in a second area to answer more questions. My EU parents on a visa waiver once had to do that, while I waited for 4 hours at Arrivals not knowing what they were up to. But that's rare.

I would consult Waze for the most accurate driving time estimate, then plan to arrive an hour after the plane lands. At that time of the day, a lot of international planes land at Dulles, so there's practically no chance he'll be waiting for you. -and if he does, no big deal, he's safely arrived. But it might cut short your own waiting time, if his immigration process takes longer. I would never tell my college kid to take Metro after landing at Dulles. I would brave any amount of traffic. Bring a book and a travel mug of tea, or something When I was waiting for my college kid at Dulles, I bought him balloons, ha! He's a dual citizen, but the airline lost his luggage, so even though he had no immigration process, it still took a while for him to make it out!

(I'd worry more about Border Control taking issue with his travel authorization, to be honest. The emergency number. That risk decreases massively if he's already traveled on his travel authorization without issue.)

Unfortunately he does in fact have to do secondary immigration as he is on Advance Parole. Huge pain every time.

Ah. I stand corrected. So at least one hour for the first line, then one other hour for the second. Maybe arrive 2hrs after landing?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're foreigners (now green card applicants too!) and it's not a double immigration he has to do - just the long line, with the grumpy officers who hate you and automatically think you're out to defraud the United States My kids slept on the floor when they were little, in the line. We're treated like cattle.

If he's unlucky, he or any other foreigner (regardless of whether they're on a visa waiver, visa or green card application) will be asked to wait in a second area to answer more questions. My EU parents on a visa waiver once had to do that, while I waited for 4 hours at Arrivals not knowing what they were up to. But that's rare.

I would consult Waze for the most accurate driving time estimate, then plan to arrive an hour after the plane lands. At that time of the day, a lot of international planes land at Dulles, so there's practically no chance he'll be waiting for you. -and if he does, no big deal, he's safely arrived. But it might cut short your own waiting time, if his immigration process takes longer. I would never tell my college kid to take Metro after landing at Dulles. I would brave any amount of traffic. Bring a book and a travel mug of tea, or something When I was waiting for my college kid at Dulles, I bought him balloons, ha! He's a dual citizen, but the airline lost his luggage, so even though he had no immigration process, it still took a while for him to make it out!

(I'd worry more about Border Control taking issue with his travel authorization, to be honest. The emergency number. That risk decreases massively if he's already traveled on his travel authorization without issue.)

Unfortunately he does in fact have to do secondary immigration as he is on Advance Parole. Huge pain every time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would leave early to cross the bridge, and then find a bookstore or such like at Tysons to spend some time in. Then, later, I would take the free airport road (not the toll road) to the cell phone waiting lot.

Ooh! I didn’t realise hanging out at the Barnes & Noble in Tysons might be an option. So traffic unlikely to be bad between there and IAD?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would leave early to cross the bridge, and then find a bookstore or such like at Tysons to spend some time in. Then, later, I would take the free airport road (not the toll road) to the cell phone waiting lot.

Ooh! I didn’t realise hanging out at the Barnes & Noble in Tysons might be an option. So traffic unlikely to be bad between there and IAD?

Anonymous wrote:I would leave early to cross the bridge, and then find a bookstore or such like at Tysons to spend some time in. Then, later, I would take the free airport road (not the toll road) to the cell phone waiting lot.

Anonymous wrote:DS arrives home from college overseas at 3:30 pm on Friday. It suddenly dawned on me that I will have to contend with beltway traffic to pick him up. A huge factor of uncertainty is that, as a green card applicant, he has to do double immigration. The fastest time in which has emerged was about 2 hrs but last time he came, he didn’t make it out until 4.5 hours after landing.

What strategy would you recommend for picking him up? I’ve never been on the beltway on Friday of Memorial Day weekend. We live in Bethesda.

There is the possibility of delaying his flight by one day. It would arrive at the same time. What should I expect of traffic on the beltway on a Saturday? Would you change?

Anonymous wrote:We're foreigners (now green card applicants too!) and it's not a double immigration he has to do - just the long line, with the grumpy officers who hate you and automatically think you're out to defraud the United States My kids slept on the floor when they were little, in the line. We're treated like cattle.

If he's unlucky, he or any other foreigner (regardless of whether they're on a visa waiver, visa or green card application) will be asked to wait in a second area to answer more questions. My EU parents on a visa waiver once had to do that, while I waited for 4 hours at Arrivals not knowing what they were up to. But that's rare.

I would consult Waze for the most accurate driving time estimate, then plan to arrive an hour after the plane lands. At that time of the day, a lot of international planes land at Dulles, so there's practically no chance he'll be waiting for you. -and if he does, no big deal, he's safely arrived. But it might cut short your own waiting time, if his immigration process takes longer. I would never tell my college kid to take Metro after landing at Dulles. I would brave any amount of traffic. Bring a book and a travel mug of tea, or something When I was waiting for my college kid at Dulles, I bought him balloons, ha! He's a dual citizen, but the airline lost his luggage, so even though he had no immigration process, it still took a while for him to make it out!

(I'd worry more about Border Control taking issue with his travel authorization, to be honest. The emergency number. That risk decreases massively if he's already traveled on his travel authorization without issue.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have him metro.

It feels like 1.5 hours on the metro with two heavy bags would be cruel, especially when it takes 2-4.5 hours to get through to arrivals.

Why would it take that long to get through arrivals? Do mobile passport control if you don’t have global entry.

Anonymous wrote:I would just get there 30 min late and read in the cell phone lot until he’s out.