Being a Pole, Do I need a USA visa when changing flights in NY?

I am intending on traveling to Costa Rica from London but most convenient flights have change in States, do I need to obtain a visa just for that?

Unless something has changed, yep, you need one. America has some sort of weird problem with transit passengers.

You will need a visa.

that's so inconvenient oh well nevermind, thank you for that thou;)much appreciate it

It's a specific visa you need, and it's called a 'transit visa' or a C1 visa. Not too difficult to get, but be aware of the time it takes to get it issued.

It'll cost you 400zl and a day of your time to go to the consulate. A couple of "are you planning to hijack your plane" questions later, and you should be good to go.

400zl for a transit visa?!

Yup, they're all lumped together. And an interview.

No it's not. The price for C1 visa is only $140. Don't give others false information when you don't know, you can find the correct price on the internet.

Err...

140 U.S. dollars = 390.362507 Polish zloty.

I'd say that you need to read more carefully in future ;)

Gee, this is almost a legalized crime. $140 (or 400 PLZ) for a transit visa? And an interview?

Some INS officer was really way ahead on possible resourcefulness of people determined to stay in the US.

It was apparently instituted based off a "credible threat". Even planes that stop to take on fuel require that all passengers on the manifest have transit visas. I'm surprised that DHS isn't requiring passengers of all planes flying in US airspace to have visas....