Originally Posted by
LondonAussie
I got "seek assistance" again on a recent return, and this time had a friendly and rather chatty border agent so tried to ask if he saw any issues with my passport or why he thought it tells me to "seek assistance" most of the time.
He said the most common reason is not looking directly at the camera. I'm pretty sure I was standing still looking straight into it, but now that he mentioned it I'll pay close attention to where I'm looking next time and see if it makes any difference.
I get this all the time now, and last time I also asked if the border agent could see a reason why it didn't work and he did say, albeit politely, that if he knew he wouldn't tell me, which I guess is a security thing.
I did just try ReadID Me, and sure enough the chip wouldn't read, so at least for me I now know the problem. I tried my wife's in case it was something I was doing wrong, but that worked fine. Thankfully will be renewing my passport later this year.