Miami airport immigration queues

Hi,
I know it probably depends on delays and number of flights but does anyone have any idea of what the immigration queues are typically like on a saturday early sept at Miami airport?

I've heard a few stories were people have waited for hours to get through but wondered if that was more likely to be in the peak seasons.

Thanks for any info

Originally posted by juulz2001
Hi,

I know it probably depends on delays and number of flights but does anyone have any idea of what the immigration queues are typically like on a saturday early sept at Miami airport?

I've heard a few stories were people have waited for hours to get through but wondered if that was more likely to be in the peak seasons.

Thanks for any info

Hi Juulz,

Miami airport being a major US hub and a business centre does not really have a peak season as such. It has to be one of the busiest airports I have to encounter. I have seen the longest queues at Miami and to be honest some of the rudest people (and aggressive) in them (not PAX from the UK).

It may be best to Catherine about her personal experience - a link to her TR is here [url][/url]http://www.v-flyer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25555 but if you speak to her she can tell you the full horror of Miami arrivals ! [}:)]

Regards,

HG

[Nottingham Nick]

I have had generally good experiences going into MIA. We have been through once or twice a year for the past few years, mostly in February and October around the half terms.

BUT, it can all go horribly wrong on any day. As HG has said, it can appear an aggressive environment and never appears the most friendly of places. I often think the English is very much the second language in the airport, not that those two observations are linked in any way.

It will all depend on the flights that have landed in front of you. IIRC, they still have the system where each Immigration Officer has their own queue, rather than the single queue marshalled by a person sending the next in line to the next available agent. If this is the case, watch out for gates that open up when the hall is busy, then try and slide across to the front of the new queue.

Nick

I agree with Nick, if you see an counter about to open pounce, but expect some hastle from others in the line. The Cabin Crew on the recent flights warned the PAX prior to landing that it would be bad - and it was (I am generally first off the plane too !)

I have had to use Miami a few times this year and the queues I have witnessed have been truly horrendous each and every time so and am just glad I am able to skip queues - if not I persoanly would much prefer to go to Orlando (I love the Upper Class Cabin from LGW too !).

HG

[Scrooge]

Also, MIA is a customs and INS (or whatever it is called now) training post, meaning you get a lot of trainee agents there who tend to go through everything in detail, which means lines form quickly, just what you need after a long flight.

Sorry to continue the bad news but in our experience MIA has had worst queues we have ever been in to enter the US. As others have said it probably depends on the time of day etc. but I would be prepared to be in line for a while.

Miopyk[8D]

Originally posted by miopyk
Sorry to continue the bad news but in our experience MIA has had worst queues we have ever been in to enter the US. As others have said it probably depends on the time of day etc. but I would be prepared to be in line for a while.

Miopyk[8D]

If I can, I avoid arriving in the US at MIA at all costs ... I'd rather fly to New York and connect. Horrible airport, horrible immigration - total lack of organization or efficiency.

I have queued for up to 2 3/4 hours as a consequence, learned a long time ago not to book a connection for hours or plan anything soon after landing. Now I just go elsewhere.

My experience of MIA is that immigration is very very slow. It also has the rudest and most inefficient border control agents, I have ever had the misfortune to have encountered any where in the world.

Regards
Bryan

My one experience of MIA immigration is also bad. Long queues, rude staff & lots of people in the queue who were quite obviously missing connections. Some of them dared to go to the front of the line and plead to be let through so they could make their connections, only to be sent to the back of the line. Avoid MIA if at all possible.

By contrast I have had many a friendly immigration official at Orlando (they are geared up for the families on holiday), Chicago (commented to me that it was deliberate that my mobile signal was blocked in the T5 immigration hall) and Denver.

James

Though not a lot of help for getting to FL, SFO is also very good

So on arrival at MIA on our upcoming trip I can look forward to upwards of three hours of queuing at immigration? Now, who in our party is going to be the greater handful during this term of purgatory - mdvipond jr. (age 3, likes M&Ms) or my father (age 67, dislikes most things, especially airports)?

