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Survival Strategies

A Tokyo design team colleague's cocooning strategy during our DC stopover. Tokyo > Rio? 37 hours door to door

The US immigration authorities cunningly slowed the entry-into-the-US and luggage check-out/check-in process down to a crawl so that our 6 hour stop over is reduced to only 4 hours of usable time. Smart. Obviously indebted.

How does this compare with other immigration processes around the world? Tokyo Narita can take a good 40 minutes for non-residents arriving during a busy period, down to 15 minutes for resident card holders with priority luggage.

Kampala can take anything up to half a day, depending on who is (not) working when. Arrivees can theoretically pick up a visa on arrival - though funnily enough it depends on there being someone actually manning the immigration booth. The lesson - if you can get it in advance, get it in advance. I had it in advance.

A country with unexpectedly smooth immigration procedures? China - from airplane door to sitting in airport taxi is in the region of 20 - 25 minutes .

Writing from Washington DC | July 24, 2007 | Permalink