Connecting flights in the USA for Polish citizens - how much time?

My Polish friend has a visa to go to the US, and we are booking his flights. He has to connect and fly on to another location in the US. The cheap flights are giving us only an hour to make the connection. In my experience an hour is plenty, but I never had a visa or problems with customs, as I am Canadian. Also, he's a male between 16 and 45, so he requires some special attention, I understand. Do you have any experience or knowledge of the time required at the point of entry for Customs?

The other question is if he is delayed and missed the flight, will the airline put him on another flight, or will they expect him to buy another ticket? Thanks for your input.

I would allow a minimum of 2 hours but probably a better idea to allow 3 hours.....what airport is he flying into? As for missing connections, is he flying the same airline once he arrives in the US? If he misses his connecting flight, most likely he will have to fly stand-by, which could take sometime, especially if he is flying somewhere that doesn't have much flight traffic.

Thanks, Ranj. He was going to fly Denver-Chicago, from Poland, but now going to do LAX with 4 hours to make the connection outbound. Seems worth the extra $100. Got some tips from other people as well.

<Strange spluttering noise> Yes, males of this age do require special attention

4 hours is probably a good idea.....best to have plenty of time then to feel rushed. Just out of curiousity, why is he not flying direct to Chicago.....I know they have direct flights....LAX is extremely out of the way? Is he actually flying in from Poland, or is he coming from someplace else?

With any connecting internation flights, I really would suggest a layover time of 3 hours or more. This will take into account any possible flight delays, customs delays, and familiarity delays with the airport.

When I flew back from Warsaw to Florida, I had a connecting flight in Chicago O'Hare. My layover time was about 2 hours, but LOT took off 45 minutes later than expected. When we landed, I had about 45 minutes to get from the arrival gate to the departing gate. This involved getting thru customs, getting my bag scanned again, waiting in line to catch the next train to my terminal, getting thru security check, and then finding the departing terminal.

When I got to my gate, I only had 10 minutes to spare. But remember, some airlines will give your seat to the stand-by passengers if you don't show up 10 minutes before the boarding process closes. Luckily, my connecting flight got delayed.

I would say if he is flying LOT he will need lots of extra time =/