Experiences with Passport line at CDG

If you give yourself 2.5 hours between connection flights (assuming a same-ticket purchase of course), you will very likely be able to travel without the need to hurry up, even if you have to connect at different terminals.

Every major intercontinental hub will have several 'horror stories' posts and videos scattered around about how bad the place is. Usually, based on a single experience of the traveler-author, who really doesn't travel that often to have a good sample of experiences for several instances at each major European hub. I'd not bother with these 'horror stories' about queueing time at CDG.

What is particular about CDG is its layout. They have 7 terminals (I guess) requiring anything from a covered sidewalk stroll to internal shuttle trains or, in 1 case, shuttle buses. So terminal changes take more time than a single-entry point airport like Schiphol or Zürich.

Brad, do you mean for a flight terminating in Paris (I.e. not connecting onward)?

It seems everyone has different experiences. For my 3 trips through CDG I fly out of SFO on AF around 15:30 & arrive at CDG around 11:30. May 2019 my transfer between terminals 2E & 2F heading to Zurich was under 30 minutes, I just beat another airline unloading as we were getting off our flight. In 2014 the transfer between 2E & 2F onto Rome and in 2016 end point being Paris both times were under 1 hour through Passport Control. I will be flying again through CDG in route to Amsterdam in December, transferring from 2E to 2F, hopefully it will be as quick as before. But, we have a 3 hour layover that should be a nice buffer.

I've only been to Paris once so maybe I got lucky, but we arrived at CDG on a Saturday afternoon at 12:30 and was through passport control in less than 10 minutes.

We have flown into Paris many times. We have averaged about an hour in passport control when flying coach and about 10 minutes in business. We once got through in 15 minutes in coach from leaving the plane to completing passport control and then waited half an hour for luggage. We have had a couple of half hour waits for passport control. We have a friend who waited 2 hours in passport control flying coach. It depends on who landed in front of you and if there is a slowdown or understaffing at the windows. Going out, so emigration passport control, we were once stopped for 20 minutes in the final window line when a person ahead of us had some sort of issue; those who were in the short window lines were not allowed to switch to other lines that were still moving. Someone else reported a similar experience here where someone fainted in the line to the window in front of them and it took half an hour for paramedics to futz around with them and meanwhile those in that short line were not rerouted to the other window lines. (in Russia in a similar situation, we were delayed in the short line because they were arresting the people ahead of us and that took a lot of hustling back and forth and bringing more and more uniformed official looking people). Apparently once you are assigned a window by the agent who routes the head of the line, switching is forbidden.

We like to have time for the unexpected especially if there is a connection involved. If there is no connection then it is merely annoying to be delayed.

We flew in direct from Chicago arriving around 10 am about 4 weeks ago; it took about 45 minutes to get through.

In your experience, is there a better arrival time for passport lines?

Any arrival time on a direct flight ticket to Paris that would cost me the least amount of money

I have to say when I came back in early December from being home at thanksgiving, I arrived via Atlanta and I had zero, I mean zero wait at CDG immigration. (And I can’t fly anything but coach, no front of the plane for me.).

I was on an AF flight that left Atlanta at 20:15 and arrived CDG 10:45.

Twice on visits to Paris recently I have waited in line for passport control for two hours.
My advice is to make sure you use the bathroom before you get in line, and have some water and snacks ready.
A woman fainted in my lineup last trip, but it didn't make it longer as they took her to one side quickly.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, thinking about direct to Paris from DC (and back). I won't be in any hurry to get somewhere, I don't do that to myself. But I might think hard about another stop in Iceland if I lose less time there than the passport line.

A direct to Paris is roughly 7 1/2 hours. Transferring through Iceland is about 8 1/2 and you arrive with your passport stamped. There is always the chance of missing a connection in Iceland. I did once, fortunately it was on the way home.

I'm always carry on bag only, in fact only a small shoulder bag (I limit myself to 12 lbs. but aim for 10).

