A bit of advice if flying through O'Hare (ORD)

[spongerob]

Seasoned ORD veterans are probably well aware of this, but for the rest of you, here's a bit of advice. If returning from an international destination, do not book your connecting flight too close to your scheduled arrival from overseas. The HSD/Customs set-up is a zoo and you should allow at least 90 minutes even if you clear Homeland Security and Customs at your port of departure. We arrived just a little late and my estimate is that about half the people on our flight missed their connections. We had a 4-hour layover, and consumed about 2 hours of it with the late arrival and mess downstairs. Oy!

[mom23guys]

Do you have to clear US customs before your connecting flight or at your final destination?

[kenandlaura06]

Good advice. I ran into a similar problem at Newark, with having to switch terminals between an international and domestic flight and having to take a bus ride in between terminals!

[Globaliser]

Do you have to clear US customs before your connecting flight or at your final destination?

If you're flying to the US on an international flight and then connecting to a domestic flight, you will always clear US immigration and Customs before you board your domestic connecting flight. (If you think about it, this has to be the case because once you're on a domestic connecting flight, you are inseparably mixed with domestic passengers who have no need to clear immigration or Customs.)

 

If the international flight is from Bermuda, some Canadian airports or some Irish airports, there is a US pre-clearance facility so that you clear US immigation and Customs there before you board your Canada-US flight. (There may be some others, too, of which I'm unaware.)

 

Most international flights, though, require you to clear US immigration and Customs at the first airport at which you arrive in the US.

[kevinsac]

Do you have to clear US customs before your connecting flight or at your final destination?

 

You clear immigrations and customs at the first spot you enter the US. Then, you move on to your connecting flight.

 

The only exception is Canada. The US govt pays for their agents to work and live in Canada. So, if you are flying to Canada, you leave from the domestic terminals and then go thru the formalities in Canada. When leaving Canada for the US, you do all the formalities in Canada before boarding the aircraft.