Entering the USA can be stressful, even more so in light of the stories about stricter immigration enforcement in recent months. However, there is a way to both save time on arrival and – in extreme cases – being denied entry without being detained. At certain airports around the world (and two in Europe) you can clear US immigration at your departure airport. This is both a time-saver and gives you additional peace of mind.
The Benefits Of US Border Preclearance
The border preclearence program is mainly a convenience: After arrival, you are able to leave the airport as quickly as you please (given your bags arrive in time), because your incoming flight is treated like a domestic flight. This can work out brilliant – barely 90 minutes after touchdown in Newark, you can stand in the middle of Manhattan without any hurry.
Especially on airports that see lots of incoming traffic from Asia (like Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle) or South America (e.g. Miami, Houston and Dallas), this can spare you extremely long waiting times. Also, you can be sure you will be able to enter without a kerfuffle during the entire flight to your destination, as you already passed immigration.
In the (unlikely) worst case, it does spare you detention if you are denied entry – since you can simply re-imigrate to the country where the airport is located.
US Border Preclearance Airports
You may find a total of fourteen US border preclearance facilities in six countries around the world. Both European airports are located in Ireland. While Brussels is set to get a preclearence facility in the future, there is no date when it should happen.
If you fly to the United States via these airports, US border preclearance is not optional. You are required to pass US immigration at these airports before boarding your flight to America.
- Aruba
- Oranjestad
- Bahamas
- Nassau
- Bermuda
- Canada
- Calgary
- Edmonton
- Halifax
- Montreal
- Ottawa
- Toronto-Pearson
- Vancouver
- Victoria
- Winnipeg
- Ireland
- Dublin
- Shannon
- United Arab Emirates
- Abu Dhabi
How to Find Suiting Flights
Buying a Single Ticket
To use these ports of entry, all you need to do is book an itinerary where your last stop before entering the United States is in one of the aforementioned cities. This can work by purchasing a single ticket with a change of planes, i.e. in Dublin:
To find such flights, you can use filters on Google Flights that only show itineraries with layovers at certain airports:
Then, you can limit your search results through Dublin and major Canadian hubs like Montreal and Toronto:
Another option is filtering by airlines that use these airports as hub like Aer Lingus (Dublin), Air Canada (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) or WestJet (Calgary).
However, routing through a US Border Preclearence airport on a single ticket comes a with a certain risk. If you are denied entry, airlines have no legal obligation to take you back to your country of origin. Instead, you may be stuck in Canada or Ireland. If you are denied entry to the US on American soil, your carrier has to take you back to your last airport before entering the United States at their own expense. Because of that, we strongly recommend using Dublin or Shannon as a port of entry when travelling from Europe.
Buying Two Separate Tickets
You can also buy two separate tickets. For example, you can fly from Amsterdam to Aruba first – spend a couple of days on the island and pass through US immigration in Oranjestad before continuing to the United States.
In that case, even if you are denied entry, you can still enjoy Aruba until your flight back to Europe departs. Because these are separate bookings, your return flight won’t be affected by you voiding the trip to Miami and back.
Please bear in mind that you are severely limiting your options by using these methods, and may end up paying much more than with other routings – in order save some time or minimize a risk that is statistically insignificant.
Bottom Line
US Border Preclearence can save you a lot of time during immigration – and optimizing your routing to benefit from it is very easy. The major downside is that it might increase your ticket cost or prevents you from using your favourite carrier or alliance.
It can also mitigate possible, if highly unlikely, consequences if you are turned down – like being arrested. While being denied entry on a US airport will result in detention, being denied in a different country will solely leave you stranded in a different country of your choice.
You can find our own (albeit older) experience about US Border Preclearence in Dublin here:
Cover Picture: © Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Comments (6)
Funny you should post the preclearance idea, I was thinking the same thing earlier today!
simply avoid to travel in the US where europeans are now not welcome.
Macht doch keine Panik. War diese Jahr zwei mal drüben und sind freundlicher als früher.
Sorry, aber dieses ganze Angst gemache ist irgendwie mal wieder total übertrieben. Gerade eingereist, war alles wie immer. Aber wer sich nicht an die Regeln hält oder meint, ein bisschen geht schon, da solle man nicht so sein…
Pre-clearance ist ja ganz nett, aber deshalb würde ich nicht unbedingt über DUB fliegen, zumal der Abflugbereich dort furchtbar ist für USA Flüge. Und über Kanada ist da auch manchmal recht lustig, weil nicht immer so vorgesehen. Selbst in Toronto erlebt.
For visitors, entering the USA on a one-way ticket has never really been a good idea.
Exactly! Never do this. You will be automatically detained/sent for secondary inspection. Its a red flag and a guarrantee for trouble. Always have a return or onward ticket booked to avoid hassles.