Munich - Customs
 

How long would it take a US citizen to go through customs in Munich in 2016? I've read up on this for previous years, but I'm wondering how recent international events have impacted travel in Munich. I'm catching a train at the Munich airport and I don't know how much time to give myself to get through customs. Thanks in advance.

MUC's only connected to the S-Bahn, so if you do get held up it'd just be a case of waiting ~15 minutes for the next one - unless you have a non-flexible onward train this isn't an issue

depends on how many people are queuing up at the passport control. ;)
max 15min I would say.
walking time from your arrival gate, getting your luggage and exiting via customs arround 30min or even less, as your luggage might already be there by the time you get to the belt.
so total arround 30-45min..
if you only have handluggage then of course less..
and then about 5min walk from T1/T2 (depending which carrier you use) to the train station,

I'll have no checked luggage. I'll also be catching a RailJet at Munich central, so getting held up is not an option. I want to give myself enough time. I'm thinking 1.5 hours from touchdown to train should give the enough time.

Customs takes no time at all (I would say maybe three seconds to walk through the door) unless you are declaring something, in which case you'll need to report it to an officer and may have to pay duty and or a fine. Immigration is what may take 20 minutes or so.

Not at all in this area I would say.

What international events are you referring to? Conferences, sporting events, aggression in the middle east, refugees gaining access via Austria?

Just keep in mind that it takes about 40 minutes to get from the airport to the Central Station if you take the Sbahn. It doesn't take much time at all to get through customs but it does take a while to get to central station.

LondonElite - I'm thinking along the lines of Syria, etc.

AnnaF - Thank you! My train ticket would be international so booking it would include travel to central station. Just need enough time to get off the plane, through customs/immigration and to the train station.

Any idea how long it takes to get from Terminal 1 to the airport train station?

No impact whatsoever.

The station is on the lower level of the terminal. It's a short walk plus the time to buy your ticket.

Indeed - refugees from Syria don´t arrive by plane from the US;)

Thank you. I appreciate all the responses. It looks like there shouldn't be a problem with my timeline.

This COULD work but most likely will not work. Assuming you arrive at the S-Bahn station at 09:12, you have missed a S-Bahn by 1 minute and will be - based on schedule - at Munich Central LOWER TRACKS at 10:05. Even when being familiar with Munich Central you will walk close to 10 minutes from the LOWER TRACKS to Track 11/12 in the main hall where the RJ frequently departs from. You need to catch the S-Bahn 11 past the hour, otherwise you are fully lost.The one 11 past the hour could do the trick if everything goes well and you make no mistake at all at Munich Central. And 30 minutes from the gate to the S-Bahn (and probably buying a ticket) will be quite a challenge, too.

Just re-reading this...1.5 hours from wheels-down to Munich Hbf next train? Forget it, no chance I would take that risk. It is borderline at best, and most likely will not work.

Too bad that RailJet doesn't stop at Munich East which is the closest station to the airport. Regular ÖBB trains do stop there.

But even that would only save a few minutes. If all goes perfectly it can be done, but any delay or long queue in immigration and this plan is out the window.

This would most likely not solve the issue for the OP. As a side remark: Traveling from Ostbahnhof to Hauptbahnhof by rail and not using the S-Bahn tunnel takes quite a while....

That won't impact customs at all.

What will impact customs is whether the OP has to declare anything or not and whether he gets stopped for an inspection if not declaring anything.

sometimes it helps to quote everything I wrote, rather than extracting one sentence in the attempt to make one look stupid. :(

good thing is that everybody else understood what I wrote.

besides, a lot of people mean the whole process of exiting an airport from arrival when talking about "customs" ..

The airport to Ostbahnhof trip is shorter and platform changes take less time than at Hauptbahnhof. Add to that the time that it takes Railjet to get to M-Ost.

It would save him roughly 20 minutes in making his connection. Never understood why that train doesn't make the stop. Moot anyway, since it doesn't.

In any case, the customs issue was dealt with weeks ago! ;)

His issue was being able to catch a Railjet train 90 minutes after touchdown. He assumed that customs (and possibly Syrians) would be the main obstacle. Which isn't the case. :D

I know I know...we're going around in circles! ;)