Self service immigration kiosks

[holls]

Has anyone used them and if so what experiences did you have are they easy enough,are there any restrictions on using them

Also are there ones in Atlanta airport?

Do you still need to complete the white card on the plane if you use them

Thanks

[nabby]

From our experience last weekend, anyone with an ESTA who has visited the USA in the last 3 years (I think) uses it. Our son is 18 months old and hasn't been overseas before and he had to use it with us.
Each person in the party has to answer questions on a touchscreen, have their passport scanned and have their photo taken. Fingerprints are taken too. You then get a printed receipt with info on it and your photo, and you show this to an immigration official.

My wife's had a big 'X' through it and it turned out her fingerprints needed to be rechecked by the immigration guy. It didn't take long and we were through fast.

What threw us was the fact that the baggage handlers had removed some luggage from the carousel but hadn't told people and we stood for 10 mins waiting for our luggage before we realised it was all on one side already!

We used the second bag drop and it was fast. By the time we got to the second carousel in the main terminal our bags were arriving.

Our total wait time from getting off the plane to getting to our car was 80 mins, most of which was in the immigration queue.

[nabby]

Oh and you do still need the white customs form even with the automated kiosks.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by nabby

Oh and you do still need the white customs form even with the automated kiosks.

See more...

Definitely, customs is a totally separate department, at least that's what they say, but then sometimes they just let you walk past. Last year we just walked past but he stopped the people behind us, had a few words, then let them through, do I don't know if it's some random thing.

[averthan]

We used the kiosks and it was fine. DH got the X but we weren't delayed much.

[rinroo]

We used the kiosk last year. There was an immigration officer at about the 3/4 point in the que asking who's been in the last 3 years she pulls you out and shows you to the kiosks. It scans your passport, takes your photo and prints out a slip. I had just renewed my passport so I had to go to an alternate que to speak to an office but it was so much quicker, the people in front of us in the main que still hadn't been seen as we got to bag collection.

[christoby]

We went through kiosk but for some reason also had to queue up and go through with the person on, so took so long missed our ongoing flight to orlando. Then 5 hour wait before there was a plane with spare seats!

[mickey house]

I posted about this a couple of weeks ago, and for us it was a complete waste of time and took us longer than staying in the normal queue.

[DIBBadmin]

This thread has been automatically closed as it has not been posted on in 365 days.