mre5765

Flew EI125 DUB to ORD on June 15. This flight had a scheduled 12:50 pm departure.

I am lawful permanent resident of USA and Canadian citizen.

Was booked in J class.

Arrived at DUB about 3.5 hours before departure and checked a bag. Unlike the old pre clearance system in Canada (still in use in YYC afaik, the airline took possession of my bag). Provided my green card to the EI agent. She insisted on my passport too.

Cleared security first (unlike YYC as recently July 2011 where one clears security last). The EI gold circle lounge is before pre clearance, and killed a couple hours there first.

At about 75 minutes before departure, headed to pre clearance. Unlike Canadian pre clearance,
- no global entry kiosks
- separate lines for citizens and non citizens

Unlike most customs and immigration halls in the USA, signs did not include green card holders in citizen lines.

At any rate, there were zero people in either line.

Unlike current practice at Canadian pre clearance, the CBP officer insisted on seeing my passport and on scanning my finger prints and taking a photo.

Also, she pulled up a digital photo of my checked bag and asked me to identify it. So that explains how the security-before-CBP process must work in YVR and YEG (where I have never checked a bag). Presumably if she decided an inspection in my presence was required, she would have had the bag pulled.

Also, the CBP officer was not packing a side arm.

She asked how long I was away from the USA, and what I did for a living, and after needlessly and consuming precious real estate in my passport, she sent me on my way. Fortunately it was a short interview as she had an Irish accent and was difficult to understand.

I was not done with security. There was no wtmd or body scanner, but entrance to pre clearance gate area required xray of carry ons.

Upon landing, I was hopeful we would land in a domestic terminal even though EI departs from the international terminal, so that we could avoid rescreening on the connection. Alas this was not to be. Arguably since EI operates out of the international terminal this was to be expected. Otoh, both UA and LH have international flights depart from a domestic terminal but arrive at the international terminal. Thus the plane is repositioned upon landing. EI could do the same.

This "pre clearance" flight was met at the gate in the ORD international terminal with CBP officers who examined each arriving pax's passport or green card (CBP in ORD did not insist on my passport).

Bags did not have to be claimed and rechecked for those with connecting flights.

Upon arrival in DEN, I found evidence that my bag had been opened. It was partially unzipped, and the integrated straps were unbuckled. Nothing appears to be missing.

EI and CBP do not provide an experience that matches that of Canadian pre clearance complete with GE.

In my case it was a small win but only because I was connecting with a checked bag. Without a checked bag, it would a been a small loss. Without a checked bag and if I were sitting in back of the plane, it would have been a major loss.

And what a PITA for airlines which cannot turn around the plane because the arriving pax take much longer to unload due to immigration processing at the gate.
Based on weather I experienced in Ireland, the reason why is that it is a miserable posting.

Ari

EI doesn't have a gate in T1/T2/T3-- they would have to lease a gate area, probably from AA in T3.

As far as the passport checks are concerned, do they do that on every flight that is pre-cleared at DUB, or just this once. When they do it on normal arriving flights, it is because they are looking for someone specific.

guflyer

I am not sure about the check on other flights from Dublin. However, when I flew on DL from SNN to JFK with pre-check in SNN, there were no officers at the gate checking passports. We arrived in a domestic terminal at JFK and it felt like it was the arrival of a domestic flight.

mre5765

I will provide the practical speculation that this was because DL has gates in a domestic terminal of JFK, and it was inconvenient for CBP officers to get over to the domestic terminal to do post clearance. This suggests to me the following practical advice: when using pre-clearance, regardless of country, select an airline that both has departure gates in a domestic terminal and has zero departure gates in the international terminal of the arriving airport. This way, the flight is less likely to arrive at the international terminal where the bulk of CBP officers are. Thus DUB/EWR on UA: good choice, DUB/SFO on UA (if there was such a flight): bad choice.

Of course it is possible that this was a rare event (since the CBP does reserve the right to impose post-clearance on pre-cleared flights), but being 1 for 1 for on pre-clearance ex-Ireland and 0 for 100 on pre-clearance ex-Canada causes me to doubt that.

rfcjohn

I'm flying to Toronto with United in January and wonder what preclearance in Dublin actually means? As I'm staying close to Niagara Falls in Ontario and hope to drive across to the US during my trip will this preclearance give me my 90 day permission that I normally receive when I drive into the US from Canada?

JOSECONLSCREW28

Basically it means your preclearing US Customs and Immigrations in DUB, so when you arrive EWR you essentially will be arriving as a domestic flight.

evanderm

Every time you cross the border your eligibility is re-assessed. However, in my experience if you say that you already have a stamp that is within the 90-day visa waiver visa you won't have to fill in the I-94W (green form) which still gets stapled into your passport at land border crossings.
I've had my passport stamped again, but the date written in as the original 90-day date when travelling to Buffalo from Toronto even though I flew in through ORD the week before.

sgfood

If you're flying into Toronto then there is no pre clearance at Dublin Airport, you will go through immigration in Canada. When you cross the border to the USA you will do immigration there and receive an I-94 form. You surrender the form when you exit USA. Pre Clearance at Dublin and Shannon Airports is conducted by US Immigration officials and only applies for direct entry into US airports.

UAPremExecflyer

The OP says he's flying UA, ergo he would have pre-clearance at DUB en route to either EWR or IAD.

njcommodore

Not true. The point of preclearance is that the plane will be arriving at a "domestic" gate and everyone will enter the terminal directly. You will essentially clear US immigration in Dublin.

mre5765

Preclearance on United from Dublin to the USA means the exact same thing has preclearance from Canadian airport flying United to the USA.

Have you ever done that?

sgfood

My fault, misread not direct to Toronto. However OP stated he was flying to Toronto, therefore unless he is exiting and staying in the US first he will only be issued a transit visa for connection to Canada and not an I-94. If he is staying in US first he will lose his I-94 on departure and need to get one at the border to enter again.

sgfood

I fly from Dublin/Shannon three times a year, have done for twelve years. I have dual citizenship, it's a little different if you only hold an Irish passport which I believe the OP has judging by his need for a visa.

nrr

At http://www.dublinairport.com/gns/at-...clearance.aspx CBP has a video showing details of the whole process.
At the very end of the video (you have already cleared US customs and immigration) they note that you have further opportunities to do "duty free shopping", wouldn't these purchases (possibly) require a new customs declaration form?

alanR

Pre-clearance makes no difference to your VWP status - except that it starts several hours earlier than otherwise.

The main benefits for passengers is that if for some reason you are refused entry then you haven't wasted the day, be detained in some hole with other criminals or pay for a one way flight home.