stephend-

Hi,

I'm wondering how things are handled when you arrive in the US with your H1B for the first time? Does it take ages to get through immigration, or are there just a few extra questions?

Looking at my flight options, I have a 2hr transit in Newark, and I'm wondering if I will need to increase it to 4hrs.

Any tales gratefully received!

rew1000

Shouldn't be too involved - my experience has been just "Who do you work for?" and "What is your job title?". Sometimes you get a joke about how it's all our fault that the weather's bad. I've never had much in the way of delays other than those caused by queuing. However my wife for some reason has very feint fingerprints (perfect criminal!) and ended up in secondary inspection while they took fresh fingerprints. I think basically they tried a couple of times in the embassy but gave up before the system was happy.

If it's going to be stressful go for the longer connection, but you should be fine...

stephend-

Ah good - thanks for that

John Manley

You will likely only have a few easy, procedural questions to answer.

Keep in mind that the entry procedures are the same as most other countries. For U.S. airports, you have citizens and non-citizens lines. With CBP, you can have a wide variety of experiences. Most of the time, you will make it through there very quickly. Other times, CBP might be short staffed, or it might have a number of pressing issues from your flight or from another flight that has just arrived. CBP has limited resources. You could therefore experience processing delays any time you enter the U.S.

kwilson

Depending where you're flying on to I wouldn't worry too much about not having enough time. If, for any reason, you do miss your connection the US airlines are pretty good at getting you on another one.....

Good luck!

Pipmeister

Check to find out about Newark... I have only flown in there once.. late at night (arriving at 11pm) thinking it would be quick... yeah.. wrong.. the queue took nearly an hour to get me to the front.

Compared to about 15 minutes everytime I hit Houston and about 30 in St Louis.

If you can get a seat at the front of the plane and get off quickly.. try to be at the front of the queue too - this helps!