Does it take very long to go through customs on returning from Italy?
I am landing at JFK and have a tight schedule for my next flight.
Do you have to claim your luggage and then put it through for your next flight?
As you can see this is my first flight out of the country and I would like to be prepared for any delays. Hey if worst comes to worst staying overnight at the Waldorf and having lunch at 21 couldn't be all that bad.(lol).
Audrey

You will have to go thru customs upon point of entry, which in your case, is JFK. Not sure how tight of a turn around you have, but it usually does go pretty quickly considering you have to pick up your bag. Typically, the longest part for me has been waiting for my bag. But, like you said, having to spend some time in NYC may not be all bad!!

Hi L,

As you approach NYC, they will give you a Custom's declaration form. You are allowed $800 pp duty free goods.

Fill out the form. If you have less than $800, you will clear Customs very quickly.

If more than that, you will clear Customs not so quickly.

It is likely that your longest delay will be for your luggage.

What airline, what time of the day, how much time for connection?

JFK is made up of individual terminals, so some one's experience flying DL may be totally different from one's flying AA.

But in general, if you're an American citizen, immigration should take no more than a few minutes. Baggage claim depends on airline and terminal. And customs depends on whether you have stuff to declare and whether the officer picks you out for additional check. If none of that happens, customs mean walking by the officer and hand him your card. [Note that I'm seperating immigration and customs, as they are seperate procedures.]

Then you need to drop of your checked luggage and go to your departure gate. That would require going through security check again. Wait line depends on terminal and time of day, and whether you have "elite" status with the airline to use the priority line.

And if you're connecting between airlines, then you probably will need to check-in again with the 2nd one, and get your boarding pass.

So, as you see, it all depends. If you want good information, you need to tell us your flights. Just say "JFK" and "tight schedule" will give you nothing.

And apparently, you'll get through faster if you don't have checked luggage.

Upon arrival at JFK, you first go through immigration. This is very quick for US citizens as they have seprate queues for those holding US passports and those not holding US passports. The ones who don't hold US passports are hassled as they take their fingerprints and a picture of them; US citizens just show their passports which they run through a machine to make sure there are no warrants out on them.

You then have to claim your baggage which is the usual wait as at any baggage collection point depends on how many any other flights have come in at the same time etc. You then walk through the customs queue where the inspector will look at your customs declaration and 99% of the time, that's it.

On the other side of the customs exit, the airline has set up a collection point for baggage that has been checked through. It does lay down a time limit, say if you have at least 45 minutes till your connecting flight, they will deliver the luggage to the connecting airline.

You then take the airtrain, a free service at JFK, to your terminal.

Usually goes fine.

As has been mentioned before - Just how tight is your connection?

W/o knowing how much time you have and which airline(s) you are using no one will know if your connection is reasonable/doable . . . . . .

Our experience at JFK was as follows:

we went through Immigration. It was NOT "fast" since there were several other flights which arrived at the same time and the lines, even for US citizens moved somewhat slowly.

Next we claimed the luggage which was already there since we had to wait so long for Immigration.

Customs..again a mob scene and somewhat slow although our luggage was not searched.

Re-checked the bags..easy and no hassle...

and now for what nobody has told you..

we had to go through Security..again...

Good luck.