Airplanetire From United States of America, joined May 2001, 1809 posts, RR: 3 Posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 1540 times:
What countries must you clear customs regardless if you are connecting to a flight to another country? I know that in the US you must clear customs no matter what, even if you are just connecting to a flight to another country with no domestic flights in between. In the UK, you don't. In Switzerland you don't. Those are the only countries that I have connected to another international flight in. Also, what countries do you have to claim your baggage in customs? In the US, you have to do that as well. You then either recheck it in customs (if you are making a connection) or just put it on a conveyor (if you are at your final destination) and you pick it up at the real baggage claim again.
S.p.a.s. From Liechtenstein, joined Mar 2001, 950 posts, RR: 3 Reply 1, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 1534 times:
Here in Brazil:
International to International(ie. LHR-GRU-MVD)
No need to clear either customs nor immigration
International to Domestic (ie. LHR-GRU-BSB)
You need to clear immigration and customs. AND claim your luggage and check-in again on the connecting airline. This is also true even when you have your bags through-tagged on departure airport, and is normally not known by check-in staff abroad, which from time to time causes some problems.
OO-AOG From Switzerland, joined Dec 2000, 1426 posts, RR: 5 Reply 2, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 1499 times:
On transit from international to international, I've been checked only once in my life: United States and that was last month between PPT and CDG via LAX.
Going to France from France and I have to show my passport to US immigration, strange and not nice at all.
Gigneil From United States of America, joined Nov 2002, 16215 posts, RR: 88 Reply 3, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1469 times:
The reasoning here anyway is there's nothing to stop you from walking out of the terminal while waiting for your connecting flight, and being in the US either to stay or do something bad...
I'm not sure it was like this before 9-11... Iberia's been complaining about it at MIA.
Airplanetire From United States of America, joined May 2001, 1809 posts, RR: 3 Reply 4, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1456 times:
Thanks for all of your replies! Gigneil, I'm pretty sure that in the US, it has always been this way, even before 9-11. You may have noticed this considering that you live in the US, but in a lot of US airports, there are international terminals if they are big enough airports, but some domestic flights still leave from these terminals. In Europe, I have noticed that you go through customs on departure too and then you are in the international area. If you wish to leave or go to another part of the airport, you must reclear customs, even though never left the country. To me, this system seems to be effecient because you can come in from one country, just stay in that terminal, and then get onto a flight to another country without having to spend a lot of time in customs. Most people aren't going to be leaving the terminal anyway if they are there to catch a flight, so it doesn't matter that they'd have to clear customs to leave the terminal. In the US though, like I said, domestic flights sometimes leave from the international terminals, so it would be stupid to put people who are just flying to Florida through customs because they were in the international terminal. By just making everyone go through customs, you can go anywhere in the airport and not have to worry about that. That's just my reasoning though.
ILOVEA340 From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 2100 posts, RR: 5 Reply 5, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 1420 times:
In switzerland you clear customs regardless of your flight even if its BSL-ZRH or GVA-ZRH or anything like that. (I quess we can call BSL Domational (its kinda international and domestic depending if you french, swiss, german or other ))
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