Flying to New York with US pre-clearance from Dublin airport

I love flying, and getting to see new and previously visited countries. Airports can often be one of my favourite places prior to getting to the country. I love seeing flights coming and going, excited travellers, the hustle and bustle of airport staff working.

I often get to the airport a little earlier, to get through most of the queues, so that I can relax and people watch. I love the journey, as much as the destination.

The one thing that isn’t so great about airports, is the queuing. You queue to check in, to get through security, and to get on board, then you queue again to get off the flight, to clear immigration and customs, get your bags, and probably queuing to get to the local transportation area. I am starting to sound a little impatient, aren’t I?

If flying to the U.S, from the UK or any other airport in the World (as far as I am aware), you will be subject to queuing on the other side to clear immigration, and often these queues can be long, at major international airports, such as JFK in New York. This is not so when flying from Ireland.

On my first time flying to the US in 2004, I flew from London Heathrow, and remember it took about an hour to clear immigration, before I could finally be realised to the land side area to meet my friend. The last time I flew to the US was at the end of 2006 to Chicago, I flew from Dublin, and have vague memories of the process there. However, today; I flew out again, so have been able to recall the whole process, for your benefit.

As I was travelling with my youngest sister, I felt being the bona fide traveller of the family, I had to be responsible for the whole organisation of everything flight and travel related. We booked with Aer Lingus, and had checked online before, ensuring that we had filled in our pre-boarding information . I had also sorted us out with an ESTA, so we joined a short queue and dropped our bags, then went to security.

After getting through security, we followed signs to US pre-clearance, which was a 10 minute walk away. My sister was a little anxious about the process, as she heard that immigration officers for US homeland security can be a little interrogating, but in the end, she felt that it wasn’t that bad.

We went through another security bag check, where I again had to take off my shoes (Flat shoes, or ones that you can take off are advisable – I already had my flight attire sorted.

We then were directed to a few e-machines (there was no queue), and scanned our passports, were made to supply our finger prints, have a photo taken, answer some security questions, and were then given a small print out to take with us (with a not so attractive close up photo in black and white), and then were directed to the scary looking US immigration officers (they actually weren’t that scary).

If you have a passport in a holder, it is helpful if you remove it from the cover (they won’t do this for you), they’ll scan this, and ask you some questions at the same time; namely what is the purpose of your visit to the US and how long are you going for. They may engage in other chit chat, such as, have you been to the states before, but that was about it.

From my last visit to the states, I can remember being asked why I was travelling, how I paid for my ticket, how much money I was brining in with me, who I was staying with, and it seemed a lot more interrogating,

This time however, the officer was friendly, and genuinely wanted us to have a good trip to his home country.

I again supplied my finger and thumb prints (from both hands), and had a photo taken. I also had to identify from a photo if the bags I had check on, were indeed mine (I hadn’t realised that my checked baggage was photographed at check in).

Note: If you are travelling with a family member (blood relative, or residing in the same household), you can go through this process together.

The whole thing took about 15 minutes, or less, and we got a US stamp in our passports, and sent on our way.

 

So technically if you fly from Ireland, you are already in the states before you fly. Thanks US pre-clearance.

(Note: Our flight was delayed by 1 hour, and if you are flying from Dublin Airport, there are limited shops and facilities after pre-clearance (one duty free shop, two cafes and a WH Smith), so if you want to do any major duty free shopping, you are better to do this before you go through pre-clearance.

 

Arriving at JFK Airport

 

We arrived into the domestic terminal (terminal 5), and it was as if we had taken a short internal flight. No immigration or customs to go through, we picked up our things, and on we went into the city.

This saved us a potential wait to get through the busy immigration lines at JFK and meant we had more time to explore the city.

US pre-clearance is definitely the way forward in getting to the states.