Originally Posted by weero
Actually, for aliens IAD immigration is very decent. It's nowhere near SFO, BOS, or EWR but ways better than LAX, ORD, JFK, or MIA.
ORD slowly turned into one of the worst US ports for entering the country. The last two times I had to fly Europe-ORD, I routed via IAD, simply because it is not bearable to stand in the immigration queue for more than 2 hours in ORD.
But then you probably refer to customs only and not the custom/immigration complex.
It all depends when you arrive at IAD. Try repeating the above statement after arriving at IAD during the 3-4pm rush period for European arrivals during the summer. I have spent over 2 hours in line on more than one occasion, and have friends who have had similar experiences.
By contrast, ORD at its worst has taken me well under an hour. A good trick to note is that ORD T5 has 2 immigration halls. If the one you arrive in first looks horrible, keep walking down to the other hall (1-2 minute walk) and you often find that the queues are more bearable.
Both halls take you into the same baggage reclaim area, so you can do this even with checked baggage.