muishkin

So I'm flying Finnair for the first time in a long time today. At the check-in desk in JFK T8, the Finnair agent asked me if I've been to Europe in the last 6 months. I said, yes about half a dozen times including a trip about 2 weeks ago. She proceeded to thumb through my passport pages for a good 2 minutes before scanning it on her passport readermachine. Is this normal? I mean I don't remember anytime I've been asked by a check-in agent a question of this nature.

temppa

There are limits how many days you can spend in Schengen area without a visa. You are not allowed in, if any 6 month period contains 3 months accumulated stays in Schengen, So the check-in agent was doing his/her due diligence to avoid denied entry in Helsinki and possible penalty for Finnair.

muishkin

Sure but I don't think I have ever had agents of any other airline checking the stamps in my passport. It seems a bit excessive for Finnair to do so especially for a frequent traveler. Sometimes I could have 30+ EU stamps in my passport within a 6 months period. The AY agent could spent a good 20+ minutes finding all the relevant stamps and then doing the # of days arithmetic. PS I do keep track of my number of days in the EU within a 6 months period automatically using a spreadsheet.

deissi

I don't think it is unreasonable for AY to do that. As temppa noted, they face a fine if they let you fly if you've exceeded your Schengen days. They looked at the stamps, everything was fine, and you were allowed to fly. No harm done.

Trav1970

I saw a note at the gate counter at JFK stating that "Finnish officials have become strict in issuing fines to airlines who bring in passengers who have exceeded their quota of presense of no more than three months in a six month period" or something like that. So AY is just trying to avoid to have to pay a penalty in case you had not followed the rules.

Completely understandable, if the authorities are really imposing fines like this.

muishkin

Well I wasn't arguing about the reasonableness. More about the practical side of finding all the stamps within 6 months and then computing the # of days. This time I think I was lucky since I had done ONLY 4 TATL round trips in the preceding 6 months. I hope I'm not flying Finnair the next time I do the 20 TATL round trips in 6 months thing.

ffay005

I do understand Finnair's point here, but I also understand Muishkin's frustration. Airlines have a tendency of asking stupid questions, usually for "security" reasons. When flying AA from Europe, they want to know how old your mobile phone is and where your bag stood after you packed it etc etc, it's like a list of ten questions. But when you fly in from South America, they're suddenly not at all interested anymore. I guess European suitcases must be especially dangerous

intuition

indeed, like AY policy to request to see your visa for India despite you doing a airside transit and all tools (like timatic and real-life-experience) says "No visa needed"....

I have a similar situation when entering Japan, as there is a maximum 180 day in total per 12 months and they technically would need to calculate dates from multiple landing permits and exit stamps. But never any questions on that route.

I guess what I wanted to say was that if EU is "striking down" on airlines for not checking a complicated stay rule, they should at least offer a way to do it more easy. Like validating the passport against a database of registered stays. Computers are much better at checking dates than people are.

Steve_Hun

On that note, but looking at the question from the opposite angle:

One can stay in the US for 90 days when entering under Visa Waiver / ESTA. When arriving to the States, there is a rather strict check (or more and more often Automated Passport Control (APC)), but no one checks your travel documents when leaving the country (the TSA agent doesn't count in this, as (s)he only checks if you have a valid travel document and the BP is on your name).

Does the CBP get your info from the airlines when leaving the country, or in reality they just don't really care about enforcing the 90 days rule? Not that I'd plan to overstay, this is just purely out of interest.

ffay005

They do, and they do follow up.

That's what the small green slip was for that they stapled in your passport. The airline took it at check-in or upon boarding and sent it to CBS to indicate you left the country. Now it's all computerized but it's still the airline who is in charge of submitting the info.

Of course, this doesn't always work. So there are stories about people who are put in a holding cell upon their arrival in the US and then sent back home on the next plane, all because they "overstayed" even if they didn't. Happened to a Finnish girl some years ago and it was all over the yellow press here. According to the story, they didn't even tell her what was wrong so she couldn't try to prove that she didn't overstay on her previous trip.

Steve_Hun

Thanks for the explanation ffay005!

GaryK84

In fact, you can see your travel history at:
https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home

A very handy tool!

JumboJet

Just a sign o' the times

Steve_Hun

Wow, thanks for the tip!

deissi

Interesting, it says for one visit that I never left the United States. Had no problem entering the next time, though.