Originally Posted by
armouredant
Anyone know of any airline codes of practise or similar that stipulate that visa (etc) checks take place in the departures hall, rather than at the gate?
I'm not aware of anything here, but I do know there typically isn't a lot airlines can do. There is an electronic check of visas and ESTAs going on in the background and in the case of BA, you won't get a boarding pass if the handshake from the CBP hasn't come through. However the CBP can and does revoke entry rights at any point, including after boarding. Anecdotally, based on admittedly a few media reports when 300,000 foreigners arrive in the USA every day, there is more of this happening recently. The main cause, from what I can see, is someone having an ESTA - so that clearing - but then there is a possible match on a name on the DHS lists and the airline is then contacted to be told that they should not transport that individual. This can happen very late in the boarding process. Unfortunately the DHS lists have some very common name combinations. (And for those so affected, they can eventually get a Redress number from the CBP which creates a record in the TRIP database which should prevent problems, that number should be included in BA's API area).