This flight is different because it will be a honeymoon and I'm still not sure whether we can negotiate carry-on only as part of premarital counseling. She went to Ireland with me last May, carry-on only, but she may have still been trying to impress me. ;-)

Hahahaha I love it Brad!!!

Yes I think imposing carry-on only on a honeymoon might be kind of dicey!!

Most importantly, congratulations on the impending nuptials!!

P.s. check out the current thread on the Packing Forum called “The Man in the Blue Shirt”. — NursCyn has a tale of woe of a carry-on only honeymoon down the thread (ok I am exaggerating but it is funny to read it in context with your post)

I once did a 6 week around the world trip on just hand luggage - It included Hawaii and Canberra in May - and had no issues.

However, don't do what clients of ours did: the first stop on their one day tour of the Loire Valley was at a lingerie shop, because two days before they had washed their smalls in the hand basin of their Paris hotel, and hung them on the balcony to dry.

I'm sure you can see where this is going...

She went to Ireland with me last May, carry-on only, but she may have
still been trying to impress me. ;-)

Impressive. It took 30 years of marriage before my wife finally brought only a carry-on for our trip to France last Spring. I remember one time before we were married we went to Minneapolis for 3 days to watch baseball and she brought 7 pairs of shoes.

My one experience arriving in Paris was we got to CDG prob around 9am and I was fully expecting the mess that I've heard about (this was after an overnight from Montreal) - so - there was barely anyone at all in line - maybe a few folks and honest to god we were thru in less than 5 min. The mess was happening on the other side of the passport control (renos were going on and it was chaos).

The answer to your question is that there's no way to tell. I've flown into Paris a number of times, and passport control has always been pretty quick. But it's been a few years, and it appears that maybe it's gotten worse. Probably the fastest time was when there was no passport control because we flew Icelandair.

Thanks for the replies. I enjoyed the Man in the Blue Shirt thread.

My pack list is fairly well tested and almost everything in my closet was purchased with an eye toward travel.

Including what I wear on the plane, I generally always pack two pairs of pants (usually golf pants because they look nice and dry fast), something to swim in (usually hybrid shorts), two button up shirts and three t-shirts (all non-cotton), one pair of walking shoes that can get rained on, one pair of flip flops, a warm layer (again non-cotton), a rain shell, three pairs underwear and socks (all non-cotton, socks are all identical so I can lose two and still have matching pairs), a belt, a knit cap (as much for bad hair days as warmth), light sweat pants and hoodie (again non-cotton, for lounging, sleeping and laundry day).

I pack two ziplock bags of toiletry: a bigger one for all the dry stuff and a quart size with the wet stuff. I pack a largish synthetic chamois to use to wring laundry (if I do it in my room) or as a travel towel when needed.

I've reduced paper to nothing. I bring a kindle version Rick Steve's guide in my phone. Itinerary is on a spreadsheet saved to my phone. Copies are photos saved in my gallery.

Electronics are now all in my phone: Phone, GPS, Alarm, Camera, etc. I bring (usually) two small chargers and adapters plus a couple cords (in case I leave something in a room) plus a plug-in charger for the car.

I weigh my bag and decide what I can add, an extra t-shirt, underwear, socks (or take away). Lately the splurge item I end up adding is a Michelin Green Guide (too bad they don't offer kindle versions). It all goes in a bag small enough to carry on Frontier Airlines or Ryanair (used on both airlines). If I weigh in at ten lbs. I feel pretty good. At 12 lbs. I feel like I need to ditch something (and do).

The last time we were at CDG we had a 3 hour layover. We were in Passport Control for 3.5 hours. It was a massive crowd before we reached the "station" to have our passport stamped. People were pushing and shoving to move through. Frightening. No agent to organize the crowd. It was utter chaos. By the time we got our passports stamped the plane was boarding. We still had to get to the shuttle bus. When we reached the terminal we had to run to make the plane. Delta held the plane for a group of us. Needless to say we haven't been back to CDG since. We use Schiphol most of the time.