Exit checking and prevention of exiting the US aren't exactly one and the same, when it comes to free US citizens on the move. Unfortunately, more exit checks and even more exit controls would likely not be deemed unconstitutional by the Courts.

What makes you think that? They've tried this, sort of with border control checkpoints. End result? They can stop you and ask whatever they want, and passengers are free to choose not to answer questions.

http://www.texasobserver.org/border-...l-checkpoints/

Ah yes, the old "Constitution-free 50-mile inland checks". I always enjoyed the Youtube videos of people giving Border Patrol a hard time. A dozen ways that BP tries to get citizens to stop and answer questions on their own accord.

The UK used to do exit checks until the 1990s.

The desks at LHR T3 are rarely manned (happened to me in 8 or 9 years ago). It is more common for officers to stand at the gate and do checks - twice in past 2 years

And as I noted, I have had the exit desks manned three times in less than two years, and heard from my employees it is happening to them even more often. It is fairly common.

Most of my times there, they are not staffed for exit checks there. But I've had at least a few occasions the last 2-3 years where they were staffed at T3; most of those times last year, they weren't flagging down most passenger just after security. But a couple of years earlier, I had seen them there when they were flagging down everybody for a period of time.

I've seen officers at the gates at T3, but that is rather rare to see for departing flights unless you are looking for it, your route network includes a flagged route, or someone else is flagged.

A lot of what we see (and don't see) as passengers relates to the flight patterns of the passengers making the observations.

I've seen both kinds of exit checks at LHR last year. I've not cared to try to have my flight records from T3 last year matched with my observations of exit checks from last year, but for me both kinds of checks still happen from time to time but are rare. What I've not seen on my flights is checks both at the gate and just after security screening at T3 when originating the trip at T3. But that has happened to some others.

Do you hold an EU passport? EU passports are explicitly not to be stamped by any EU border officers. In fact, people some times ask and have it refused on the grounds that their code does not allow it. There is a thread on here in travelbuzz somewhere as well about this.

Passport control on exiting the U.S.?
 

We flew from IAD to LHR on Friday and went through what felt a lot like a formal passport control before entering security. The officers (two were working on our four passports) looked very carefully through every single page of our passports and seemed to do the same for other travellers. After that, they wrote numerical codes on the boarding passes.

On previous experiences, they just scanned the boarding passes, and maybe quickly mached them up with an ID to make sure the name was the same.

Is the U.S. in the process of setting up passport controls on exit, similar to what is done when exiting the Schengen zone?

Was this TSA? If so, they should not have been looking through your passport. A good reason not to use a passport when dealing with the clerks.

Absolutely.

No, it isn't, because this would require substantial reconstruction at many airports. What happened to you is what we were describing happening at LHR a few posts up. It is probably a random check or possibly intelligence-led.

I don't carry my passport when traveling strictly domestically but when we've been traveling Internationally I have used my passport at TSA checkpoints. I've never had a TSA thumb through my passport but I usually hand them my Passport with my boarding pass tucked into the ID page so no reason for them to look through the other pages. Other than a dozen or so hard to read Schengen entrance and exit stamps I'm not sure they'd get much info other than I've travelled overseas. Frankly they potentially get a whole lot less information from a passport than say a driver's license.

It'd probably be good for people who transit the US - no more need for visas or clearing customs when not even staying in the US

Pipe dream is what I would call a "no more need for visas" for all passengers transiting internationally via the US.

It's a chicken and egg: airports aren't designed to allow international transit, so all inbound pax must go through immigration; but the US wants all inbound pax to go through immigration, so they won't design airports to allow international transit.

My family and I lived in the UK for 2 1/2 years in the late 90's and with my father being a wine afficiando we took regular trips to France (we were only about an hour from Dover). More often than not, French immigration would only glance at our passport covers, see "UNITED STATES" and waive us through, a few times the officer waived us through as soon as we pulled up without even seeing where we were from.