US Customs Queues at Dublin

23Skidoo

Hi, sorry if this is posted in the wrong place.

Just wondering if anyone has gone through the US customs and immigration recently in Dublin airport? We last went through in May 2011 and it took over 2.5 hours queuing to get through. Is it still the same there now or have they improved /sped up the process? Leaving in a couple of weeks and I want to make sure we leave ourselves enough time.

listermint

Never been in a queue for more than 10 Minutes to be honest.

Ive travelled to the US around 4 times in the last year. All though it all depends on what time and day you are flying i suppose.

Make sure you have your ESTA all completed and give yourself 1hr half to 2 hours to clear the customs you should be fine, I couldnt see it taking any longer than that.

stargazer 68

We went at Easter last year and it took us 20 minutes!

23Skidoo

Hopefully it will be that short when we go through. We'll be there on a Tuesday morning in 4 weeks time and we have our esta's and everything sorted. I would have liked to hang around in the shops and restaurants last time but when we saw the queue was so massive we had to run down. They only had like 3 or 4 customs guys on the desks. Every time a flight was about to leave they called out all those passengers from the queue and brought them to the front. Is it easy enough to get back up to the shops if we go down and see the queue is not too bad?

coylemj

23Skidoo wrote: »

Hi, sorry if this is posted in the wrong place.

Just wondering if anyone has gone through the US customs and immigration recently in Dublin airport? We last went through in May 2011 and it took over 2.5 hours queuing to get through. Is it still the same there now or have they improved /sped up the process? Leaving in a couple of weeks and I want to make sure we leave ourselves enough time.

The time of year you were flying might have been the cause of the delay, possibly you were flying on the same day as a few students going to the US to work for the summer but posing as tourists and they got grilled for longer than usual by the agents.

Like others who have posted, I've never had a big problem though obviously you need to leave plenty of time for the process.

mitosis

Went through T2 at Christmas in about 10 minutes - including queue and interview.

Same as Mitosis, went through T2 the week before Christmas and it took no longer than 10 minutes.

COYVB

Went through in Feb and there was no queue at all

endofrainbow

depends on how many US flights are pre-clearing, but I've never been longer than 15 minutes.

coylemj

Another potential for delays is caused by people who try to bring fruit through the immigration checkpoint which can cause delays. Bear in mind that the agents in Dublin airport are also screening passengers on behalf of the US Dept. of Agriculture. An elderly aunt of mine travelling with us admitted to the agent that she had an orange in her bag and they had to walk her to a special bin to get rid of it. The process was conducted in a very civil manner, they didn't give out to her or anything like that but it was all a bit OTT and caused a delay at that desk.

schemingbohemia

I thought I heard on the radio the other day that there were issues especially with the increase in the number of flights from Dublin to the US (doesn't seem to be a problem in Shannon)? And that there was advice to arrive even earlier than normal. Of course can't find anything online about it but it was official advice.

Might be as well to check what other US flights are going around the same time as you.