Tukukkk

So I'm flying in from Ottawa, in Canada, and I have a 1 hour 3 minute "layover" between flights. Is this enough time? I booked through Expedia and it's both with United Airlines and I believe it'll be on one ticket because it's the same itinerary. I am not checking luggage, and as of tonight (flight is tomorrow morning), the gate I arrive at is F17 and I depart from F5. These are on the same terminal, but will I have enough time? I know the travel distance between the gates isn't bad at all as they're in the same big hallway, but I'm worried about customs/immigration time since I'm coming in from international.

I've never flown before and I'm worried about how long that would take. I heard that they give you customs forms to fill out on the plane, but I don't know if that would speed things up much. My plane is small (only 50 people) so I also don't think getting off the plane should take too long, but I do need to wait around for my carry on to be given back to me because it's "gate-checked" because it's a United Express flight and the overhead probably won't be able to fit it.

I apologize if this is just me being paranoid, but I want to make sure.

For a normal international flight, the answer would be a clear "not a chance".

However, your flight is different. Most flights from Canada (including yours) go through US immigration and customs in Canada, so functionally you are arriving on a US domestic flight. The gates you've mentioned confirm this - if it was a true international arrival it would land in Terminal 5, however the gates you've stated are in Terminal 2 (you may also land/depart from Terminal 1, however 1 and 2 are directly connected so they are basically one terminal).

So your question now becomes is ~1 hour enough for a Domestic United to United connection at Chicago, and the answer is a solid "probably". Normally. It's a connection that in most cases you would make, and if you don't because it's on one ticket then the airline will be responsible for rebooking you on another later flight.

I say "normally" because your flight is tomorrow. And tomorrow isn't going to be "Normal". Chicago is expecting bad weather, which will most likely play hell with flights, and you can expect multiple delays and "normal" may not apply.

As a result of this weather, United Airlines has a "weather waiver" active for tomorrow, which means that if you want to change your flights - either to a different routing to avoid Chicago (if one exists) or to different flights and/or a different day then you can do so free of charge.