
Please check with a Mexican Consulate for information on specific items that may be subject to duty. Next, proceed to the baggage claim area for your luggage. Keep your passport and tourist visa with you at all times while in Mexico (if possible make copies in case you lose your originals). Your tourist visa and passport will be stamped to make your arrival official. You should fill it out completely before getting off the plane. Here you will present your passport and a tourist visa, which will be given to you on the plane. Thanks for the question, Janel, and if you’re a TPG reader who’d like us to answer a question of your own, tweet us at us on Facebook or email us at Immigration counter is your first stop after you disembark the plane/ship. While it’s nice to head right home after a long flight without waiting in line, you’ll need to budget extra time before your departure to go through the same procedure. Make sure to keep an eye out for US customs pre-clearance facilities abroad.
#Customs forms to go to mexico from usa full
That being said, in more cases than not, if you’re not leaving the airport, your bags are checked through and you have your onward boarding pass, you’ll go through an expedited transit security process rather than the full customs inspection. Bottom LineĬustoms laws vary heavily country to country, and it’s important to research your specific connecting airport to avoid any unpleasant surprises. The majority are in Canada, but there are also facilities in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Aruba, Ireland (Shannon and Dublin) and, believe it or not, Abu Dhabi.

You can find a full list of pre-clearance locations here. It’s worth paying attention to these locations, as you might need to arrive at the airport earlier to leave times for the customs inspection. If you’re departing from one of these destinations, you’ll clear customs before boarding your flight instead of upon arrival into the US. The US Customs and Border Protection agency has established a number of “pre-clearance” facilities at airports outside the US. There are a few cases where you might take an international flight to the US, yet land and simply walk out of the airport without going through customs. In this case, even though I was on a single Oneworld itinerary, I had to claim my bags in New York, recheck them and re-clear security for my domestic flight. You will have to clear customs and collect your bags at the first airport in the US that you land in. (DCA), with a stop in New York (JFK) on the way, as I did last month. Let’s say you’re flying from Tokyo (HND) to Washington, D.C. The most common exception to what I described above has to do with flights to the US, or when you land in a new country and connect (domestically) to a different city within that country. I ended up clearing customs, and I have a London entry and exit stamp in my passport to prove it. This was before I had a Priority Pass membership, and so desperate for a good night of sleep before my connecting flight back to Chicago (ORD), I booked a cheap Airbnb near the airport for the night. When I was flying back from India two summers ago, I had a ~15-hour overnight layover at London Heathrow (LHR). One example of where this becomes a gray area is long layovers.


Generally speaking, you only clear customs if you’re leaving the airport and entering into the country, not heading on to connecting flights. The Dublin Airport website even has a handy guide, telling you to follow the signs for “flight connections” and not baggage reclaim. Generally speaking, the lines for transit security are much shorter than for actual customs. This is similar to the security check you’d receive before your departing flight (empty your water bottle and put your laptop and phone through the x-ray machine), and when you complete this check you’ll exit into the gate area with all the other departing passengers. In almost all cases, if your bags are checked through to your final destination and you already have your onward boarding pass, you’ll go through transit security when you land at your connecting airport instead of customs. While the exact answer to this question depends on the country you’re traveling to and through, there are a few patterns to be aware of. This is a great question for Janel to be asking, because having to clear customs in Dublin would make her 75-minute layover rather rushed.
