U.S. immigration in Ireland

[WildaBeast]

@md2000

The vast majority of airline traffic in the USA is domestic, and not that much is transiting through - they don’t have customs-free transit zones.

Which is probably another advantage of preclearance. If Canadian travelers had to go through US customs and immigration when they’re, for example, transiting through Miami on the way to Jamaica, it would put US airlines at a disadvantage. Many Canadians would probably avoid the hassle and book an Air Canada flight that didn’t require a connection in the US, even if it cost more.

I’m not sure how many airports actually have customs, I always imagined it was only the bigger cities.

More than you’d think, actually. Sacramento, my home airport, isn’t a huge city and it has a customs station even though our only international flights are a couple of flights from Mexico. Even Bakersfield added customs as immigration back in 2007 to accommodate a single Mexicana Airlines flight, which then went away when Mexicana went bust in 2008. And there are quite a few smaller airports that don’t have any scheduled international flights but have customs available by appointment only to accommodate private flights. Wilmington, North Carolina handles customs for a lot of private jets entering the US from the Caribbean.

[Saintly_Loser]

@WildaBeast

In addition to Ireland, the US has a pre-clearance arrangement with Canada and some Caribbean countries. The advantage I think is that the flight can be treated just like a domestic flight when it arrives in the US, which among other things makes things much easier for people with onward connections in the US.

Yep.

My wife and I, and our two little girls, do this on a regular basis. There’s a US customs/ICE/whatever post in the surprisingly non-major airport near where she’s from. We go there semi-regularly to visit her side of the family, and keep our kids in touch with the Canadian side of the family.

So we can clear customs in Deer Lake, Newfoundland. Amazingly convenient, and surprising, considering that this is the ass-back end of nowhere.

[Lord_Feldon]

@Dewey_Finn

But looking at the list of locations, it’s available in two airports in Ireland but not at Heathrow.

It would be complicated to do it at Heathrow. It’s very cramped for space as it is, so less flexibility in gate assignments would be problematic, and also the location would be problematic because there would be a big loser somewhere. Like if you put it at Terminal 5 (British Airways), all the passengers of non-BA airlines would have to connect between terminals if they were going to the USA.

[Lord_Feldon]

@md2000

I’m not sure how many airports actually have customs, I always imagined it was only the bigger cities. Preclearance in Europe or the Caribbean makes it simpler to allow flights to smaller US destination cities. After all, it’s not just customs officials - it’s the need for a screened off secure area between the gate and the customs kiosks, etc.

Pre-cleared flights still have to go to airports that are ports of entry. There’s an advantage in that they can go to airports like LaGuardia that only have customs facilities for private flights, but they can’t go to airports that completely lack those services. (Alaska Airlines learned that the hard way in 2002.)

[pkbites]

@Dewey_Finn

I’m a little surprised it’s available in Abu Dhabi (where Etihad is the dominant carrier) and not Dubai (where Emirates is the dominant carrier). I believe the Dubai airport is busier and would expect more flights to the US via Emirates than Etihad. But looking at the list of locations, it’s available in two airports in Ireland but not at Heathrow.

Yeah, I wish they had pre-clearance in Dubai. after a 16 hour flight the very last thing I wanted to do was stand in a long line at customs in Chicago. :eek: Blech!