zx10r_aus

Hi all,
We have our flights booked with Air New Zealand, and will be travelling from Heathrow to LAX we have a 4 hour stop over in LAX before travelling on to Australia. Do we need a visa if we are in transit for another flight?
Jim

JAJ

You will need to clear US customs and immigration in Los Angeles.

If you are British citizens you are normally eligible for the US visa waiver, unless ineligible.

However your passports must meet US requirements - it's got to be machine readable and children *must* have their own passports.
http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new...v/mrp_bio.html
http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/niv/vwp.html

There's a very good FAQ section on all aspects of travelling to the US at:
http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new..._visa_niv.html

Jeremy

zx10r_aus

Thank you Jeremy.
Jim

Soi Oz

No, not unless you clear customs.

JAJ

All transit passengers in the US must clear US customs and immigration. They no longer let transit passengers remain in an airside lounge like a few years ago.

The only exception is where a flight makes a refuelling stop in the US and no passengers are allowed to embark or disembark. In some cases I believe then you don't need to go through US immigration.


Jeremy

CPW

And of course, you need to allow sufficient connection time between flights to clear immigration. This is more often an issue if your onward flight is on a different flight number or with a different airline: normally a continuing flight (such as the Air New Zealand London-Los Angeles-Auckland flight) will wait for continuing passengers if necessary.

dbd33

Allow lots and lots of time at LAX. I flew there on Delta, hubbing through somewhere in the south, Atlanta I think, connecting at LAX to Korean airlines to Sydney via Seoul. Luckily I had cleared US customs in Canada because the flight into LAX landed at the scheduled departure time for the flight to Seoul. I ran between the terminals and arrived at the Korean desk to find it closed. I then ran to the security machine and begged the people in the queue to let me through. They did but, at LAX, you can't go through security without a boarding card so they sent me back to the Korean desk which was still closed. It was not a good afternoon and I now give myself three hours to change planes in LA, Minneapolis is the only airport where I allow more.

andrewb

If you are going on the flight to LAX and then straight on the same flight onto AKL, you will be fine. When you land in LAX, you have to go through immigration, which is one big queue just for the one flight, you can't go out into the main airport and you are kept in a small area until it is time to board again. It is slightly bizzare going into the US for about two hours to reboard the same plane but welcome to America!!

As someone said, if you are changing flights, leave plenty of time and make sure you know which terminal your flight is going from!!

zx10r_aus

We will be flying on the same flight out of LAX, I think its just a refueling stop. We are in LAX for 4 hours, however, we are flying business class and from what I'm gathering it seems to be a little quicker for business class travelers to be processed. Thank you all for your help, much appreciated.
Jim

andrewb

I flew business class last time and cattle class the first time.

The big advantage of business class when you get to LAX is that you are nearer the plane door so you get in the queue first!!! We knew from the first time about the queue so we were first in the queue for immigration. Those at the back of economy were still going through nearly 2 hours later.

JAJ

Which probably explains the 4 hour time lag between arrival and departure in Los Angeles.

If flying to Sydney you'll either need to connect in Auckland or get another flight (eg United Airlines) from LA to Sydney.

An alternative, which avoids the US, is to fly via Vancouver, Canada. Even if you do need to clear US immigration for the stop in Hawaii, you can do this in Vancouver before boarding the aircraft.


Jeremy