jphripjah

Today on arrival at LAX they were writing WJV on everyone's kiosk printouts. Those of us with WJV pass through the exit check with no problems.

Any guesses about what WJV means?

Mabuk dan gila

I have been noticing at LAX TBIT for the last 6 months or so they have been handing out much more cryptic codes to everyone. In the past if you were all clear they usually just wrote "1" or "ONE" presumable designating a single person on that Customs form, and if you got anything else, especially a multi-digit number, you were probably tagged for secondary. Lately, for a number of trips in a row I have been getting a hand written "CSA" (I think IIRC) on my APC slip from Immigration, but not the slightest scrutiny from Customs upon seeing that. So I assume "CSA" is "good". But none the less they seem to have changed to some much more cryptic code system.

So I am "CSA" in the new system and that is apparently "good". jphripjah is "WJV" in the new system and that is apparently "good". BGC is apparently "bad". Does anyone else have anything to add?

jphripjah

I note that the WJV was written not on my blue form but on the kiosk printout slip, they look my blue form at the first inspection counter. The blue form says "passenger 1 of 1" or something like that, so maybe they have determined that writing how many are in your party is now unnecessary.

I do think it's smarter for them to mix up the codes so as not to obviously alert people if they're going to secondary.

FredAnderssen

Alerting them would do what exactly? Cause them to make a mad dash for the exit? Barf up their narcotics in the bathroom?

jphripjah

Pretty easy to toss the narcotics in the bathroom if you know they are on to you.

Blueskyheaven

retunred from asia trip and my POE was PHL. Gosh, Our US citizenship didn't matter cos the CBP agent kept asking questions to 3 of us ( 2 adults and one child) as if we were from no man's land and all kinds of personal questions and than was sent to have our bags checked because we wrote we had baby foods. We had small carpet for our car and the CBP agent was like what the heck is this and kept touching and feeling it as if this was something she has NEVER seen in her life. I only wish these people learned about manners, respect, courtesy and actually know something about the world. I don't expect them to be customer service agents but at least as human beings, as employee of tax payers of this country, we expect them to show some courtesy and understand to its own citizens. Anywhere you travel, POE in our own country is like entering an illegal territory.

jphripjah

What were the personal questions about? Were they getting at "How can you afford this trip/are you a drug smuggler?"

Or were they getting at "Are you a Muslim terrorist?"

aidy

I had a "CTR" in 2013 and it was "counter terrorism response" as i had worked and lived in Egypt during the uprisings!

Even though i had nothing to hide, i never felt so scared, whilst my friend was laughing the whole time...

the officer was a very nice guy and professional, however I have always been questioned on my travels since

jphripjah

Flew into Las Vegas recently on a direct flight from Beijing, the end of a 13 country, two month trip.

Ended up in a line that was going exceptionally slowly. It appeared that the officer running our line was being exceptionally chatty and/or asking everyone a ton of questions. The officer in the booth next to her was literally stamping through 5 people in the time it took our lady to stamp in one, leading to much exasperation and eye rolling amongst everyone in our painfully slow moving line.

Anyway, I finally get up to the booth and the following colloquy occurs.

Q. What was the purpose of your trip?
A. Vacation
Q. How long were you gone?
A. Two months.
Q. What do you do for a living?
A. I was a lawyer, but I haven't worked in a while.
Q. What souvenirs are you bringing back?
A. A baseball cap
Q. Are you bring back any tobacco or alcohol?
A. No.

This would have been a good time for her to end the inspection. Instead she paused and continued and then my patience sort of ran out:

Q: So, was this a lifelong trip . . . something you've been dreaming about . . . something you always wanted to do?
A: No.
Q. So what was the purpose of the trip?
A. I said vacation.

She then smiled and told me I was finished and wrote "201" on the form, which obviously meant secondary inspection.

On arrival there, I told the officer I wouldn't be answering any other questions. He did the "Go sit down, OK come back up here, OK are you really not answering any questions go sit down again, OK come back up" game. Then he did a cursory search of my bags and I was out of secondary in 30 minutes.

Blueskyheaven

2 questions:
Are you an American citizen of Asian or any other origin?
Did you have GE ?

jphripjah

I'm a white American. I don't have global entry.

SkyTeam777

I got Confirm via TPAC today on mine...anyone know what that means?

GUWonder

SkyTeam777

Yes they just looked at it once more before letting me pass even though my Mobile Passport receipt had all of those details anyway.

GUWonder