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My girlfriend is flying today into the United States from the European Union, with a transfer to her second flight at JFK. When I check the flights on Delta's website, I see that the first flight is scheduled to arrive at Terminal 4 while the second is also scheduled to depart from Terminal 4, just a few gates away. This seems convenient, but then I ask myself: Where do they look at her passport? Does she have to leave the airport and come back in?

I've made the same trip once; the one (salient) detail I recall is that the flights arrived at and left from, like, antipodal terminals -- and so, presumably, the opportunity to show someone my passport arose naturally along the way. I don't see how it will arise today.

(Apologies for any misuse of tags: This is my first question here :).)

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    I assume like many intercontinental flights: you are forced to follow the "lower route" and get to immigration (you do not pass to transfer area), and custom. You will not allowed on common area before custom and immigration. On some European and South American airports there may be checks at gates (a separated area): common on small airport where you do not want to put separate infrastructure, and not many so passengers/flights/ (but mostly for departure control).
    – Giacomo Catenazzi
    Commented Jul 5 at 12:12
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    Where is she arriving from? There's a special case if she arrives from Dublin.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jul 5 at 13:28

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In the US (and some other airports internationally, but not everywhere), when you arrive on a domestic flight, the path out of the plane is exactly the same as the path in, and you just get into the departures area, and you can move on to the next flight directly.

When you arrive on an international flight, you are routed differently: you have no direct access to the departures area (they will close the access to it), but to a special path that leads directly to passport control. This usually means getting to an upper or lower level (or both) and often involves quite a walk.

Specifically, in JFK T4, departures are on level 3, but the jetways to the planes are on level 2. When you depart, you go down from level 3 to reach the jetway on level 2. When you arrive on an international flight, you remain on level 2 (which is isolated from level 3, and actually from anything else), and at the end of the corridor you go down the ramp to passport control which is on level 1.

Once you get to passport control, you have the following steps (if you are checked through to the final destination):

  • Queue and go through passport control
  • Reclaim your bags
  • Go through customs
  • You are now out of the secure area
  • Just after customs, just drop the bags at the counter designed for this (the bags will show the final destination on the tags, so there's very little waiting, basically just drop the bag on the conveyor belt).
  • Go to departures (usually involves going up one floor)
  • Go through security
  • You're now back in the secure area
  • Go to your gate

There are a few cases where some of the steps are omitted and you don't actually see your bags and/or have a shortcut to departures, but I don't think JFK does this.

If the two flights are booked separately (self-transfer), it's more complex, as you can't just drop the bag at the counter after customs, you need to go to check-in/baggage drop to do that (and you have a much tighter deadline and a much higher risk).

The possible exception is if you arrive from a Pre-Clearance airport, like Dublin: in that case you will have gone through passport control and customs before departure in Dublin, and your flight is considered as domestic.

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Does she have to leave the airport and come back in?

Mostly, you may have to leave the secure area while transferring (and in some cases have to leave the airport building proper to take a bus or a peoplemover to change terminal), but depending on the exact airport and terminal, it may not happen.

There are no transit facilities in the US from abroad, all passengers are required to enter the country.

When disembarking as a US airport from abroad, everyone (unless coming from a Precleared airport like in Canada, Dublin or Abu Dhabi) will be forced to go down to border control, like if they were going to exit.

They then collect their checked bags and pass customs. After that, transit passengers can drop their bags on the carousels.

I don't know if T4 at JFK requires to go through TSA (airport security) again on transit, but most will just dump you at the exit and you will need to come back in as a departing passenger by passing TSA.

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    Thank you :). When I come back to the US via Atlanta, I get off the plane, line up to show my passport, collect my bag, recheck it, go through the x-ray machine and then find my way to the gate of my connecting flight. I think that's the process you're describing here. Is that correct? I've never really thought of that as ("mostly") "leaving" the airport, though perhaps the act of going through security implies one's having left (in some legal sense)?
    – dmk
    Commented Jul 5 at 12:50
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    @dmk When you exit a flight you may leave the secure area. It is very dependent on what airport you travel through. For example, to transfer between terminals at JFK, you do leave the secure area to take the AirTrain, and go through TSA at the other end, because the AirTrain is only landside (before security). While some airports may have a direct airside bus or peoplemover between terminals.
    – Nicolas Formichella
    Commented Jul 5 at 13:12
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    A) Yes, you will have to reclear security at JFK. B) It's worth nothing that have not just "left secure area" but you have fully entered into the US and are free to move about in the US to your heart's content (missing your connection in the process) . So even if you have an international to international connection, you fully need to enter the US and need to have credentials to do so.
    – Hilmar
    Commented 2 days ago

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