Do I need to clear immigration in DC when transiting to NY?

[Milomonster]

I’ll be flying to NYC via DC. Stopover is around 3.5 hours. Will I need to clear security before changing planes? I had a hard time with immigration last time I was in NYC and it took 4 hrs before I was cleared to leave the airport.

You will clear both immigration and customs at the first point of entry into the USA so this will be in Washington DC.

Your second flight from Washington to New York will be a domestic flight so there will be no customs or immigration to clear.

Yes, expect to take ages. The flip side is you just walk off the plane the other end

Yes. Though didn’t take me long at all last time.

Thank you everyone. I land I Dulles on the 25th and have 3.5 hours before flight takes off from the other DC airport to NYC. Stupidly, I didn’t realize I’d need to change airports. I won’t have checked luggage but due to my background, I most likely will be interviewed at immigration. Worst case, I’ll get a train or bus to NYC.

Are you flying out of Reagan or Baltimore?

Reagan will be tight - Baltimore impossible in that time scale.

Dulles is much quicker to clear than JFK. However I think you will be hard pressed to make your connection.

Also are you flying in Christmas Day?

Unless you’re flying from Dublin, you’ll clear immigration and customs in Dulles.

Yes flying on Christmas Day. LHR to Dulles to Regan to NYC.

You may well miss your flight from Reagan, is there any way you can change this now to a later departure or even change it so you actually fly into JFK or Newark instead?. There is no direct metro train service from Dulles airport into DC so you will need to take a taxi or Uber.