BCNLucca

This is why I always try to fly through Dublin. The local Irish "TSA" are polite and professional. The US customs and immigration officers are also polite. Since they don't have to deal with a crush of passengers and usually not those of questionable backgrounds (smuggling, etc), they are laid back and pleasant.
I joked once with one is this was his pre-retirement post. Just how many passengers fly to the US daily via Dublin compared to the onslaught of arrivals at JFK?

Plus grabbing my bag as if it were a domestic flight at JFK is great.

xyz123

This is so typical of the US government and bureaucrats and the solution should be very simple. Actually some of my longest waits at immigration, flanneruk, is at Heathrow where it is not unheard of to wait close to an hour. I would, if I were the UK government for example to say to the US fine. You want to install US checkpoints at Heathrow, then we should do UK immigration and customs say at JFK.

But then of course, US immigration is so friendly to our visitors. I mean the thumbprint and the picture (which of course don't do the slightest bit of good to ensure the vermin who intend to stay illegally leave) and the now extra requirement to go online before the flight to declare your intent to have the audacity to visit the USA. Like any of this garbage does any good.

Dukey1

XYZ123, do you have personal experience with any of this? I notice you have concealed your whereabouts on your profile so that says a great deal.

travelgourmet

To my mind, I'm not sure I see that much value. Certainly, I don't see a lot of value in doing this for Sweden of all places. I can see the value for Canada - it allows smaller cities to have service without having to have immigration infrastructure. For example, Rochester, NY has a flight to Toronto, but I don't think they have immigration infrastructure in place. I don't see any similar opportunities opened up by this. I'd think that the priority should be on setting up pre-clearance in the larger Mexican resort cities, if anything.

<i>The US HAS tried this at Heathrow before, and ran away whingeing about how it was too difficult for them, poor dears. </i>

I've seen this claim before and can find absolutely no evidence that there was ever pre-clearance at LHR. Until someone can show me evidence that it did, I'm going to toss this up as folklore, likely resulted from some people with bad memories making the same mistake as bilbo did above.

xyz123

I've concealed my whereabouts? What does that have to do with anything I said? I'm fronm the US, okay. The longest queues I have seen at immigration are at LHR although this past summer when I was leaving for a cruise going out of Vancouver and was connecting in Toronto, the line for Canadian immigration was absurdly long.

The fact is, of course, that so much of this paranoia with US immigration is just that and any thinking person can say how little good it does. Sure. They fingerprint you. They take your picture. How does it ensure you will leave at the end of whatever the allowable period is? Do they have the ability to match up leaving records with arriving records and issue detain warrants for anybody who overstays his or her entrance period? Of course not. As an American it indeed embarrasses me coming into JFK and watching visitors having their mug shots taken as well as being fingerprinted like common criminals. No country has yet done thaqt to me.

Robert2533

Dublin has a beautiful, spacious airport (very much under used), but the pre-clearance location sucks! The space is cramped and confusing, no services to speak of, and duty free is a joke. Not much thought went into its planning.

Hopefully if they do set up the pre-clearance operations in other locations they at least do it in a better plan.

Cowboy1968

I fly to the US only 2-3 times a year, so my experiences are more anecdotal.
But I noticed a good improvement re. the speed and efficiency of the INS procedure upon arrival.

I am sure that the long lines still exist - but both at major hubs or airports like ATL or IAD as well as at some smaller ones like PHL, passport control has been really quick the last 10 or so times (waiting time zero-15 minutes).

And I must also say that at least my experiences re. friendliness or efficiency of the INS officers had been more in the "fair" or "good" category during the last couple of years. In addition, there were always agents monitoring the incoming "traffic" at the checkpoints, and when lines for visitors got longer, they started to open US citizen checkpoints also for visitors.

I can understand that after a 10 hour flight you just want to race through the airport as quickly as possible and may not be in the mood to appreciate improvements, but I think it is not fair to say that entering as a visitor was by default an unpleasant and time-consuming task.

IMO, the waiting time for visitors could be further reduced if the lines discriminated between those traveling on the visa waiver scheme, and others entering with visas of all kinds which often seem to require a lot more time to process.

ms_go

<i>As an American it indeed embarrasses me coming into JFK and watching visitors having their mug shots taken as well as being fingerprinted like common criminals. No country has yet done thaqt to me.</i>

I take it you haven't been to Japan.

travelgourmet

<I>Of course not. As an American it indeed embarrasses me coming into JFK and watching visitors having their mug shots taken as well as being fingerprinted like common criminals. </I>

You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

<I>No country has yet done thaqt to me.</I>

Several Asian countries fingerprint, including Japan and Korea. Many countries take photos too. Heck, you are likely under video surveillance at passport control in pretty much every advanced country.

hetismij2

I have no complaints about how the immigration officers treat us on arrival in the U.S. They are professional but friendly and some even show a sense of humour.
What I hate is standing in a queue for an hour before I get to be photographed and fingerprinted.
Even with extra staff checking the forms are correctly filled in before you get to the happysnaps stage the queues are too long.

The worst welcome to a country I have ever experienced was in Cork, where we were ordered to stand against a wall in a corridor and a drugs fog and a couple of offials went down the line, shouting at anyone not standing exactly how they wanted. Before immigration, which was another miserable experience. I loved Ireland once they let me in, but I hated being treated as a criminal. They made even the most grumpy US immigration officer seem welcoming.
That is one reason we aren't flying through Dublin next month.

xyz123

No I haven't been to Japan. Noted and logged. However, I do believe in tit for tat. Why for example if I suddenly decided at this moment that I wanted to visit the UK can I just get on the phone and if there's a flight available I can go and not be mug shot and finger printed to enter when a British friend cannot do the same? Makes no sense to me.

travelgourmet

<I>Why for example if I suddenly decided at this moment that I wanted to visit the UK can I just get on the phone and if there's a flight available I can go and not be mug shot and finger printed to enter when a British friend cannot do the same?</I>

Who cares? It simply isn't the inconvenience you make it out to be. You make it seem like this is some sort of massive invasion of privacy when it is just the cost of travel. Heck, the trend toward biometric passports means that anywhere you scan the passport has your "mugshot", to use your gratuitously inflammatory term.

Again. Mountain. Molehill.

xyz123

Just ask others how they feel about it. True many don't care. Many others feel humiliated by this exercise in futility!

travelgourmet

<I>Just ask others how they feel about it.</I>

I've never heard a single one of my European colleagues complain. In my experience, this is an "issue" for self-conscious Americans and those Europeans that don't want to travel but feel the need to fabricate a reason.