Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
There's no place to wait except the lavatories and staying there too long could attract attention too. Unless you're a family, you don't go through customs together but are processed as individuals. In fact, I wouldn't want to go through immigration and customs together with someone unless I knew the person extremely well.
OTOH, if you want to go through together because the other person is a child, doesn't speak English, is handicapped in some way, maybe has an enormous amount of luggage for some reason such as moving to the USA, etc. so that you could help them with forms and questions, that would be understandable. In that case, however, wouldn't you want to get together before doing immigration--i.e., before baggage claim.
Precisely. Second time thru immigration for my Legal Resident spouse. English is fine but Immigration officers can unwittingly intimidate even US citizens. It would be best if I was there. If I recall, getting off the plane, we are herded like sheep to baggage claim. There may be a place to hang back but I never paid attention. Looks like I can't rely on this to go smoothly. If AA has an award for the return to the U.S., I'll keep my paid mileage ticket and book my spouse on an AA award. A little iffy but worth a try.