Originally Posted by
chewy3
I too was very curious about the immigration process in CLE since I have lived here most of my life and never experienced it before, but I just arrived on CO67 today and the process was OK. We were the only flight in -- 4 lines for US citizens and 1 for non. Took me about 5 minutes to see an officer and I was seated in the middle of the plane. I was selected for additional screening since I had just come back from a round the world trip. They quickly searched my bags and asked a few questions and was on my way. Seemed like I was the only one selected for additional screening.
The only annoyance with CLE is that you have to give them back your checked bags and collect it at carousel 7 and then you have to go through security screening again to enter the terminal (the only way). I probably had to wait about 10-15 min to get rescreened as I was now at the end of the line due to secondary. You exit around the A gates. The flight was about 75% full.
Ugh, I was afraid nothing had changed at CLE..my previous experiences with the customs officials there was they have only a few flights a day coming in so they like to justify their jobs by dragging ppl over for secondary inspections. I have never been secondary inspected in over 200 times at EWR/IAH/ORD but of the 3 times I tried Intl flights to CLE I have been inspected once. Pfft...I may end up rebooking through EWR based on your experience and the small baggage recheck operation at CLE.
The one time I was inspected, the passport stamp guy asked me "are you a US citizen", he was holding my US Passport and studied every page for 3-4 minutes....I told him, "Um, My passport is a US passport and it says I am a US citizen". Stupid question got a stupid answer...hence I got inspected.