Has anyone used US Preclearance?

jeanjolie

I was wondering what the experience is like. I might be travelling to the US and at the end of September and wanted to know it I should use the facilities or not.

Does the connecting city matter? I have a choice between connecting through YYZ or LHR.

LiamaDelta

jeanjolie wrote: »

I was wondering what the experience is like. I might be travelling to the US and at the end of September and wanted to know it I should use the facilities or not.

Does the connecting city matter? I have a choice between connecting through YYZ or LHR.

You won't use preclearance unless you're flying directly to the US. If you're flying directly you won't have a choice whether to use it or not, either everyone uses it or nobody it's the airlines decision.

jeanjolie

LiamaDelta wrote: »

You won't use preclearance unless you're flying directly to the US. If you're flying directly you won't have a choice whether to use it or not, either everyone uses it or nobody it's the airlines decision.

Even non Irish/EU citizens?

Do you know what the process is like or know anyone who has gone through it?

The process is queue up and wait your turn.... an officer than takes your passport & iirc your fingerprints and photo are taken.

It's the same as what happens in the States after landing if you haven't flown with preclearance done.

A2LUE42

It is the same process as you would go through on the US side, with US personnel. Few questions, check documents, scan fingerprint, photo. Not a time for humor, most are quite serious in their work.

CeilingFly

jeanjolie wrote: »

Even non Irish/EU citizens?

Do you know what the process is like or know anyone who has gone through it?

It is the precise same procedure you'd go through if landing in usa from London / paris or anywhere else, its just done before you fly

When you land ypu are in effect a domestic passenger and walk straight through to baggage reclaim.

There is no "choice" in whether you do it or not - maybe it's the wording "pre-clearance" that is throwing you off.

Think of it as going through entry formalities before flight takes off rather when it lands.

coylemj

jeanjolie wrote: »

Does the connecting city matter? I have a choice between connecting through YYZ or LHR.

This isn't the aviation thread, maybe use airport names rather than codes, especially when referring to North American airports.

Unless you are flying direct from Dublin or Shannon to the US, you will not use pre-clearance and will do immigration when you land in the US. Depending on the airport and the time of day, the queues can be much longer over there than they are here but the process when you meet the official is the same.

One major (for some people) difference is that pre-clearance here involves vetting of passengers on behalf of the US Dept. of Agriculture (pest & disease control) so you are not allowed pass the immigration desk with certain types of food, an aunt of mine had an orange confiscated even though she promised she would consume it on the plane!

January

You won't be able to use Pre-Clearance if you fly from Dublin to either Toronto or London before heading on to the USA. You have to be heading direct or connecting through a US airport to use pre-clearance.

Yamanoto

January wrote: »

You won't be able to use Pre-Clearance if you fly from Dublin to either Toronto or London before heading on to the USA. You have to be heading direct or connecting through a US airport to use pre-clearance.

CBP Pre-Clearance can be done in Toronto, when connecting onwards to the US.

InTheTrees

jeanjolie wrote: »

Even non Irish/EU citizens?

Do you know what the process is like or know anyone who has gone through it?

its actually really good. As celilinglfy says, you go through all the american passport formalities before you get on the plane so when you arrive its all done. It makes it much quicker and easier the other end.

biko

Done it many times between Shannon and Logan.
You fill in a form, wait in line, give passport and get fingerprinted.

When you arrive you just pick up bag and off you go.

whiskeygirl

You don't fill a form out anymore in pre-clearance in Dublin, you do it all on the automated touchscreem kiosks and bring the receipt it prints out to the CBP officer. You take your own photo and fingerprints as well on the same machine.

Tom Mann Centuria

whiskeygirl wrote: »

You don't fill a form out anymore in pre-clearance in Dublin, you do it all on the automated touchscreem kiosks and bring the receipt it prints out to the CBP officer. You take your own photo and fingerprints as well on the same machine.

That's if you've already done it before though isn't it? I had to go to the immigration fella in the booth. Those who hadn't done it before were funneled left, those who had, right. This was four weeks ago.

whiskeygirl

That was the case when I flew from Dublin to NY in 2016 alright, but this past March it was everyone no matter if you'd travelled before or not. I specifically asked one of the security guards the same question when me and my friend who had never been to the states before were told to go to the same area, the kiosks. Maybe it's something to do with staffing levels etc.

goingnowhere

You can only use the APC machines if you have already been through the process (i.e it will X you on the receipt)

So US/Canadians and B1/B2/D visas already have the biometrics, if its your first time with your CURRENT passport to enter the US its manual for you, once you have entered before using ESTA with the passport you are traveling on then its cool even if you have obtained a new ESTA since your visit

Reality is everyone goes to APC, it takes the photo, finger prints, customs and baggage verification and gives you a receipt

If you get X queue for processing, otherwise go to the exit and the officer will have a chat and stamp the passport

whitey1

Only used it once in Dublin and it was an absolute nightmare......almost 2 hours just in that line, and all the time calls going out for people to present themselves at the gate or their bags were going to be taken off. We ran down and got on our plane, only to sit there for 1 1/2 hours while the pilot waited for everyone else to geth through. Would have been nice if they announced this while we were in line getting completely stressed out.

Anyway....from what I hear, that was a very rare occurrence and most people get through in well under an hour

CeilingFly

whitey1 wrote: »

Only used it once in Dublin and it was an absolute nightmare......almost 2 hours just in that line, and all the time calls going out for people to present themselves at the gate or their bags were going to be taken off. We ran down and got on our plane, only to sit there for 1 1/2 hours while the pilot waited for everyone else to geth through. Would have been nice if they announced this while we were in line getting completely stressed out.

Anyway....from what I hear, that was a very rare occurrence and most people get through in well under an hour

Security checks are separate and can take 30-40 minutes, and would be the same whether pre-clearance was there or not. But the actual pre-clearance has almost no delays. 5-10 minutes at worst.

You can check the times on https://pqt.cbp.gov/

Average queuing time in JFK and many other main US airports is over an hour. - and that's after a long flight.

goingnowhere

Since they expanded the facility in Dublin and added APC machines the queues have vanished, last two times through there was absolutely no delay, straight through.

The security check is really lax, to be honest this may be more about finding food products and not security as you don't need to take liquids out (but you do have to take shoes off)


Worst wait I had on the old small facility was of the order of 20-30 minutes even the the queue snaking up the stairs and back up towards the Aer Lingus lounge