Originally Posted by
MissRoseDarrensAngel
It makes me wish that they had more people available to process you through the passport control section right after getting off the plane. It seemed like half the stations were empty at times. That would have not bothered me so much as there were 3 or 4 flights from outside the US that landed around the same time as me, and if there about 200 people per flight, it would make more sense to have more there to process people. Oh well, after a 30 minute wait, I finally got to an officer who checked my passport, asked a few simple questions, stamped my customs forms and sent me on my way in less than 3 minutes to my relief.
Par for the course, I'm afraid, at many US gateways. I waited about an hour at JFK a few weeks ago -- at 1100pm! Two loaded 747s pulled up simutaneously. And at LAX the wait has been known to top two hours, maybe three. 30 minutes? Comparatively good.
I agree it is frustrating to see 24 desks in an immigration hall, but only four of them staffed. Obviously the personnel do not exist in those cases to run the facility as its designers intended. Welcome to the United States, unraveling before your eyes.
Offshore pre-clearance is such a logistical and data-management effort, to say nothing of requiring its own real estate which is in scarce supply at airport terminals, I don't think it's going to spread much.