Originally Posted by
shefgab
SAN has an unconventional layout with baggage reclaim being before immigration. This is great news if you’ve got hand baggage only, not so much if you’re collecting bags. From getting off the plane, my bag came out 25 minutes later, thankfully still ahead of most other bags. I then joined the immigration line, which grew very fast behind me. There were about 6 desks open, but 4 of them seemed dedicated to the much shorter and faster moving USA nationals line. It took me 30 minutes to be stamped into the country. I’d estimate the guys at the back of the line would have probably had another hour’s wait. An arriving Alaska flight from Mexico didn’t help queue times.
Interesting to hear this report... this is actually the new US Customs and Border Protection standard. San Diego must have a new built facility in the last 5-6 years or so. The new model is to have one interaction with arriving persons versus a two step process, which dates from when Customs and Immigration were separate agencies. Supposedly this makes the process work faster and more efficiently and allows more queue space and to have more lanes open due to focusing staffing on one area (well, it makes it more efficient for US Customs anyway).