Hawaii & immigration
 

Hello All

I am arriving at Maui (OGG) from Chicago (ORD) in the next couple of weeks and will be returning from Honolulu (HNL) to San Francisco (SFO)about 10 days later.

I am aware that Hawaii is just another US state, but I want to hear first hand experiences from people travelling between these cities to confirm that there are indeed no Immigration checks to go through.

Thank you

You are joking, right?

I heard once that Texas was going to institute immigration procedures for people from Oklahoma......LOL

There is a certain grey area regarding this with non- US Citizens like myself. This is the first time I am travelling to HI and want to be sure. Need to know if I must carry my paperwork or not.

May sound funny to you guys, but it is an important question that I'd rather have answered than make an assumption about.

Request FT'ers whow have flown between these city pairs to chime in. Appreciate your help. Thank you.

I can say with 100% certainty that you will not have to clear immigration. Hawaii is in the United States. If you were flying from another country (e.g. Japan), you would have to clear immigration.

Hi,

For internal US flights you will need photo ID at check in and at security but there is no immigration checks.

With a UK passport I just showed the photo ( travelling from various US cities to Hawaii) at check in and security and they just looked at the photo /name to check that it matched the boarding pass.
Enjoy Hawaii!

Regards

TBS

PS When returning from Honolulu to the mainland you will need to put your bags through an Agricultural xray machine prior to check in.

Also and on a separate topic, if you travel from say Tucson to Tombstone for a day you should carry ID with you as we were stopped by a Border Security road search station when leaving from Tombstone back to Tucson last August.

Also, there is an agriculture declaration form you'll have to fill out on your mainland-HI flight. No immigration forms, just declaring animals, plants, etc.

No immigration. Just standard gov't-issued photo ID.

I know there are immigration checks between Hong Kong, SAR and mainland China. So perhaps OP just wants to be sure, just in case the US has something strange.

- Pat

If you want better answers and to be taken seriously then you need to initially post better information. You simply said that you knew Hawaii was just another part of the US and were flying from ORD. There was no indication that you had specific question or special circumstances.

There is no grey area with non-US citizens. Flying to/from Hawaii to/from the mainland is treated the same as flying from Texas to Oklahoma to Washington,DC. It is all one country and treated as such. You will need to show a government issued ID to fly.

Yes, you must carry your paperwork because, under the law, you must always do so. The fact that you are going to Hawaii, however, is immaterial.

Are you likely to be asked for your documents? No. But are you required to travel with them (generally, your I-94/I-94W, EAD, or I-551; I-94s are generally stapled in the passport)? Yes. (I always travel with my passport even when traveling long distances domestically. One never knows what might necessitate international travel.)

http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/S...html#0-0-0-310

Going to or from elsewhere in the US, it is like another domestic flight as far as immigration is concerned (i.e. no immigration checkpoint that everyone has to go through). For any immigration paperwork that you may be required to carry as a non-citizen, it is no different from other domestic flights.

However, there are inspections for plants and animals (in both directions) in order to reduce the spread of invasive species.

True for flights between the mainland and Hawaii, but not always true for flights to and from some U.S. territories such as Guam and Saipan. Those flying HNL-GUM go through immigration both ways even though it's an internal U.S. flight.

What a drag it would be to have to go through immigration every time you flew out of HNL/OGG... just saying.

Ironically, the first time I flew to Honolulu I actually felt like I was in a different country. The landscape and weather felt so different, the names of streets and towns were like a foreign language, and the ethnic mixture of people were so different from the mainland. I almost couldn't believe that I didn't have to go through immigration. I know it sounds silly and I knew in my mind that I was still in the US, but it sure didn't feel like it until someone accepted my US currency in a drug store.

Welcome to my life.

Edited to note: Actually, HNL immigration is much nicer than others I use, like LAX and SEA.