I am going to Italy next month with my best friend who is from a Visa required country. He's very concerned that the Passport Control will delay his entrance and or might take few hours to get through. The last couple trip to Italy with my wife was a breeze but again we are from the US. I was wondering if there is any of you have experienced any delays or troubles with Passport Control in Italy with a Visa.

Just trying to ease my buddy's mind and maybe enjoy the flight to Italy.

DC to Heathrow - No need to get a transit visa for him

Heathrow to Milan - Entry point to Italy

Thanks

If he has a valid visa and everything is in order, it should not take any more time than anybody else. He will have to go through the same "visitor" immigration as you.

Recently, I was visitig Brazil where a US citizen needs a visa and Chile where a US citizen needs to pay what amounts to be an "entry fee" of $100. I had my Brazilian visa and it took just seconds to process through immigration and in Chile, I had to make an extra stop to pay the visa fee, but with 4 windows open it took just few seconds. After, I was just another "visitor" waiting for my turn.

You can't generalize - a lot depends on your friends "demographic" and what country he is from. Pasport control can take seconds (usually the case) - or it can take hours

Anytime you have to go through immigration and customs it can take hours, but the point is that if your papers are in order and the Italian government already gave the traveller a right to enter, then the process should just be a breeze. Saying that it can take hours to get through immigration is like saying that there is a good chance that your flight will be delayed for hours. It can be, but 95% of the time it's not.

Upon my return to US from South America few days ago I was directed to a agricultural check by customs, which meant I had to run all my suitcases through an x-ray machine. Unfortunately about 90% of passenegers were also directed in the same direction so the process took an extra 10-15 minutes, but that's part of travelling internationally.

Thank you for the replies.