Originally Posted by
WilcoRoger
(Yeah, alliteration is cool
)
Based on FT and hearsay I was expecting an excruciatingly long wait and unfriendly CBP agent on my very first trip to the US.
Could I have been more wrong! From plane door to terminal door in under 20 minutes! (evening flight) Straight walk up to the booth, 4 (or 5?) questions from the agent, off to luggage collection, bags waiting on the belt, customs waived through. What? That was it? Might have been the combination of the airport and the time of the day, but an excellent first time arrival to the US ^
Nice when it works out. Fortunately EWR is usually not one of the slowest CBP arrival facilities.
The wait times depend on the time of day and date and if you have checked luggage or not. The friendliness or unfriendliness of CBP agent
s -- at EWR people usually encounter at least two CBP employees prior to reaching the exit from arrivals into the landside area -- varies. I've found EWR and JFK CBP generally better than say their colleagues in MIA or LAX.
This past Saturday and so far today is pretty much as close to off-peak for international arrivals as there is for EWR -- some times around Thanksgiving and Christmas would be even less busy.