Customs in Madrid

As has been said here ad nauseum, customs is about goods; you simply walk through the door with the “nothing to declare” sign. What you presumably are asking about is immigration. Since you are coming from a non-Schengen country and are not an EU citizen, it can entail quite a bit of time. A lot depends on how many other planes from non-Scengen countries arrive at the same time. if you are trying to make a post-arrival plan, allow a generous margin of time, maybe an hour?

Thanks Rosalyn. I arrive in the morning and assume the airport might be busy. I’ve heard it can take 3 hrs but wondered if that was in summer when more tourists head to Spain.

No delay or issues at all when we arrived in Madrid from the US last April. We breezed right through. And there were vaccination checks then too; we had our CDC cards in hand and had done the pre-flight documents as well but never stopped or slowed down for any reason other than the usual passport check.

3 hours of waiting in line, especially after a trans-Atlantic flight, sounds like a nightmare! I don’t think that happens too often. Otoh, goanywhere’s experience is also likely not the norm.

Believe we were through in less than an hour this past May.