Flying into the USA yesterday, I was routing via Dublin – and this means utilising US Pre-Clearance at Dublin Airport.
Follow the signs.
Some useful pointers first.
- The US Pre-Clearance area is on a lower floor. Follow the from the gate area, and head downstairs
And get comfy.
- Summer time traffic is causing up to 60 minute queues at the moment. You’ll need to get to the pre-clearance area around 1 hour 30 minutes at the latest before your flight – ideally 2 hours depending on the queues.
- The security screening area opens around 06:45. You’ll get your passport scanned, and your items screened when the screeners wake up
- The US Immigration area doesn’t open until 07:00 – and is gated by a shutter. For those on the early flights out (the early Norwegian New York flight comes to mind), you need to be down early.
- It’s a paperless border, with clearance for Global Entry and US Citizens via APC machines. Visitors to the USA will clear using the US Border agents.
- Once clear of the formalities, flights board either from the downstairs area, or the upstairs far end
Does US Pre-Clearance work? Yes it does still. But it’s now down to timing other than anything else. I noticed the lines for security screening were solid by 6:50, and at a standstill at 6:55 as the US Border Inspection area was due to open.
Once through, there are some vending areas for drinks and duty-free – however, nothing as extensive as the main terminal. For those with access, the 51st and Green Lounge is open to you.
But can it be improved? There’s one easy way Pre-clearance can be improved – and that’s to open it earlier. Passengers want to keep moving, and having an artificial time for the border to open doesn’t help with the passenger flow.
It may be peak travel season – but Dublin’s importance as a transfer point between Europe and the USA is rising as carriers pile on more services at Dublin Airport.
And with the rising services – there may come a point where the current pre-clearance facility may be too small.
It can be a positive experience (as one does not deal with US Immigration after a long flight), but the current facilities seem to be filling up.
Fast.
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How early before your flight would you recommend getting there if you have global entry?
My experience last summer, and I’m doing it again next week, was not bad. But like many other security checkpoints, there are issues that left me scratching my head. When first enter the 400 Pier from the “mall” you encounter a line of people looking to check in to preclearance before proceeding downstairs. The line was so long that an agent began sending people directly downstairs without using the check-in screen. I never used it so I have no idea why everyone was waiting for it! We ended up using a customs declaration computer just before seeing the immigration officer. When my party of 5 got downstairs we cued up to where directed and everything moved pretty fast – until my wife and youngest daughter were sent over for “special screening” which consisted of a few questions and pat-down search. It took a while for them to get thru because of the number of people in this special screening line. Not sure how or why they were chosen but you do need to be prepared for the “random” special screening. After that, it was pretty quick, even the immigration officer interview. I’ll let you know my experience on September 4.
I do not have Global Entry but we walked in the terminal at 7:15a for a 9:55a flight. We ended up with about 30 minutes of “free time”. Check in at AA was slow as there were 3 American flights leaving before our Chicago flight. BEWARE – You will do 2 security checks. First, entering the gate area and second entering the US Preclearance area. After security check 1, we quickly grabbed a quick bite to eat at “The Loop” and then headed to preclearance. If 2 of our party of 5 were not sent off for additional screening, we could have had another 20 minutes to kill. Plan on 2 hours if all goes well.
A little bit less than a year ago, I went thru pre-clearance with two others, all adults. The security checks to get out of Ireland took me and one other person in my party, about 45 minutes as there were a LOT of people in line. However, the other one of my party had a c-pap machine which held us up for an additional 10 or 15 minutes.
Then the pre-clearance took a little over an hour. The lines were long, slow moving and even though it was the middle of the morning, it did not seem as if there were enough agents working. My suggestion to others visiting Ireland since then….fly thru Shannon!
Came back through Dublin in July. Got to the airport 3 hrs early and ended up with only 10 min to spare before boarding started. Took over 2 hrs to get through the Delta ticket counter line to check my bag. Then made it through both security checkpoints in under an hour (being my first time through Dublin, I was nervous the whole time though).
From what I noticed while hurrying to the gate, there was not very many options for food or shopping (souveniers, duty free, etc.) after US preclearance. Be sure to take care of that first if you have time.
We went through Dublin PreClearance sveral years ago. My wife and I were both Global Entry. There wasn’t much of a line but the officer was quite surly and nasty. Offered no assistance or advice of what he wanted us to do. Expected us to know the drill. Very unprofessional