If there is ANY WAY to avoid this airport, I recommend that you do so. We have flown into many cities in this country returning from overseas but NEVER have we encountered such total rudeness and incompetence. It cannot have been a mystery to them that there were several flights coming in from various countries......thus they might need to open more than 8 of the passport checking stations.(Visualize an endless Disneyworld line.) Add to that the total lack of signage, a couple of people screaming instructions while not facing in our direction and incredibly rude behavior when we asked for the instructions to be repeated so that they could be understood and you have the Houston version of 'Welcome to America'.
There is no excuse for the rudeness and incompetence of the employees of TSA. I cannot imagine what visitors of other nationalities must be thinking when they have finally been released from that nightmare.
Is there no one in charge here? Or do they act the same?

I guess they must have moved the Miami crew over to Houston to teach them how to conduct business. There is no way on earth anyone tops Miami unless they've been given post doctoral level rudeness courses.

When did you fly in, what time?

Recently, the Terminal E international arrivals facility has actually been named as a model for US arrival facilities. Everytime I come back to Houston via that facility, it's been very pleasant.

I am also curious about the "lack of signage". What signs that you're looking for are missing?

My experiences have been the same as rk's. Never have had any problem whatsoever, and never had much of a wait at all.

Let me elaborate a little.

The IAH Terminal E international arrivals facility is very new and very large. It has two banks of immigration desks, one facing the Terminal D gates and one back facing the E gates.

I don't know what happened to the OP's on his/her date of arrival, but they usually have enough people working. When few flights are arriving, they may shut down one bank; while at other times, they may redirect passengers to the other banks. Again, every time I went through there, the lines (at least for US citizens/residents) are short or non-existent.

After you go through immigration, you take the escalators downstairs to baggage claim and customs. At customs exit, to the right is Continental's baggage drop for connecting customers, and then escalators to get back up to Terminal E's security.

Or one can exit left and then to ground transportation or take the underground train to other terminals. There are signs for Terminals ABCDE everywhere.

The layout of Terminals C and E is pretty confusing, as they are built over time with limited space. I always suggest people to tear out the terminal map from Continental's inflight magazine, if they're flying CO. But there are still signs everywhere to tell you where to go.

When the terminal first open, one major issue was the security line for connecting customers at Terminal E after the bag drop. But recently, I haven't heard of any issue with that.

Anyways, the immigration lines sometimes can be longer if the BA, AF, KL, LH and CO's flights from Europe all arrive around the same time - they usually aren't, but with the weather-related delays in the last 2 months (heavy rain basically daily), that just may happen.

IAH doesn't see as many international flights coming in at the same time usually, so immigration staffing may indeed be inadequate at times. But I don't see why there are only 8 desks open in total.

We just had a great experience there. Came back from Costa Rica 2 weeks ago and were off the plane, through customs and immigration and had our luggage in 20 minutes. We were amazed. Sorry you had such a bad experience. We actually found everyone to be very friendly.

OO, I had to laugh. The Miami folks have a way about them. Shout loudly and still be uncomprehensible. Once you do get to the Immigration officer at the desk all is right with the world. "Welcome home Mr. SamH"