Now as you well know, dogs are nothing like kids, least kids leave home eventually

We found them pretty good, too at EWR. We came through there with our three small children and all the immigration officers we met were helpful and polite.

One of the airport staff saw us strugging to get our stuff off the carousel, and not organised a cart to pile all our luggage onto - five suitcases, seven pieces of hand luggage and two car seats is not fun with three preschoolers - but personally pushed it, got us through customs and loaded it back onto the outgoing carousel for us.

Remember though, however crap your journey might have been, however tired and fed up you are, be nice and smile at the officers...

You won't be doing immigration in Austin, as far as I know there are no direct international flights in and out of Austin. If you are transiting in from another US point of entry that is where you will do the paperwork.

Alex.

Hiya JimBo,

My hubby has the LPR VISA and when we arrived into SFO (San Francisco Airport) in April 2004 it only took us like 15 minutes to clear immigrations. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone else in line besides us!

Best of Luck!


Warmly,
Cali

It worked for us..... Thing is we had 4 kids though.... They took us to the front of the line, and the customs officer even pushed the double stroller for us while we helped the other two children..... We were through in 10 minutes. They even got a porter to carry our bags and retrieve our luggage!!!

Wonderful... It was at LAX by the way.....

Perhaps you could make friends with another couple with 3 kids on the plane?

The thing which is definitely irritating at all the US airports is that for international arrivals you actually have to pay for a luggage trolley at baggage reclaim!

I can just about understand this at domestic terminals where everyone will most likely have enough $1 bills for 'cart' rental (I think the current charge is $3) but few international arrivals have enough small dollar bills to release a cart from where it's locked (if indeed they have any US$ on them at all - lots of people wait until they arrive and use an ATM to get cash). They also take credit cards I understand, but that is no help to older people (eg. my mum and m-in-law) who don't have credit cards!

Just as well that most suitcases have their own integral wheels these days.

I've never seen charges for luggage trolleys at any other international airport in the world, just the USA.

I've seen them be charged in germany too and in austria too, but I know what you mean, bit of a pain that, I just lugged my suitcases in batches and to **** with them and the trollies *l*

I had a 'mere' 9 hour wait at LAX when I first arrived, classic USA!

Why the heck did it take nne hours?

Ash

Just the daily LAX paranoid security overreacting to every 'security breach' which caused a mass evacuation of the whole arrivals terminal. They made us leave all our stuff (documents included) in the terminal and then later wouldn't let us back in because we didn't have them!!!! Only in america!

O I C... sounds like fun... NOT

Ash

Coming into Baltimore / Washington INternational was a real breeze. It only handles a few international flights such as BA, Icelandair and Air canada, so I was the only person in the secondary immigration area. The immigration folk were very nice - all 'Welcome to the USA'. I guess they don't get a lot of immigrants....

:scared: I am arriving into LAX on the 27th and have all my documents from the London Embassy. Do I join the regular alien que, given that my time in front of the officers will be longer

I will be with my wife and other family who are US Citizens...should I join their que?????

HELP

you have to join the que wih the other regular aliens unfortunatly - if in doubt there are normally plenty of immigration/customs officals waiting around, i went into LAX 2 weeks ago, it was about 1.5 hrs wait as LAX is quite a busy terminal for immigration.

Ant

Congrats to you and your wife Bromleybill on your DCF and welcome to Beautiful Sunny California.

We filed DCF thru London and arrived in San Francisco Int'l airport serveral months ago. With me being the US Citizen I waited in line with me hubby in the alien line then there was a special line available for "New Immigrants" with no wait at all. Good Luck!

BTW, It's a breeze thru immigrations!

Warmly,
Cali