If I have a connecting flight in the US, will I have to go through US immigration?

Question

Do you still have to pass through immigration if you're not actually leaving the airport but just passing through?

Answer 1

I don't believe so, unless your connecting flight requires you to leave the international terminal.

Answer 2

if you have to leave the plane, then yes.

Answer 3

no

Answer 4

If your final destination is not in the US and you booked your flight together, no, you do not have go through US immigration.  There is a separate path you take if you're just transferring through that airport that doesn't take you through immigration.

Answer 5

If you're arriving in the U.S. from a country or territory outside the U.S., then YES. You will definitely have to pass through Immigration, pick up your bags, pass through Customs, then recheck your bags. You'll pick them up again once you arrive at your final destination.

Trust me on this -- I fly in and out of the U.S. all the time. You might just be passing through and not be leaving the airport, but the bottom line is once you arrive in the U.S., you're on U.S. soil and you're going to have to do Immigration and Customs here before you go anywhere else.

Here's the U.S. Department of State's page on international travel, in case that helps with further questions: http://www.travel.state.gov/index.html

Have safe flight!

--Holly

Answer 6

yes

Answer 7

Only in the unlikely event that you're connecting through an airport where your outgoing flight is in a different terminal building from your incoming flight and there's no secure way to get from one to the other.  If it's a major airport like JFK or LAX, that's almost impossible.

Answer 8

Yes, you have to.

Before, you could do that without a VISA, but you were not able to leave the boarding area. In small airports you were allowed to circulate around the airport but not to go outside.

Now you need a VISA even if you're not staying in the USA.

Even worse, now you have to leave the secure area when you get down the first plane and go through the checkpoint again to board the second one. Before it was up to you to remain in the secure area (where you're supposed to be already allowed in) and go from a plane to the other.

I went through this even in domestic connections inside the USA.

I think it's unreasonable and it's making US airports loose business for no reason. We're flying to Canada now in flights with no US connections through Mexico and Panama.