koconut

Hey.


I was always wondering what a U.S. customs officer sees when he's scanning some one s ( like German, U.K., French etc. ) passport. Does he automatically receive information about previous stays or visits ?

For instance, once the officer asked me, if i had been to the U.S. before. I was confused because i've actually lived there on a student Visa..Plus i've also travelled there a lot of times.

I was also wondering, in 2011 i got to the US it was my 3rd immigration, and the officer only asked for one fingerprint each and usually they ask for all fingerprints..WHICH means he must have known ive been there before ?!

Im just wondering, does the officer really just see the passport information and nothing else, or does he get a full summary of all entries and exits ?

another hint, last time i went to the UK, i could actually watch the immigration officers screens afters passing by the immigration, what i saw was they pretty much see a digital form of the passport. (it was actaully the EU lane, idk how it is in the non-eu lane)

BuildingMyBento

I can't remember which airport(s) it was, but in China, one particular immigration area had screens that also showed other passengers what was scanned. I recall seeing DoB, passport number...basically a scan of the photo page.

wolfie_cr

I am sure they see all ins/outs associated to the passport number they scanned (this info is now available via this https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/request.html )

plus I am sure they have things like IP address from where the reservation was made etc but I doubt this is presented to the immigration officer (if you get pulled to a 2ndary then who knows )

http://www.flyertalk.com/story/the-u...eferences.html

Airbridge

Just curious as to why do you care? The information is that which the immigration officer is deemed to need to know in the performance of his duties. ( I am not making any comment on whether that is good/bad/indifferent) Is it the full information the US government has about you? I would speculate highly unlikely. You are unable to change what he sees so it is what it is.

emrdoc

Jeez...chill out. Maybe he is just curious.

QtownDave

Sometimes they do spend a decent amount of time looking at the screen so I too always wondered about this. So there

LondonIce

DHS characterizes the information used during the inspection process in its own privacy disclosures. See pages eight and nine of the below:

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/p...a-cbp-tecs.pdf

Also of relevance to non-citizens/permanent residents:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2008...l/E8-29792.htm

Tchiowa

They can see your history of previous visits. If you have a visa they can see the history of the visa. If anyone put comments in the system during any previous trip or during your visa application, they can see those. For example, if you applied for a visa and you were turned down initially because you couldn't prove you planned to leave the country, the Consulate official will put in a comment about that. Later when you satisfied his requirements he would issue the visa and put in a comment as to how you satisfied it.

The Immigration (not Customs) official would see all those comments. This might prompt him to ask a seemingly innocuous question about your plans while you are in the US to see if they are consistent with the comments. If not, you might get sent to Secondary.

When my wife was applying for her visa I had some testy exchanges with the Consulate in Bangkok. One official took exception to my comments about "if she was applying for a visa to learn how to fly a 747 but not land it you'd let her in". He put some comments in her record. She was sent to Secondary every time we re-entered the US (2 or 3 times per year). I had to get my Congressman to intervene to get the comments removed.

kingarthur

This! This is why Flyertalk is amazing. Thanks for the anecdote.

ft101

How long is this information held, and is it accurate?

I ask as I've just tried out my details and found nothing. I last entered the USA just under 2 years ago.

Edit. Looks like it's for entries under I-94, not ESTA. Does that sound right?

valdor

Why would they care about the IP used to book the ticket? I fail to see any practical use for that...

Tchiowa

Because if you bought your ticket from a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan it might raise some eyebrows.

valdor

Next time I want to prank a friend I will let them book their ticket through a Pakistan VPN

In all seriousness I doubt any serious criminal organisation would be stupid enough not to remote desktop into a better IP before booking a ticket to the US... I would think it's more relevant for the airlines to match IPs to billing addresses to prevent credit card fraud than it is to immigration officers.

koconut

If they are able to see my previous visits ( all of them ??? since i was born ??? ), why do they actually ask if i had been to the US before ?

sethb

To see if you're lying/using a stolen passports/etc.