Often1

Exit checks are only worthwhile if there are entry and exit checks for 100% of lawful entries and those are matched to exits. There then exists a list of overstays. One can then deal with overstays found in the US and also overstays who later seek reentry, as the case may be.

Short of that, I can't see any purpose in what would be a massive task of building our barriers for separate international departure gates at every airport with at least one international destination (including Canada, Mexico, and the Carribean).

CBP accesses the data in other manners such that the physical barrier to departure simply makes no sense.

televisor

There's no entry/exit database for Schengen - the stamps are the only tracking in place, see http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-141_en.htm .

I believe the computers / scanners are used for checking against Interpol databases and the like, but not for tracking your visits.

GUWonder

There is VIS in Schengen, but it hasn't applied to my entries into Schengen as a US citizen. It's for visa users.

I can still enter and exit the Schengen Zone from some Schengen ports of entry and exit without Schengen countries having a complete record of my Schengen entries and exits using my US passport. And a good chunk of times Schengen border control police types don't even scan my passports for checks against any databases.

FlyingHoustonian

Fly into Italy; a good percentage of the time they will not entry stamp certain American passports (and others) just waiving people through; it happens often and can really peeve the Germans. Other locals like Paris and Greece sometimes practice no-stamps also.

:D!

Perhaps, but then please explain the following: I entered Spain without anyone looking at my passport. When I exited Switzerland, the Swiss border guard knew something was up as soon as he scanned my passport. He had not looked at the stamps at all (and became rather peeved as similar to below's quote).

He then asked when I entered Schengen. As I was prepared for this I simply asked him to give me my passport back so I could show him a previous stamp from outside Schengen.

televisor

Hard to explain given there could be a multitude of reasons. Were you on a Visa, or have you ever had a Schengen visa? (Sounds like you weren't, but if you were then you'd be in VIS, and I don't know if that tracks entries.)

But it could be there is an alert for someone with your name (or even for you!?), or you'd previously entered via Switzerland (and maybe they have a swiss-internal database of entries/exits), or they're more supicious of american citizens possibly overstaying (and they might not bother looking at the passport, and only realise you're american when the computer tells them), or it could be a random lottery check for possible overstay, etc etc. Or maybe they have expanded VIS to track all non-EU+non-Schengen citizens. Who knows.

Checking stamps on exit seems common behaviour from what I've heard. It's possible they assume most visitors are on a visa, and therefore get concerned about checking entry/exit dates as soon as they realise you're visa-free (US citizens are one of the only visa-free groups in the non-EU/EFTA queue, so they're probably used to seeing Visa data for most people?)

GUWonder

Americans, Canadians, Brazilians, Japanese, Mexicans, and many other people with non-European passports don't need visas to enter the Schengen zone for say short-stay tourism purposes.

I only ever enter the Schengen area on US passports.

I'm not in VIS.

And SIS doesn't have what it takes to track my visit/stay history in any extensive way.

Spain has an APIS requirement applicable to my flights into Spain from beyond the Schengen area, but even that doesn't make it's way into feeding
records for me in VIS or SIS.

The Swiss used to almost never even open my passport when letting me into Switzerland after my flights coming into ZRH from the UK, the Americas and Asia. However, after Switzerland fully implemented Schengen, they tend to be very diligent in wanting to know when I entered the zone. But they can't find my complete entry and exit/stay history either (not even for just Swiss trips), whether using the stamps in my passports or using the databases accessed for primary or secondary passport control examinations.

mre5765

Except that we have international-only terminals today. I find them rather annoying because it usually entails another TSA screening.

Moreover, just as it isn't much effort to set up a WTMD and x-ray scanner at a gate, it is even less effort to set up a CBP podium with an ink stamper and passport reader. There is probably an iPhone app for the latter.

I've flown out of domestic terminals on international flights several times where the CBP has set up shop in the jet way.

Billions of dollars?

FateSucks

The US does do it in a less obvious way.

The TSA flags people who travel too much or certain areas (even citizens) that they and air marshals would board the flight or equivalent in the foreign airport you are going to in order to keep tabs on you and your flight connections even if you have done NOTHING wrong.

catocony

Atlanta won't be that way for long, and while some airports theoretically do have an international terminal, not all international flights depart/arrive there.

The sheer volume of commercial flights in the US precludes the vast majority of airports to have an international-only flight setup. US airlines aren't set up to use them even if they did. I only fly UA and they do use international planes - 767s and 777s - for some domestic flights, such as to re-position a plane from Asia to SFO to IAD for a flight to Europe. Moving the same plane from terminal to terminal at an airport is a major waste of time and money and effort.

The fact is there isn't a good reason to have hard outbound immigration at US airports and land crossings. If the government were to mandate it, it would cost many billions of dollars to make it happen. Airport construction projects are very expensive. You cannot just set up a kiosk at the end of a jet bridge either. That's a silly idea.

GUWonder

At gate, on-departure, physical passport control station(s) for each and every international flight departing the US? That sounds like an expensive boondoggle just waiting to happen in the US.

Have you seen the costs to develop new or even almost completely overhauled terminals in the US at the largest US airports in the past 15 years? Just look what AA and DL paid for just their terminal buildouts at JFK. It wasn't cheap, and the costs are higher now than when AA did it for a combined domestic and international network. Who is going to pay for such massive, expensive changes that won't improve the overall passenger experience in the US?

And beside the terminal overhaul costs, there is the cost in passenger/airline time.

catandmouse

No passport checks at all on leaving the United Kingdom (which isn't in the Schengen area).
When leaving the Schengen area most times my passport is scanned but I've never had it stamped. They scan all the passports, but seem to stamp only non-Schengen passports (or maybe only passports with visas?)

FlyingHoustonian

Like the US, the UK does do exit passport checks on occasion. The US more at the flight gate, the UK has desks set up at some terminals (aka LHR) where they do actively do exit checks. I have had it happen 3 times in the last 18 months. Again, rare but it happens.

GUWonder

Indeed. When I've had them ask for my passport prior to departure, it's mostly at LHR T3 just after clearing security. That is when I'm originating my trip from landside at LHR.

greggarious

I'm not sure exit immigration would be constitutional for US citizens. And if you want to have it for just foreigners, that'd be a logistical nightmare.