[Anonymous]

[KeaneJohn]

OK so we have had a topic on US immigration so I would like to throw it open to the wise contributors as to which is the BEST immigration, customs and arrivals process that you have experienced.

For me it would have to be Muscat, Oman. I arrived here in March from Dubai on a short J class Swiss flight after a 3 day stop over in Dubai.

The Sultanate of Oman required that people obtain a visa on arrival if you have not already got one. This involves queuing up at the Travelex Visa desk paying approx £30 getting a visa then joining the queue for immigration.

There is however an arrangement in place that if you have a visa for the UAE or Sultanate of Oman and visit the other country on the same visit, the visa for one will be valid for BOTH locations. This works out better if you visit the UAE first as you do not have to pay for the visa given on arrival there.

Most people on the flight had deplaned in Dubai and all F&J pax were invited to disembark from the front of the aircraft and join one bus, Y pax disembarked from the rear.

Having come from the UAE I walked straight to the Business/First Immigration Counters not needing a VISA and with 1 person in front.

This took no longer than 5 minuted from aircraft doors being opened. When I got to the carousel my luggage was already on the belt so I picked this up and went to Customs so was out the airport within 8 minutes of landing.

The only other experience on a par with this was landing at LCY which I don’t really count as there are hardly any people with hold luggage and CBP lines small.

Anybody else had any similarly quick times or good experiences.

[NTarrant]

John – I assume you are not a UK passport holder, as you don’t need a visa for DXB from the UK, but of course do for Oman.

Probably traveling in Europe is the easiest, I invarably find AMS to be good, but outside I have experienced quick through put at SIN.

[KeaneJohn]

No I am a UK passport holder. I think the requirements for UAE is a VISA ON ARRIVAL. though it is just a stamp advising maximum visit allowed. I do know this caused confusion when I checked in for my flight at LCY.

I do know however that my stamp and stopover in Dubai saved me time and money.

[RichHI1]

I have had some bad waits at AMS when coming in from PVG. My vote would go to HKG or poss NRT.

[NTarrant]

John – I think you could be right, I go to DXB around twice a year, the date stamp has arabic so that may say visa and then the seperate stamp with the number of days.The last time I went into Oman was to the Musendam region by road, there was a grou of us and the driver did the formalities at the boarder with out passports. It did cost but not £30.00, but it was three years ago.

Rich – I would also agree with you on HKG. It does depend on when you hit some of these places. DXB is usually a long queue, but if you are lucky it can be very good.

[Danwolf]

SIN is the most efficient one I’ve been through, Hkg is next best, and even better if you can get a frequent traveller pass (not sure what they call it officially), I should probably pick up one…

[KeaneJohn]

I have not been through SIN and only went through HKG 20 years ago at the old Kai Tak airport so can’t really remember that.

I wasn’t that impressed with the waits in DXB even flying J class as the priority queues did not seem to mean anything though it was around 75 mins from STA to arriving at hotel and we were just about on time so I guess that was reasonable.

I think Oman put its visa up to pretty recently with little or no notice.

[Danwolf]

I only went through muscat/Oman 1.5 months ago from LHR to bkk, so can’t say about actually exiting the airport. I did notice the ‘relaxed’ attitude of X-ray, etc, but it was quick, and the biz lounge was nice for the short stopover, so shan’t complain…

[Bunnahabhain]

Perhaps “not applicable” would be more accurate than “best” for some of the tourist destinations in Spain such as Palma and Malaga, where I’ve experienced the token guy in the immigration kiosk just reading the paper and letting everyone walk past, or not there at all. Same again at customs. Same before and after Spain introduced the API, which just seemed such an irony.

Return to the UK on the other hand…

[cityprofessional]

I have had some terrible experiences at AMS, so I’m not sure that’s the best example. With European airports, I find it depends very much on which plane has got there before you. This is also true at LCY – fine if you’re the first one off, and there’s nobody in front of you, but 2-3 plane loads converging on border control at the same time can swamp the 2 immigration officers

Ironically, my best (“big airport”) arrivals experiences are coming into the UK with a non-EU passport into bucket ‘n’ spade airports – particularly LGW, but also STN. No matter if several charter plane loads have disgorged themselves, there are hardly ever any ex-EU passport holders, so I always sail to the front of the line

[MartynSinclair]

Considering my rant about DFW, on the other thread, this may sound strange, but my top immigration clearnaces are:

1. LHR – with IRIS, never taken more than a few minutes

2. BKK – with a meet and greet VVIP service, never lined up behind anyone. Always an empty box

3. DFW, with the help of a BA staff member using the diplomatic channel, not one soul there, apart from the customs officer

4. Looking forward to trying Dublin/Shannon for USA clearance

5. Any other destination where you can buy your way to no Q

[cityprofessional]

@MartynSinclair
Re: IRIS at LHR. This assumes that it is working. Arriving at T5 at 1am after an evening of weather delays and finding the IRIS machines out of order and an immigration queue that would put JFK and MIA to shame (because most of Border Control had gone home in spite of all the delayed arrivals) must rank as my worst immigration experience ever (yes, even worse than IAD, ORD and LAX)

[MartynSinclair]

City P, this thread is about the BEST, not the worse, keep in the spirit of things!!

[NNoah16]

Landed in NYC last week, BA arrives at terminal 7; it took 12 minutes from door opening to sitting in a cab (hand luggage only). UK passport.

UK: Iris -great
UAE: egate – great

last trips to Beijing & Bengaluru – minutes through immigration

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