? For the international travelers

[2Far ★]

If you are traveling back with a checked bag and making a US connection, where do you go thru customs? At the connecting airport or final destination?

[MoseySusan]

We went through customs at the first airport. You have to fill out a card for customs declaring everything from other countries you’re bringing back in your checked bag. 

[Kirby]

Although if you're flying from certain locations in Canada or Ireland and a few other locations, you may pre-clear US customs in those countries before you get on your first flight.  But otherwise at the first stop (private plane flyers have their own FAQ)

 

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-458?language=en_US

[maddmaxx ★]

First airport because you will probably have to leave the customs zone to make your connecting flight.

[Bikeguy]

1 hour ago, maddmaxx said:

First airport because you will probably have to leave the customs zone to make your connecting flight.

That's not how it worked for us.    I suppose it 'depends' on the airport?    

We flew from Rome to Toronto connected with a flight to Chicago.  Our customs entry point to the US was in Chicago.   We stayed in an 'international' part of the airport in Toronto. 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

22 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

That's not how it worked for us.    I suppose it 'depends' on the airport?    

We flew from Rome to Toronto connected with a flight to Chicago.  Our customs entry point to the US was in Chicago.   We stayed in an 'international' part of the airport in Toronto. 

It’s the first US based airport you arrive from internationally. 

[Airehead]

35 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

That's not how it worked for us.    I suppose it 'depends' on the airport?    

We flew from Rome to Toronto connected with a flight to Chicago.  Our customs entry point to the US was in Chicago.   We stayed in an 'international' part of the airport in Toronto. 

Chicago is correct.  Your first US airport. Used to be able to clear US customs in Canada but I believe those days are no more. 

[Airehead]

In our plane we taxi in and the custom official comes out to the plane. 
 

last time we flew to a very small airport in Canada, we had to call Canadian customs on the phone. They asked questions and said have a good day. 

[Kirby]

5 minutes ago, Airehead said:

Chicago is correct.  Your first US airport. Used to be able to clear US customs in Canada but I believe those days are no more. 

At least according to the Customs Website, there are still some pre-clearance locations in Canada and a few other countries, but they're only at specified airports and they have limited hours.   I wouldn't be surprised if they were suspended during the height of Covid

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/preclearance

 

[Bikeguy]

4 minutes ago, Airehead said:

Chicago is correct.  Your first US airport. Used to be able to clear US customs in Canada but I believe those days are no more. 

We didn't need to 'enter' Canada thru their customs.  We should have stayed in the international area.   

'Should have' is another story... 

[Tizeye]

First entry. And worse, after passport control have to grab your luggage to walk through Customs. Follow 99% of the people with "Nothing to declare" (they can randomly pull people...so be honest. After you clear Customs, then you have to take your luggage to re-check it (just a collection area as already tagged and booked through), then you have to go through TSA again for US clearance before proceeding to your connecting flight gate. For the connecting flight, you are in the US system and it is a domestic flight, so nothing at final destination...direct to baggage claim and get out of there!

On a related note, may have to go through Passport/Customs control twice depending on the itinerary. Consider my choices to Switzerland with no current direct flights from Orlando. My choice from Orlando is 1) US to Switzerland, 2) Canada to Switzerland, 3) Great Britain to Switzerland, 4) France/Belgium/Germany (European Union) to Switzerland. With Canada, GB, and EU I have to pass through their Passport control systems before connecting flight to Switzerland (with the reverse coming back) and again at the final destination, Switzerland, because it is not part of the EU.

[maddmaxx ★]

1 hour ago, Bikeguy said:

That's not how it worked for us.    I suppose it 'depends' on the airport?    

We flew from Rome to Toronto connected with a flight to Chicago.  Our customs entry point to the US was in Chicago.   We stayed in an 'international' part of the airport in Toronto. 

That's what I meant about leaving a certain zone in the airport.  Your connecting flight was still from a foreign country and you never really entered that country.

[KrAzY]

First landing location in the US or a territory of the US is where you come into customs. 

[Wilbur ★]

47 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

We didn't need to 'enter' Canada thru their customs.  We should have stayed in the international area.   

'Should have' is another story... 

