Delays Clearing Customs at TBIT-LAX?
 

Recent news reports have it that it can take up to three hours to clear Customs and exit TBIT at LAX. Does anyone have recent experience at TBIT? Have family coming in on Dec 6 and would like to alert them if the wait will be onerous. Thanks.

I just came out of TBIT a few days ago, but I had Global Entry. It took about 10 minutes tops, but the lines were very very long for non-GE folks. That place is like a madhouse. I couldn't find the exit lanes so I cut through and got yelled at by a customs lady.

What's your definition of "onerous"? You can get anecdotal evidence of the time required-- good and bad-- but the fact is no one can predict exactly. As with any airport, it depends in part on how many other international flights land at the sametime, how many people arein the same line as your family (citizens/permanent residents or others), what delays, if any, your family members encounter, how long it takes for the bags to get to the terminal (between Immigration and Customs), etc. Certain times of day are reputed to be worse, due to the number of flights landing at the same time, but there may also be more agents on duty at the same time. Customs usually consists of nothing more than handing over the form one gets on board the flight and fills out before reaching Immigration (the Immigration agent initials it) and handing it over to the Customs agent later on, but one could get pulled aside for secondary inspection, either due to questions about one's bags (or the form) or just at random.

I don't recall ever taking over an hour, but, again, that's just anecdotal evidence, and it was for the citizen/permanent resident line, which moved quicker.

It can definitely take well over an hour.

We pass through multiple times per year, usually arriving from Asia during peak arrival times (between 7pm-ish and 9pm-ish, multiple inbound flights, one after another). Immigration has never a problem for us at LAX -- even when the lines are very long, the lines for US passport holders tend to move very quickly. The agents have been invariably friendly and efficient.

In general, checked bags do tend to take forever to come out at TBIT. We end up waiting for our bags about 90% of the time, even after standing in long immigration lines, and even with priority tags.

Customs lines are consistently slow at LAX, pretty much without exception. Even when they're relatively short, the lines move at a snail's pace. During peak arrival times, they tend to be extremely long, and when there are large numbers of non-Western arrivals, it seems that the agents divert significantly more pax for additional screening. The diversion process slows the lines even more. We've often spent over an hour waiting in the customs line alone.

All that said, it's impossible to predict. We've gotten through in about 30 minutes when arriving at non-peak times. If you plan for the worst, you're almost guaranteed to whiz through! :D

During peak arrival time in the late afternoon/early evening, non-citizens should expect 2 hours in line at immigration and 30 min in line for customs at TBIT. US passport holders can get through immigration in about 1.5 hours but must get in the same customs line with visitors.

I had a bad TBIT experience that involved getting through immigration quickly after arriving in SQ IFC with a USA passport, then waiting in line for more than an hour for customs, only to be sent to secondary agricultural inspection where they Xrayed everything which took another hour. It seemed that they were sending everyone on the SQ flight to the secondary ag screening while OTOH BA was escorting all of their IFC passengers through very quickly. This experience caused me to get GE as well as to complain to SQ that they did not provide the same courtesy to their IFC passengers.

As a non US citizen, expect hours. If you are a US resident, shouldn't take much time at all. I last went through at 7am a few weeks ago - took 2 hours to get through, with twice as many customs officers handling the US residents than the non-US residents lines.

Are you a US citizen? So a US citizen takes 2 hours?

Are sure? There are usually 2 lines for imigration, but only one for customs, which is where it can get nasty.

There are no US-resident lines for customs inspections. All passengers go through customs together. It's easily one of the most chaotic customs experiences you'll ever hope to have.

At peak hours, you will find multiple immigration agents handling US-resident entries (usually two to four of them, but sometimes six when it's super busy). It's usually pretty quick for US residents, even when the lines are long.

Once you get your bags, it's not unusual to see only one (very long) customs line down the center of the hall, but normally there are at least two. I usually see three lines (one down the middle, and one wrapping around each side of the hall), and rarely four (two down the center).

When I flew in from Asia three months ago, I was shocked to see that there were six customs inspectors on duty (i.e., six lines), which is the most I've ever seen at one time. I don't recall ever seeing two sets of lines on the perimeter of the hall. However, the lines were also the longest I've ever seen (wrapped all the way around the baggage area to immigration), so it still took well over an an hour to reach the inspectors' podiums. Many pax were being diverted to secondary inspection, especially those with really huge suitcases, or whose checked baggage included cardboard cartons. When there are lots of diversions, it does seem to slow the lines down even more.

We'll see how it goes tonight when -mr arrives.


~mrs

I fly through TBIT very often. I have seen lines at customs trending longer lately but usually I get through pretty quick. But last night it was strait up third world country status with chaotic lines for customs. Lines stretched down the front to the wall, all the way back along the wall to immigration, along the back of immigration, then doubled around going back along behind immigration the other way, back down the wall, past two baggage carousels, wrapping around one of them, then up the middle and back to immigration. I'm trying to recall if I have ever seen anything so ridiculous in all of my travels to third world countries and I can't recall that I have. I was arriving from Manila which is not exactly known for being the most efficient airport in the world but MNL at it's worst is 100 times more efficient than TBIT was yesterday.

I guess arriving early morning from Aus has it advantages, generally speaking the queues are around the 30-45min mark from my experience for immigration (non-citizen) and 10-15 mins for customs.

deja vu?
 

Thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences. I was just searching to find out what to expect this evening when picking up my British spouse at LAX/flying in from LHR .....
... because the original post description happened to us last time I picked him up there.
Your description of what happened sounded so much like what we experienced that I thought you had to be describing the exact same event we endured. However your date of the event was six months distant from our experience.
I am unaware of how to find out what to expect tonight at LAX... but I am now armed with the information that apparently that is not an unusual experience.
I will bring a book and money for coffee!
Blessings

Intl flight arriving tonight at 6:00 at LAX. How long for immigration/baggage?
 

I have guests arriving tonight on an Air China flight scheduled to arrive at LAX terminal 2 at 6:06pm. Approximately how long should I allow for them to clear immigration and customs and collect their checked bags before picking them up?

Are they US citizens?

Before I had Global Entry I cleared customs in TBIT in time ranging from 20 minutes to 90 minutes plus bag wait time. But the last time that I went through I was very happy to have Global Entry since the wait was over 3 hours for both immigration and customs