MarieN

Hi!

I'm flying to the US on Tuesday next week with my CR1 visa to go and live with my husband. I'll be flying from Manchester UK to Washington DC, but i have to change planes at JFK .I assume my POE will be at JFK.

I just want to double check, at the POE, do I only need the big white envelope and my passport with the Visa page in it?

Many thanks

S Folinsky

POE will be at JFK.

Rete

That's all you will need. Leave plenty of time between flights for secondary and if you have to change terminals to get to your connecting flight to DC. We went through on the 11th at Terminal 7 and it was crowded at 8 p.m. and we are US Citizens so no secondary involved and then had to wait for luggage (3 flights at the same baggage claim carousel) and then had to leave terminal 7 to terminal 6 for a 9:50 flight and still missed our connection.

MarieN

I have 3 hours and 40 minutes at JFK so I'm hoping i'll be okay

civilservant

Personally I think that's pushing it a little - especially since you will probably have to go through secondary to get your visa endorsed, and JFK is one of the biggest airports in the US so you might be waiting awhile to even get to an Officer depending on the time of day and other flights arriving.

Do you have a contingency in case you miss your connection?

MarieN

I'll just have to get a different flight to DC I guess. I didn't think it would be so bad since all the reviews of JFK as a POE were saying they were done really quickly this is turning out to be a horribly stressful week.

Rete

JFK as a Port of Entry isn't bad. However, it is big and it is a major airport for overseas flight. All hinges on your incoming flight. If it isn't delayed, has a good tail wind, then you will be fine.
My concern would be not just getting through secondary and waiting forever for luggage and then clearing customs but getting to the AirTran to get to your next Terminal on time. If you come in at terminal 7 you have to leave the terminal, cross the street to the parking lot, take the elevator to the third floor and then walk to the AirTran. You should be fine. But be aware that going from one terminal to another is not straight forward or easy.

Look online now for an alternate flight in case you can't make the scheduled one. We were lucky that JetBlue which was our connecting flight had an opening on the next flight (the next morning) for us. Hotels are plentiful so you shouldn't have a problem there. We stayed at the Radisson. But there is the Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Marriott, and more.
Good luck and look forward to hearing from you once you arrive.

MarieN

I arrive at terminal 4 and leave from Terminal 5

Rete

I don't know terminal 4 but at least the AirTran should be easier for you to get then it is from 7.

BenK91

My POE was JFK and it was hell - not just saying this to try and be gloomy but it really sucked.

Just getting off the plane into the terminal took an eternity and then secondary was incredibly busy, they were incredibly rude and they also messed up on my paperwork... Submitting my middle name down with my first so it looked like I had a double-barreled first name. Which caused me a little bit of hassle when I went to go and get my SSN.

3-4 hours is pushing it. It took about 1hr 20 minutes just go from the plane to actually being present at the desk with CBP officer.

Oh and another thing, they wouldn't let me collect my bag from the carousel, so by the time I finally got out of secondary I had to go on the hunt for it as it had been lobbed in a corner at the opposite end of the baggage hall.

MarieN

I decided to re-book my flights. I couldn't sleep imagining what I would do if I was stranded in New York overnight. I've been tracking the flight number that i'll be on and it has been consistently delayed for the past week (sometimes up to 90 minutes). It means I won't land in DC until 11:30pm, but I now have a 7 and a half hour layover and feel so much better about it.

Rete

With a history of delay, then you made the right decision. Spending the night in a hotel near the airport isn't such a bad thing. A bit expensive but all that bad.

civilservant

I agree. Good decision.

S Folinsky

​​​​Living here in LA, we have learned to make our POE at LAX if at all possible. And every time we don't do that, we go "never again."

That said, we have had good experience transiting via Canada. It is strange going through two immigration inspections within an hour, but both the Canadian and US inspectors were courteous and efficient.

Last year we had to connect via Frankfurt and because of timing, our POE was DEN. If we had to do it again, we would have spent a night at a FRA hotel to catch the non-stop FRA-LAX flight early the next morning .

RainyDays

That's interesting. I'm flying from London to Oakland via LAX in a few weeks, and have been trying to decide whether to go with the 4 hour or 6 hour layover. Are you implying that LAX is efficient?