Immigration and Customs at Chicago Ohare

Well 11 weeks to go ...so the wife asks me how long to clear immigration and customs at O'Hare? She wants to know as we are picking up a hire car and she's fretting about the overnight hotel for our drive. We are in UC on VS39 arriving 130pm. She wants to be on the road for 230!!!!

Sorry to be bearer of bad news .... but ...

Arriving 1:30 and on road for 2:30 ! Not a chance !

That perhaps a little harsh as there is a chance..... but then again a chance of winning the Jackpot on the lottery so you never know !

I have done this route and my son does also regularly...... In our experience, Immigration at O'Hare is something that demands patience for non US Visitors. It can be slow at best with queues on arrival meaning you are a long way from the officers. It does not move quick and can be painful especially when trying to catch onward flights.

Once through Immigration, Customs not normally an issue.

You will then however have to go outside and wait for the Car Hire Bus to come around to the correct stop and take you off to their lot. Depending how many on the bus and how quick you get to the desk another variable.

Aim on 2 hours from scheduled arrival time and you may be closer the right time before on the road. Anything less than that and you can drive away with a smug feeling of having done very well.

Good Luck

Agree with Laphroaig -- think you need to adjust her expectations!

Thans for the info guys. I might have to pick a hotel a bit closer to Chicago then. I don't fancy driving 225 miles (approx 5hrs) that would mean about 230am UK time arrival I'll be shattered by then.

Well 'she who must be obeyed' has spoken, looks like I will have a 225 mile drive after we land getting to the hotel around 8pm (central time) 2AM (uk) - I only hope she lets me get some sleep on the plane.....

Do they have QuickConnect at any US airport apart from JFK? I'd quite happily pay for the cheapest onward flight should it mean skipping a 2 hour queue...

Well 'she who must be obeyed' has spoken, looks like I will have a 225 mile drive after we land getting to the hotel around 8pm (central time) 2AM (uk) - I only hope she lets me get some sleep on the plane.....

Also noticed you are arriving on a Friday, could mean that the traffic might be a bit heavier as well Here's hoping she does let you sleep on the flight.

Hi, we landed 15 minutes early at chicago o'hare today on the vs39. It then took about 20 mins to get to stand. We were in UC and it's quite a walk to immigration. However, we were on the CTA, City bound, one hour later. So, you may be lucky too.

Thanks for the info Feff39 I think the SA will come in handy if my knee is playing me up when we fly. I am keeping an eye on the 'wait times' at Ohare and keeping my fingers crossed.

I've flown to O'Hare many many times in the last three years and it is a mix bag of how long it takes to get through immigration.

Best - The last flight I did in March (admittedly not via Virgin but by SAS), took a mere 15 minutes from entering the queue to passing immigration, even if I had to spend another 3 minutes as the immigration official assumed that I had a ESTA rather then the Visa that I had because I sometimes stay in the US on business for more then 3 months....). Took another 10 minutes to get my baggage, 2 minutes to wait for the Hertz bus, 5 minutes to get to the Hertz gold desk and 5 minutes to jump into the car, do paperwork and leave the airport.... So 45 minutes from Landing to leaving the Airport.

Worse - During the summetime and was with Virgin. Got to the immigration line, was directed to a line, waited in slow moving line for 20 minutes, before part of the line was told to go to the other immigration hall. Got to other immigration hall where people where being told to line up in one of three queues. The line I was in, had a single person doing about 60 people... There was another queue that was shorter and had three immigration people, when someone moved from our line to that one, they were barked at to get back to the queue they had been assigned too... We were waiting for two hours. Effectively it took three hours for me to get from the plane to leaving the airport....

On average assume that it will take an hour to get from the plane to passing immigration (normally takes 10 minutes at most to get luggage to passing customs). They have got better at managing queues as once you get to the end of the main queue you are told to wait in line at a shorter queue in front of a immigration officer cube, if you are unlucky you will get stuck behind someone that is there on a specific visa and the immigration officer has to take 15 to 20 minutes to process their paperwork. You can change lines but if you get an immigration officer who is a bad mood they might bark at you to get back in your line.