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This post from 2011 considers the question how much time one should take when connecting from an international flight to domestic transportation in the United States. Most answers report one should take 3 hours. The Swedish news reported that due to the 2013 sequestration, the time it takes for Swedish citizens to go through customs and immigration will increase by four hours. I suppose it's the same for Swedish as for others that can visit on a Visa Waiver.

Adding those facts implies one should take seven hours for connecting public transportation, which effectively means one shouldn't try connecting transportation the same day as arriving. Is this accurate? Considering the 2013 sequestration, how much time should one take for a connecting flight to the USA?

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gerrit
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    It's a little tough to say at this point. A lot of the details of furloughs are still being worked out - the government has to give 30 days notice before any employees begin seeing a reduction in hours, so there will be no impact prior to April 1st. After that date, I suspect the answer will vary wildly by individual airport and jurisdiction - a larger source of delays is likely to be cuts to air traffic control staff, which will have a significant impact on flight schedules and will likely cause a lot of delays. – LessPop_MoreFizz Mar 01 '13 at 21:17
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    @LessPop_MoreFizz: I'd say that your comment is the best answer we can currently give, so I suggest you add it as an answer. – Jonas Mar 02 '13 at 20:00
  • @Jonas personally, I'd prefer to see the question closed as Too Localized. It's fundamentally unanswerable. – LessPop_MoreFizz Mar 02 '13 at 20:40
  • @LessPop_MoreFizz too localised? He's asking about the whole US...I'd have almost said too broad? – Mark Mayo Mar 05 '13 at 20:35
  • @gerrit - as per the original post, someone asked there too - it'll depend on your citizenship. Care to edit your question to clarify this? – Mark Mayo Mar 05 '13 at 20:36
  • @MarkMayo Localized in time. The Sequester is (in my more optimistic moments, I tell myself before I drink myself to sleep) a one time event that will be 'over' before it has really 'begun', as most agencies are doing everything in their power to cause cuts to occur further back on the calendar, and Congress can act any time to stop the bleeding. – LessPop_MoreFizz Mar 05 '13 at 20:50
  • Interesting how this post has some close votes for being too broad and some for being too localised. – gerrit Mar 05 '13 at 22:55
  • @LessPop_MoreFizz well since you do seem to know about it, any chance you could provide an answer? Even if it's a relatively narrow window, it could provide a useful historical answer - it's not like the too localised 'I need a flight on the 14th" type of questions we get sometimes. – Mark Mayo Mar 12 '13 at 09:40
  • Montreal Airport (where you go through immigration for US-bound flights) warns of possible delays, but doesn't specify details. – Jonas Mar 19 '13 at 07:43
  • So does JFK but no specific information http://www.airportinfoalerts.com/recentmessages.aspx – Karlson Apr 24 '13 at 17:03
  • It's just one data point, but I went through Chicago immigration the other day after the changes came into effect. It was maybe half an hour longer than normal. 4 hours extra sounds exaggerated to me. – Andrew Ferrier Apr 25 '13 at 03:44

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I think that you're exaggerate the potential impact on travel just a little too much. Connecting on the same day should not be impacted the only thing that will be impacted is the time, which could on a busy day during a busy time add possibly double the wait times according the latest information published on the furloughs by the CBP.

The amount of time you will need to make your connecting flight during this time will vary based on the airport you will arrive to. For the worst case scenarios which would be in the major ports like LAX or JFK you could add up to another 50-100% of the time you have allotted yourself to make a connection so if you assumed 3 hours increase time if possible to 4-6 hours.

At this point noone would be able to give you any more accuracy given that the impact has not yet been measured.

You could also watch portals like iFly, which seems to collect security clearance information and delays.

Karlson
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