Originally Posted by
Janus
One point to mention. US airports will often have different methods of handling international arrivals. For instance, MSP has a corridor system very similar to the photo posted of Brazil (actually starting a few gates down from where the OP took that photo), where international passengers as directed (by a series of locked doors) into the customs area, while departing passengers, and passengers arriving on a domestic flight but at an international configuration gate (happened to me twice) go straight between the gate and jet way. Larger airports will have full terminals dedicated to international travel and thereby not have to mess around with special hallways. While, smaller airports many only have one or two gates for international arrivals, so the customs process happens almost instantly after exiting the jet way.
I think that most major airports handle international arrivals the same way -- escalators take international passengers to an upper level, where there is an immigration hall. IAD and DEN have systems notably different than this, but work the same way. By the way, I have never entered the US through an international terminal (like ORD T5, LAS T2 or SFO international terminal). Don't they have the whole sterile circulation thing and an immigration hall on an upper level, like most major airports? And like you, I have taken domestic flights that arrived or left from international gates.