<p>I am hoping that there are some international travelers out there who can give me a guideline for an airport pick up time.</p>
<p>I am wondering if there is a rule of thumb on how long after an international flights arrival time I can expect someone to be through customs and ready to be picked up. Do the times vary wildly or is there a good estimate I should plan for?</p>
<p>Varies tremendously. What time of day you land, where you’re sitting on the plane, how many planes land around the same time, and of course, the biggie - which airport.</p>
<p>Well, for one it would help to know which airport. But even then, it’s really, really hard to say. Depends on how many flights land at the same time. What time of day, and where the flight is coming from. But it will be awhile.</p>
<p>haha, thanks hayden, that is what I suspected, but hoped that I was wrong.</p>
<p>Well, the flight will be coming in from the middle east to PHL at about 10 pm. Of course I have no idea about what else will be landing at that time. I was thinking we should just plan to get to the airport around 45 minutes after the time the flight is due to land and wait. By the time luggage is picked up and they get to customs it has to be at least that long even if they get right through customs.</p>
<p>You can check what is arriving at PHL at [Flight</a> Information](<a href=“http://www.phl.org/passengerinfo/pages/flightinformation.aspx]Flight”>PHL Flight Information | PHL.org) .</p>
<p>Be aware that if the flight itinerary includes a stop or connection in the US before PHL, the international arrival passengers will do immigration, checked bag pickup, customs, and checked bag recheck at their first stop or connection in the US.</p>
<p>If the passengers have cell phones, and there is a convenient place to wait nearby, you can just have them call you when they exit customs.</p>
<p>I think your estimate is reasonable, OP. It varies wildly. Someone is going to end up waiting for someone. :)</p>
<p>Agreed Consolation and I would feel better being the one who waits rather than making them wait after a long flight!</p>
<p>I have gotten through immigration and customs arriving in the US in significantly less than 45 minutes. So if you do not want them to wait much, you may want to arrive (or be ready to arrive) earlier than landing + 45 minutes.</p>
<p>Depends
<p>The shortest I have experienced is 20 min. All I had is my carry on and go right into immigration and walked out from the green isle. </p>
<p>The longest I know is my friend’s family, the wife was caught with expired visa and she was sent back to the origin the next day and was not able to gain entry for over 4 years. By that time, they had two kids(he visited)…</p>
<p>wow that is a crazy story!</p>
<p>The longest I have experienced personally was about 4 hours. I had a US custom Carnet to be declared. A Carnet is a document for ppl to bring valuable items out of the country and return with the same, in that, you need not pay custom tax. You fill out this document BEFORE leaving the US which itemize the valuables, such as 10 Gold Rolex worth 100K, when you return, if you still have the same or less 10 Gold Rolex, you are free to enter without custom tax. You have to pay custom duty on the 11th or more Gold Rolex though.</p>
<p>I had to bring a suitcase full of small items to abroad for exhibition, so, I had to spend time to go through the Carnet office to declare the items and when I returned, I had to do the same. It was a time consuming process…</p>
<p>We picked up my S1 at JFK the week before Christmas in the middle of rush hour. He was coming home from a semester abroad. It took us longer to get to the airport than for him to go through customs and he was waiting outside for us when we got there! I also thought about 45 minutes, but he breezed through in much less than 20 minutes.</p>
<p>It depends.
If the person you are picking up hadn’t slept for almost three days & didn’t double check the bag before they went to customs & it actually belonged to someone else, then it may take a goodly while.</p>
<p>One other variable is where you are seated on the plane. If you are way in the back, you will be the last person off, meaning you will be among the last from your flight to get in line at immigration. I’ve had waits varying from 20 mn for the whole process to close to 2 hours. However, I would suggest that at 10 p.m., unless there are a lot of other international flights arriving then, it will probably be shorter than during the day.</p>
<p>Might also depend on what’s going on in the world that day. </p>
<p>I’ve been waved through quickly after a short line or had them go through every item, including opening bottles and searching the baby. And no, having a crying baby with you does not make them feel sorry for you and get you through faster.</p>
<p>[U.S</a>. Customs and Border Protection - Travel](<a href=“http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/wait_times/]U.S”>http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/wait_times/)
This site might help a little. I’m not sure how accurate it is.</p>
<p>When DD and I flew back from Dublin we went through US customs there so no time after our flight arrived at JFK.</p>
<p>It looks like the wait to get the luggage can be longer than the wait for customs according to the link.</p>
<p>Love Ireland and the Bahamas where we cleared US customs on the other side.</p>
<p>Have gotten through Kennedy in minutes but spent well more than an hour on a Wednesday or Thursday night this summer. They did not have enough agents on hand and kept our entire plane’s passenger group in a hallway before allowing us to join the queue.</p>