Immigration process?

[canadiankim]

A quick question, well maybe not that quick....for you frequent Florida travelers

I haven't travelled to Florida since 2006 from the UK as I live in Canada now but the process at MCO used to be..... Land
Line up for a hour or so and go through immigration
Get luggage and go through customs
Put luggage on carasoul
Get monorail to main terminal
Get luggage and car rental and go!

So my question is now that you have to complete the ESTA before you go, is the immigration process any quicker?

We have my sister and family traveling with Virgin in May and will be meeting them and are trying to work out timing.

thanks!

 

[Elise79]

They will still have the queue to get to the desks however after Customs they now have the choice of carrying their luggage on the transit with them as long as they can carry it without a trolley. This saves a bit of time not waiting to collect it again.

 

[dixonsontour]

They may also be able to pre register for their car rental online and collect straight from the garage rather than lining up at the car rental desk in the airport.

Immigration is all one line now - very much pot luck how long the wait is.

When we last flew direct into MCO with Virgin a delay meant we landed the same time as the gatwick flight. They wouldn't even let us off the plane for an hour as the immigration hall was full. This isn't usual though.

 

[wilma-bride]

In my opinion, immigration is actually slower now that they have adopted the 'all in one, long line' technique rather than allowing you to join any line you wish. That is probably because (like most), we used to pick the 'right hand lane' so that, once the US residents were through, we got called forward quicker.

It does help that you don't have to drop your cases after customs now and can take them on the monorail with you. This has probably reduced our 'plane to car' time by at least 30 minutes (ours was nearly always the last luggage onto the belt on the other side).

I have not noticed a difference in the timings since the ESTA was introduced, though. The only difference is not having to worry about whether you have filled the green form in properly.

 

[tracipierce]

So do you not have to fill in the green form at all now? Last time we went in 2010, we did the esta but still had to fill in the form on the plane.

 

[canadiankim]

Thanks for the replies, that makes it much easier for us to plan.

I think its great that you can take your luggage on the monorail but it must make it very busy!

A single line is great for 'fairness' but I can just imagine how busy it is!

She is renting a car with Dollar and will complete the Dollar Express which will help with some of the wait but can't do the on-line check-in as I will be the additional driver and I have a Canadian licence which means that they have to see it. I have Dollar Express as well so hopefully it will be pretty quick. Plus I can join the que if we see it building up.

Getting very excited now, not only do I get a trip to my "happy place", I get to see my family and share it with them...

Sorry, gotta do it...

 

[starrysky]

So do you not have to fill in the green form at all now? Last time we went in 2010, we did the esta but still had to fill in the form on the plane.

Nope no green form when we went last year. Made life much easier as I always worried I had filled them in worng.

 

[queendisney]

So do you not have to fill in the green form at all now? Last time we went in 2010, we did the esta but still had to fill in the form on the plane.

no more green forms but the white one is still there, thankfully it's only one per family name but we still manage to complete this incorrectly at least once on the plane...its that pressure of 'if you do it wrong you will be sent to the back of the line' at MCO..I have seen it happen a few times

As the PP said, I much prefer the old way of chosing your line as it just seemed to move quicker as we always went to the right in the immigration hall as well, but do like it that you can take the luggage straight on to the monorail.

 

[disneyholic family]

my mom now takes a bunch of the blank customs forms from the flight crew so that she can fill it out in advance of her next flight to the US.
she can't see very well anymore, so i complete the customs form for her and she takes it with her all completed. (she flies back and forth by herself)..
then on that flight, she takes more blank ones to have for me to fill out for her before her next flight.
she only needs one, but she takes a few for me in case i make a mistake.

 

[Holstar]

no more green forms but the white one is still there, thankfully it's only one per family name

Please excuse my general lack of knowledge, but it's one per family name?

My boyfriend and I are taking our nieces next summer so it'll be three separate surnames (A Williams, a Corbet and three Preece's!). Does that mean three separate forms?

xxx

 

[Kath2003]

Please excuse my general lack of knowledge, but it's one per family name?

My boyfriend and I are taking our nieces next summer so it'll be three separate surnames (A Williams, a Corbet and three Preece's!). Does that mean three separate forms?

xxx

Yes.
They also won't let me and my boyfriend go through immigration "together" as we are not family. Depending on the immigration officer, it's likely that you will have to take your nieces through, and then your boyfriend will have to follow.