Changing planes at LAX means entering the United States: there's no transit zone, so you pass border control and collect your bags even if you never step outside. Sort out your document before you fly, because the airline checks it before you board.
Every international connection at LAX needs permission to enter the US. On a UK, Australian, Japanese or most EU passports, that's an approved ESTA, US$40.62, applied for before you fly. Indian passports and others outside the Visa Waiver Program need a US visa: a B-1/B-2 visitor visa to go into the city, or a C-1 transit visa for the connection itself. Canadian and US citizens need only their passport.
If you stay airside
There’s no airside transit at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Arriving from abroad, you leave the plane, pass US border control, collect your checked bags and carry them through customs, all before your next flight.
- To connect, you hand your bags back to your airline at the drop-off past customs, then go through security again to reach your gate.
- So you need permission to enter the US for any international connection, even a short one: an ESTA, a US visa or a passport that needs neither, as in the table below.
- Changing terminals. Your boarding pass shows the terminal your next flight leaves from. Follow the airline’s signs for connecting flights; once you’re through security, every terminal is joined by walkways, about 2 miles from end to end.
- Arriving on a US domestic flight, say from New York, you’ve no border to clear at LAX.
If you want to leave the airport
Whatever lets you change planes at LAX also lets most travellers go into the city: only a C-1 transit visa is meant for the connection alone.
| Your passport | To change planes or go into Los Angeles |
|---|---|
| United States | Nothing but a valid US passport |
| Canadian | The passport alone: neither an ESTA nor a visa |
| British, Australian, New Zealand or Japanese | An ESTA, approved before you fly: US$40.62 |
| French, German, Irish, Italian, Spanish and most other EU or Schengen passports | An ESTA, approved before you fly: US$40.62 |
| Bulgarian, Cypriot or Romanian | A B-1/B-2 visitor visa |
| Indian, or any other passport outside the Visa Waiver Program | A B-1/B-2 visitor visa, US$185 to apply |
Your passport should be valid for six months after you leave the US, unless your country is on CBP’s exemption list: the UK, Canada, Australia and India are among those on it.
The ESTA
Citizens of Visa Waiver Program countries can visit the US for up to 90 days without a visa, but they need an ESTA first: an online approval, not a visa.
- Where and what it costs. Apply at esta.cbp.dhs.gov, the official site, for US$40.62. Other sites sell the same form for more.
- When. As soon as you’ve booked. No decision time is promised, and without an approval your airline won’t let you board a flight to the US.
- How long it lasts. 2 years, or until your passport expires, for as many trips as you like.
- Your passport must be an e-Passport, with the chip symbol on its cover.
- One each. Every traveller needs their own ESTA, children included.
The B-1/B-2 visitor visa
For a passport outside the Visa Waiver Program, such as India’s, this is the visa for a day in Los Angeles: it covers tourism, so you can leave the airport like any visitor. The application fee is US$185. Most applicants also have an interview at a US embassy or consulate, so apply long before you travel.
The C-1 transit visa
The C-1 covers passing through the US on the way to somewhere else, and also costs US$185 to apply for. The State Department describes transit as onward travel “without any unreasonable layover privileges”, so a C-1 isn’t a visa for sightseeing. If yours is a C-1, check with your airline or a US consulate before you plan to leave the airport, and otherwise rest after security: at the airport.
Canadian and US citizens
On a Canadian passport you need neither an ESTA nor a visa for a short visit; on a US passport, nothing but the passport. Both pass border control on arrival with everyone else.
If you’re on separate tickets
At LAX, separate tickets add one step, not a border: you pass the border and collect your bags either way. On one ticket the airline takes your bags back just past customs. On separate tickets you keep them and go to the terminal of your next airline, on foot or by the free Airline Connections “A” shuttle from the pink signs outside baggage claim, and check in there. Leave a long gap: if your first flight is late, the second airline needn’t wait, and LAX’s terminals stretch about 2 miles end to end.
At the border
International flights mostly arrive at the Tom Bradley International Terminal; some use Terminals 2 and 4 to 8. Passport control is the first thing after the plane.
- What happens. An officer checks your passport and your ESTA or visa, and a camera takes your photo to match against your passport.
- Queue times. In October 2026, US Customs and Border Protection’s own figures for Tom Bradley showed 18 minutes on average, 24 for non-US passports. About 1 traveller in 17 waited more than 45 minutes, and about 1 in 40 more than an hour, mostly in the early afternoon.
- Mobile Passport Control, CBP’s free app, may be open to you; check the app. LAX is one of its airports, and it covers US citizens, Canadian visitors and Visa Waiver travellers who’ve used an approved ESTA before. You fill it in on landing and join its own line.
- Customs is after baggage claim: bags go through it with you.
Before you go landside
- Bags. On one ticket, give your bags back at the airline’s drop-off just past customs, then walk out. LAX has no lockers, so on separate tickets you’ll carry them or store them in town.
- Boarding pass. Keep your onward boarding pass on your phone or on paper, and note your departure terminal.
- Coming back. There’s no passport check on leaving the US, only security. Be back at the airport 90 minutes before departure: getting into the city.