Looks like we're going to have our hands full. Can't say I'm looking forward to it too much...

I have a 2 hour connection at Miami for Jamaica. Should I re-think my connection ?

Our only time into MIA was 2 weeks ago on Saturday early evening.We were through in under 5 minutes,loads of desks open and a very pleasant agent[:0]we were off the aircraft first.Compared to LAX earlier this year also off first, 2 hours + wait hardly any desks open and an agent who chatted with us for 10 minutes about his upcoming gold panning holiday (after he had stamped us in) as the queue grew to frigtening proportions.

I've been having a look on the Miami Airport website and found this:
http://www.miami-airport.com/html/tsa-charts.html

Do these figures include arrival statistics (if so sounds a bit more promising) or is departure security figures?

Originally posted by juulz2001
I've been having a look on the Miami Airport website and found this:
http://www.miami-airport.com/html/tsa-charts.html

Do these figures include arrival statistics (if so sounds a bit more promising) or is departure security figures?

That refers to security wait times going into the airport - also like the way they say from last place (27th)to 3rd among 24 airports!!!

Also - this is average. When you go to the F pier to pass through security for the VS006 it can be very busy and up to 30 mins (last experience three weeks ago).

jaguarpig, was that coming in on the VS005 flight when you got through Miami Immigration at the speed of light?

Flew into MIA with AA a few years back. Don't remember waiting too long at immigration,I agree with some in that there are some real rude immigration staff. I have to say that in all the dozen or so trips to the US I have made over the years, I have yet to meet an immigration officer that has extended even a modicum of common decency and politeness. Perhaps I have just been unlucky[:#]


NOC

Originally posted by miopyk
Sorry to continue the bad news but in our experience MIA has had worst queues we have ever been in to enter the US. As others have said it probably depends on the time of day etc. but I would be prepared to be in line for a while.

Miopyk[8D]

I would say avoid like the plague, not only is it heaving anyway, consider everyone in the mid south u.s who are flying onto mexico and carribean, these will be making there connections from here too, i would recommend JFK and then walking to florida its sometimes quicker.[:D]

Cheers
Alex

We've flown into MIA several times this year. We had one terrible experience, really bad - resorted to having a mega sulk [}:)]which solved nothing but made me feel better but the rest were good. The last time was just fine - no queue at all to speak of and we were through very quickly. We have found certainly that for some strange reason we clear very much faster when coming in on VS than BA.

My advice would be to be prepared for a long wait but in reality it probably wont be too bad. Good luck.

My experience of MIA has often been pretty miserable, and chaotic. Not just immigration - which often takes ages as described, but the airport as a whole. It's pretty dire.

I wonder if VS pax haven't found it so bad recently since the VS5 was retimed to arrive earlier?

Mike

Oh well, I have been through MIA on VS 8 times in the last 18 months. Only time I had to wait more than 15 mins was once - but then it took over an hour.

I hate Miami Airport with a passion, not just immigration but the whole place, its chaotic, packed, confusing, rubbishly sign posted, nothing seems to be in order and God help you in you need to make a connection from an international flight to a domestic.

We had a 3 hour layover between flights which we thought was a long time, but we were panicking that we would miss our connecting flight, the queue at immigration, the nasty woman who went through every stamp in our passports (lots of unusual ones and middle eastern ones seeing as we are ex military) and the thing that I hated the most was the immigration officer directing questions at my 7 year old daughter ''so how come Mommy, Daddy and your older sister have stamps to Egypt and you dont huh?'' I was furious! (youngest had been to Egypt with us but had a new passport so it didnt have the stamps that we had)

They split us up, me and kids in one room and hubby in another asked us loads of questions then suddenly after about 40 mins just upped and left and said OK you can go have a nice time in Florida! Bizzare.

So, no, I dont like Miami and my experience has always been awful every time I have been through there, but last january's trip was the worst. Sorry!