Where do U.S. airports have longest customs waits?

Some U.S. airports are seeing customs delays over two hours

Travelers are reporting that customs processing times in the U.S. vary widely by airport, with some locations seeing waits that stretch past two hours. The key travel-planning takeaway is that your total arrival time is not just about landing and immigration—it also depends on how quickly customs officers can clear incoming passengers.

Why this matters

Longer customs queues can affect:

• Baggage claim timing (and whether you must wait before heading to ground transportation)
• Connections (especially domestic flights after an international arrival)
• Ground transfers where shuttle or car pickup windows are time-limited

How to plan when customs is slow

A practical strategy is to treat customs time as an uncertainty buffer:

• Build extra time into your itinerary after landing—especially if you’re connecting onward.
• Avoid tight connection windows unless you’re flying on one ticket with strong rebooking support.
• Check whether delays are consistently tied to certain airports rather than one-off events, since wait times can be systemic.

The bottom line

Because customs waits can run dramatically longer at some airports than others, travelers should plan around airport-specific slowdowns rather than relying on “average” processing times. If you’re routing through major U.S. hubs, the safest approach is scheduling with a larger margin for arrival-to-departure time.