Customs at EWR
 

How long does it take to clear customs at EWR, midday, when returning as a U.S. citizen? I have some concerns about making a transfer to a domestic flight in less than 2 hours. Thanks for your help.

I waited 5 minutes in immigration (though it was a good, brisk 10 minute walk there), waited 20 min for luggage, and waited about a minute to hand my form to the agent.

I can't see it ever taking more than an hour, unless you hit some crazy incoming flight traffic. This was on a Friday afternoon, from AMS.

From sitting in a bulkhead w/ no checked luggage, I made it through in ~10 minutes. Most of the time was spent walking.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Two hours is plenty of time as a US citizen, any time of day, IMO.

Customs rarely takes any time at all, I think your intended question is how long does immigration take? Those are 2 seperate processes. Immigration is where you stand in line to get get your passport checked and is the more time consuming of the process on a busy day.

If you arrive in B and then depart out of A or C, you need to factor in that time as well, although 2 hours should definitely be enough time. I've never needed a full two hours to do all this and make a connection.

My HKG flights arrive around 2pm, terminal B. From door open from my international arrival to get to new C gate for domestic flight (US citizen, non-elite, with checked bags), it usually takes about 50-60 minutes.

Last Thanksgiving day it took an hour with very few people in line ahead of me. I was in BF so one of the first off the plane. I had no checked luggage and barely made my next flight (note the originating flight was 1 hour late).

So I would say it varies, but then again I xfer through EWR only 1 or 2 times per year. That last one stands out in my mind due to the low loads and the long wait time in line. Perhaps it was an anomaly.

nexus?
 

is there nexus eye retina machines in ewr?

It's one of the perks of having US Customs right at the CO terminal. The wait is little to none.

This is totally different if you are arriving at the international terminal at EWR.

I did notice that the non US Citizen lines were long though, a big 777 arrived a few minutes earlier, ex NRT

But...
 

Note that many international flight are delayed coming into EWR (both because they leave late and because EWR is fairly busy).
I usually make sure I have about 2.5-3 hours time, just because I have a fairly lousy track record with late arrivals.

I'm looking at a possible MR to FRA next month, which would return FRA-EWR-PHL. My two options at the "reasonable" price point for the EWR-PHL connection are 1 hr 40 minutes...and 7 hrs 15 minutes, which seems INSANE given that I actually live halfway between EWR and PHL and would only be going back there to get my car, really.

Most of you seem to be in agreement that 1hr 40 mins should be enough for customs/connection for a US citizen without checked baggage...right? (it'll be a Sunday afternoon)

I did the TXL run and arrived at EWR at noon.

It took about 10 minutes for everything (no bags) so I would take the 1:40 connection.

Take the short connection. Worst case is that they book you on the later one or you can get them to put you on one of the several Amtrak trains that should be passing through in the interim and take that back down to get your car.