I am an EU citizen, and without any prior application or approval I have used the automatic biometric border gates in the UK, Netherlands, and at least one other country.
That serves as passport control, then you have the normal green channel/red channel customs. I have probably entered the EU well over 50 times at airports, and never had my luggage searched. I think once a customs official asked me where I was coming from while going through the Green channel, and that was it.
So basically, Americans are made to go through an application process, jump through hoops, and have a pristine record to get the same treatment coming home Europeans enjoy automatically.
So, for those posters who have the "what do you expect, you brought ____ (fill in minor transgression here) through customs years ago: attitude, I suppose the answer might be "I expect to be treated the same way the citizens of European democracies are treated by their countries."
Originally Posted by
CKDGM
It's a "minor" customs violation.
The trusted traveler programs are trusting you not to violate the customs laws. Can you see why they might consider violations of those to be more of an issue than a similarly petty theft when deciding whether or not to approve an application?
(Also, if he was 18 in 2000 he was importing alcohol while being below the legal drinking age in every state, which doesn't exactly help his case.)