The surging relief that comes with stepping off a long international flight back to New York City—the freedom of leg room, the exhilaration of being almost home—is a lie. To walk through the jet bridge and back onto U.S. soil is to fall into the last, frozen circle of hell. A place where nothing moves. A place called JFK customs.
A new study from the Global Gateway Alliance, an infrastructure research nonprofit, has confirmed something that you already know: wait times at JFK customs are agonizing, pathetic experiences [pdf]. In fact, it takes longer to enter the United States at JFK than it does anywhere else in the country. On average, those hoping to enter NYC through the airport are stuck waiting 30 minutes, shuffling from line to line to kiosk to line, only to find that two of the entry checkpoints are staffed. Then again, 30 minutes is great if you plan to listen to Taylor Swift's "Welcome To New York" on repeat ten times and completely eradicate the last remaining happy vibes you were still clinging to from vacation.
The Alliance looked at wait times at other busy airports: Newark customs sucks an average 17 minutes from your finite lifespan. Meanwhile Chicago, D.C. and Dallas (Dallas!) all take a quarter hour or less. JFK wait times rose 13% from 2014 to 2015.
JFK handles roughly 13 million international arrivals per year, which, given the average wait time, means that 742 years' worth of collective human lifespan are swallowed up by the customs lines every year. How can we fix this? Global Gateway Alliance suggests installing more electronic kiosks, eliminating all paper forms, and, perhaps most obviously, increasing the manpower on staff at the entry points. A customs spokeswoman told the Post that the office does plan to hire additional officers, who will be trained in by the summer. But will it be enough? The wait to get through customs in NYC should never be longer than the wait for Rainbow Bagels.