As long as you remain in the sterile section of the airport, you are not in Canada.  Part of our having pre clearance at Canadaian airports is our ceding that area to US Customs and Border Protection.  

[Wilbur ★]

51 minutes ago, Kirby said:

At least according to the Customs Website, there are still some pre-clearance locations in Canada and a few other countries, but they're only at specified airports and they have limited hours.   I wouldn't be surprised if they were suspended during the height of Covid

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/preclearance

Yup.  It was there all through Covid.  It is a good system because if the aircraft has to divert to an alternate, you don't have to worry about Customs issues.  The airlines fund the US governments participation. 

[MickinMD ★]

4 hours ago, 2Far said:

If you are traveling back with a checked bag and making a US connection, where do you go thru customs? At the connecting airport or final destination?

You'll go through customs each time you board a plane in a different country.  Your checked bag will be put on the next plane each time by the baggage handlers and you won't see it until your final destination when you have to take it through customs, though they may not even ask you to open it.  But each customs checkpoint with check your carry-on stuff - usually by X-ray - and, have you walk through a metal detector or wand you, etc.

Some countries go a little deeper than others.  When I was leaving Israel on a Royal Dutch KLM flight, each of us was interviewed by two young Israeli intelligence women, probably for training purposes since we were LEAVING Israel and the younger, blonde woman would ask me a question then look at the older, black-haired woman as if for approval.

I was asked things like the national origin of my last name, how I could afford to travel to Egypt and Israel on a teacher's salary. what I had done in Egypt for a week before I came to Israel, and what is the curriculum that a chemistry teacher teaches.  I don't think they cared what the answers were to many of the questions, they were looking for signs of nervousness, if I would look them in the eye, etc.

I wasn't like the idiotic American officials at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam who met us who were returning to the USA two weeks after TWA Flight 800 blew up over the Atlantic in 1996.  It had taken off after us from JFK Airport in NYC and blew up behind us as we were flying over the Atlantic to begin our Aegean Odyssey vacation! The officials had forms of questions that they rapidly read to us, not even looking us in the face.  Some of the questions didn't apply at all.  I thought, "If some terrorists are planning to blow up the plane I'm on, these incompetents won't catch the guy ahead of time!"

[Bikeguy]

1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

As long as you remain in the sterile section of the airport, you are not in Canada.

Yeah... I get that now.  I learned about this the difficult way. 

Just before we got off of the plane, we were told people with international destinations (not Canada) should NOT go thru customers and we needed to go the 'international' part of the airport. 

We had about 1 hour for our connecting flight.  So we go up into the international area.  The area wasn't big, there were 2 luggage conveyors there.  And one desk... no one else in the room and no one behind the desk.  

After a little while...  a woman enters the room and WoBG goes over and talks to her. She tells WoBG to wait she will be back.   About 10 minutes later a guy goes and sits behind the desk.  So I ask him what should we do?  He tells me, you need to go into the airport and get your luggage.    We wait for a while....  I'm getting nervous..  our flight leaves SOON.  

WoBG and I talk.  She tells me again...  'The woman said to wait here.'  and I tell her... and that guy told us to go and get our luggage.     

So... we go to get our luggage.   We had to go thru customs and go to baggage claim.   No luggage.   

Now we are kind of panicked.   WoBG says... 'Maybe we should go back to that room.'   So we went up and escalator made our way back to the area.  BUT... a glass wall separated us from the room. Then the woman sees us.   She motions us to go to a door.  She opens the door and says "I told you to wait."   I explain the guy said we needed to go and get our luggage, but it wasn't there. 

She leads us back to the 'international' area. The guy who didn't explain things correctly was nowhere to be seen.     And she tells us to wait again.   She comes back.   A few minutes later our luggage appears on one of the two conveyors.  She asks, is that your luggage?  We say yes. Then She says to place you luggage on the other conveyor.  We do and the luggage disappears back into the luggage handling area.   Then we were told go thru  this other door and find the gate for your flight. We were back to the secure area for the gates.   

We must have been the ONLY people on that flight that were continuing on to an international destination.  

Now we had like 15 minutes before the flight leaves....      I figure we will never see our luggage again.  

Then we find the flight status board.  Our flight was delayed for an hour, there were storms in Chicago.

We got to Chicago and by a miracle... our luggage was there too.