Welcome to the United States of America! Be Patient!
Over the past three years, we have been splitting our time between Asia and America, using two bases - Hong Kong and New York. We haven't really spent that much time in either city because our work means that we travel almost six months a year. Going in and out of the United States as often as we do, we have noticed how entering the country has become more and more of a nuisance. The immigration and customs procedures at New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX) and Chicago (ORD) can be quite tedious, particularly for a foreigner arriving on a foreign carrier that is normally filled with other foreigners (The planes of American carriers tend to have more Americans on them).
To be sure, other airports around the world are nowhere near as smooth sailing as either Singapore or Hong Kong. (We should note that Globophobe has the advantage of holding a permanent Hong Kong ID card so we can breeze through immigration at Chek Lap Kok.) Heathrow can be horrible for most of the day as this youtube.com clip amply demonstrates. At peak times, Tokyo, Beijing and India's main airports - Delhi and Mumbai - can be frustrating. But we dread the US airports more than the others for three reasons.
First, the climate of fear in America is such that any arrival feels very much under suspicion. The US has tightened its visa policies and requires most foreigners to be digitally fingerprinted and photographed. Making matters worse, homeland security officers are typically humorless, even rude, but the visitor dares not say anything critical or mildly sarcastic in case it should jeopardize entry.
More troubling is the second reason why we find US airports a pain: US immigration officers seem less and less skilled. We have found from our experience that more officers do not even know basic rules. Globophobe travels on a Canadian passport but several times we have encountered immigration agents who do not understand the special relationship that the US and Canada have and the conditions that apply to Canadian visitors, eg in most cases, they do not need to acquire a visa before arrival. We have on a couple of occasions been required by an officer to fill in an I-94 form, which Canadians generally do not need to complete to gain entry. On other occasions, when entering on a J-1 "exchange visitor" visa, the officer simply did not know how to process such an arrival and gave up, leaving the task to the secondary inspectors in the back room. One time, we ourselves had to instruct an officer on how to process our papers. Initially, this young man wasn't even going to stamp our passport!
The third reason for our dislike of the US arrival process is that American airports typically are badly designed, uncomfortable and not really user-friendly. There are exceptions, of course. We prefer to arrive at Newark's Liberty International over JFK - it's more spacious and airy and the queues seem to move more quickly. If JFK it has to be, then it is usually better to arrive at one of the newer terminals such as T4. It can be much more pleasant to fly into a little used international gateway. We once flew into Las Vegas on a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo and zoomed through immigration, baggage claim and customs. But for the most part, the poor design of US airport terminals contributes to the slow processing. There are also other problems such as the lack of immigration officers and the occasional computer glitch (read this wire story on yahoo.com).
Because of all these difficulties, it is wise to allocate at least two hours to transit through an American airport. Three or more hours would be much better - and safer - to allow for late arrival, processing delays, terminal transfer if necessary, and security. If you have too tight a transit and miss your connection, you may encounter difficulties, particularly at this time of year when flights are full. Fail to make a flight and you may have to wait hours, maybe even a day or more, to get on the next one.
US authorities should learn a lesson from the debacle at Heathrow. London's gateway has gained a bad reputation among passengers, even though statistics suggest that some of the gripes are unfair. (Read this Economist article on "Britain's Awful Airports".) Thank goodness that Heathrow's Terminal 5 will be opening early next year. (Check out this youtube.com clip to see how the state-of-the-art terminal looks.) Before the situation seriously deteriorates in the main American gateways, the US should look at how they can make the passenger's arrival a more comfortable and efficient process. If the US government is determined to be less welcoming to foreigners, at least they should make those who do arrive at their doorstep and gain entry feel like guests and not intruders.
To be sure, other airports around the world are nowhere near as smooth sailing as either Singapore or Hong Kong. (We should note that Globophobe has the advantage of holding a permanent Hong Kong ID card so we can breeze through immigration at Chek Lap Kok.) Heathrow can be horrible for most of the day as this youtube.com clip amply demonstrates. At peak times, Tokyo, Beijing and India's main airports - Delhi and Mumbai - can be frustrating. But we dread the US airports more than the others for three reasons.
First, the climate of fear in America is such that any arrival feels very much under suspicion. The US has tightened its visa policies and requires most foreigners to be digitally fingerprinted and photographed. Making matters worse, homeland security officers are typically humorless, even rude, but the visitor dares not say anything critical or mildly sarcastic in case it should jeopardize entry.
More troubling is the second reason why we find US airports a pain: US immigration officers seem less and less skilled. We have found from our experience that more officers do not even know basic rules. Globophobe travels on a Canadian passport but several times we have encountered immigration agents who do not understand the special relationship that the US and Canada have and the conditions that apply to Canadian visitors, eg in most cases, they do not need to acquire a visa before arrival. We have on a couple of occasions been required by an officer to fill in an I-94 form, which Canadians generally do not need to complete to gain entry. On other occasions, when entering on a J-1 "exchange visitor" visa, the officer simply did not know how to process such an arrival and gave up, leaving the task to the secondary inspectors in the back room. One time, we ourselves had to instruct an officer on how to process our papers. Initially, this young man wasn't even going to stamp our passport!
The third reason for our dislike of the US arrival process is that American airports typically are badly designed, uncomfortable and not really user-friendly. There are exceptions, of course. We prefer to arrive at Newark's Liberty International over JFK - it's more spacious and airy and the queues seem to move more quickly. If JFK it has to be, then it is usually better to arrive at one of the newer terminals such as T4. It can be much more pleasant to fly into a little used international gateway. We once flew into Las Vegas on a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo and zoomed through immigration, baggage claim and customs. But for the most part, the poor design of US airport terminals contributes to the slow processing. There are also other problems such as the lack of immigration officers and the occasional computer glitch (read this wire story on yahoo.com).
Because of all these difficulties, it is wise to allocate at least two hours to transit through an American airport. Three or more hours would be much better - and safer - to allow for late arrival, processing delays, terminal transfer if necessary, and security. If you have too tight a transit and miss your connection, you may encounter difficulties, particularly at this time of year when flights are full. Fail to make a flight and you may have to wait hours, maybe even a day or more, to get on the next one.
US authorities should learn a lesson from the debacle at Heathrow. London's gateway has gained a bad reputation among passengers, even though statistics suggest that some of the gripes are unfair. (Read this Economist article on "Britain's Awful Airports".) Thank goodness that Heathrow's Terminal 5 will be opening early next year. (Check out this youtube.com clip to see how the state-of-the-art terminal looks.) Before the situation seriously deteriorates in the main American gateways, the US should look at how they can make the passenger's arrival a more comfortable and efficient process. If the US government is determined to be less welcoming to foreigners, at least they should make those who do arrive at their doorstep and gain entry feel like guests and not intruders.
Labels: airport, Economist, Heathrow, Hong Kong, immigration, infrastructure, JFK, London, Newark, travel, US, youtube
posted by globophobe at 12.8.07
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