How long can we expect it to take to get through immigration at MCO?

[Ciano]

We were thru today. Came in on BA From Gatwick. We got thru in 30 mins we could see r luggage going around on the belt. However there were 4 other flights in right after us. It pot luck I think!

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by Ciano

We were thru today. Came in on BA From Gatwick. We got thru in 30 mins we could see r luggage going around on the belt. However there were 4 other flights in right after us. It pot luck I think!

See more...

Gotta get lucky sometime Ashling - were you VA in from Man?

Have a smashing holiday

[TheRobsters]

We arrived on the 5th at 2pm. Took us 2 hrs of waiting just for the immigration officers, found ourselves behind 2 flights from Man, a virgin and Thomas cook one and 1 ba flight from lgw. Whilst waiting several flights from South America arrived.
Having never flown direct to Mco it has definitely put us off.
But as other comments say you just can’t tell. I went with the ‘expect the worse’ attitude and it was!

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by chmurf

you can find around 5 such topics each week on the DIBB

that's something you can't have control over. It will take the time it requires, and that's the best estimate anyone can give you

it will take anywhere between 10 minutes and 3 hours, give or take a couple of minutes ...

See more...

This is spot on. It's uncomfortable, unavoidable and unpredictable.

We've done multiple flights, from Glasgow, early and late from Manchester. I've been held on the plane and I would still say it's never taken me an excessive time to get through. I now just look at the planned arrival time and add 2 -3 hours and expect to be in resort around that time, some bits will be quick, some slow, but overall that's about right, unless you have a real crazy experience.

When are people that have immigration horror stories stopping and starting their timing? My favourite theory is based on my first couple of trips. I think I looked at the time when the seatbelt lights came on as that when we were "ready to land". Didn't look at my watch until we were through immigration. Then tried to work out why what felt like a 30 minute queue had taken well over an hour. With more careful timing on subsequent flights I realised that the plane doesn't land just after the lights come on, it takes 20 minutes. The taxi to the gate can be another 10 minutes. All this time you are busy looking about occupied, so time flies, and it can get inadvertently added to the "immigration" time as the last mental note of the time was when you were "ready to land", which is "just" before you got in the queue.

[JCA]

We flew in on a Thursday from Manchester, we were the first international flight in and were through quickly. All the luggage was waiting for us, they were directing everybody to use escalators or elevators with their luggage not the transfer. Probably no longer than an hour spent there in total with collecting the car.

[dpmcalister]

I'd had both extremes. In 2010 from getting up from my seat on the plane to getting into the driver's seat of the hire car was just over 30 minutes (PE in the bubble - when the bubble was all PE and let off first). In 2014 it was a fraction under 2 hours for the same seat-to-seat journey (PE row 19). Our main problem was that someone forgot to open the doors from our plane corridor for 20 minutes and, when they did, the hall was already heaving. Not so much good being at the front of the line that day

The second was certainly more frustrating but, as others have said, its out of your hands so just be as patient as you can and hope for the best

[Scaramouche]

There’s no way of telling.

Last year we were the very last people off the plane. We were through within 20 minutes. We than had nearly an hours wait for the bags due to a storm.

[ChrisS]

2011, arrived from Man, first flight in, empty hall. Had to wait on the bridge as word fed back that immigration weren't ready for us and originally wanted us to remain on the aircraft. When we got in the hall 7 IO's were on, ding dong, queue going like a train, bring it on, until five IO's shut up shop, signed out and walked away, leaving two IO's, queue came to a screaming halt. Rough guess, we were about 80th in the queue, took 1 hour 20 mins to clear immigration, must've been a long wait for the remainder of our aircraft, plus the VA LGW 747 and a flight from Mexico tagged on the back of that.

[wifey]

I can’t see the issue being resolved once the new terminal building opens either. It’s the staffing they need to tighten up on. Seriously there’s an issue there for sure that needs rectifying. They know how many flights are arriving each day the airlines and the API let them know in advance. Same goes for the flights out too. I know they are there to do an important job. It just would be easier and less stressful for everyone to have the right number of staff in place each day. We like the IO and understand their role to protect their borders they just never seem to have enough on the desks to man them.

[Thorpy]

What happens if there are storms...do they lay the staff off, and force them to work extra when the storm clears, or schedule them for later on an hope there are some delays.
It sounds straightforward to say have enough staff, but the only way to do this consistently is to have spare, at which point you're more often than not paying people to do nowt, and subject to criticism of wasting resources.