Sherab Sherab

Can or will the CBP agent on power trip threaten you as a US citizen with US passport revoke your GE or send to secondary questioning screening just cos you feel sick of being asks question like where did you go? why? how long did you stay there? what do you do ? and you respond sir, do you ask these to all American citizens or you say sir, I don't have to answer these cos I am an American and I am just returning home?

What would you do if you are asked Where did you go? Why? How long did you stay? What do you do? etc?

Thank you.

schrodingerdog

That is incorrect. EU border forces do NOT have the same rights that the CBP. The Schengen Border Code is very clear in Article 8:

REGULATION (EU) 2016/399 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 9 March 2016 on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code)
Article 8 Border checks on persons
All persons shall undergo a minimum check in order to establish their identities on the basis of the production or presentation of their travel documents. Such a minimum check shall consist of a rapid and straightforward verification, where appropriate by using technical devices and by consulting, in the relevant databases, information exclusively on stolen, misappropriated, lost and invalidated documents, of the validity of the document authorising the legitimate holder to cross the border and of the presence of signs of falsification or counterfeiting. The minimum check referred to in the first subparagraph shall be the rule for persons enjoying the right of free movement under Union law. However, on a non-systematic basis, when carrying out minimum checks on persons enjoying the right of free movement under Union law, border guards may consult national and European databases in order to ensure that such persons do not represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to the internal security, public policy, international relations of the Member States or a threat to the public health.

Silver Fox

The net is that entering the US is a painful process, GE just makes it a whole lot less painful. Since the UK egates opened to US passport holders, all the US side of our company (and it is a significant amount) that have come to the UK bemoan the fact they can enter the UK quicker and easier than when they return to the US where they almost feel like a criminal in comparison. Biometrics is so advanced these days that there is no need for the theatre that is CBP.

garykung

You are right. It does not. You do have the right to remain silence.

Yes. At least there was one in the past.

GUWonder

CBP uses the questions for customs control purposes as well as immigration control purposes. And biometric verification of identity doesn’t do all that much for CBP’s customs control purposes, even with regards to US citizens, unless the identified individual is a flagged individual in the relevant systems. Also, a US citizen who doesn’t reside in the US formally may have a different customs allowance than US citizens who reside in the US or even particular parts of the US, and so asking questions related to that can be relevant (even as in practice it’s uncommon for CBP to make an issue of this for US citizens).

I don’t get verbally asked much of anything most times when entering the US or UK using staffed counters. But the most questions I’ve ever had when entering a country have been for some of my returns to the US as a US citizen after having used GE, but that wasn’t at SFO; they have been east of the Mississippi. What SFO seems to be doing now (at least at times) for GE users too doesn’t seem more intrusive than that.

Dealing with CBP a lot, with or without GE, is good prep for learning how to deal with questions from CBP’s foreign equivalents in the rare(e) chance that I have been questioned more than usual at some non-US ports of entry or exit.

mapleg

15 minute delay is annoying, but hardly that much of delay in the scheme of things

GodAtum

If I was a US citizen, I'd go no comment to any CBP questions. What can they do, refuse me entry

Sherab Sherab

Will the CBP revoke your GE if you say sir, I am an American just like anyone else and I don't have to answer personal questions or what I do?

Guaranteed secondary questioning to another room if I refuse to their questions like Where did you go? Why did you go? What do you do, what's your job? etc?

I have no hard feelings for questions like what food or cash you bring or sent to custom bag check for saying I have an apple or a baby food.

But sick of personal questions that makes me feel like a second class citizen.

garykung

GE is a discretionary program. So yes - refusing to cooperate can be a ground for revocation.

As I have said - there is at least 1 person who get his GE revoked. And this happened in SFO.

maninblack

Refusing to cooperate *has* been a reason to revoke someone's GE status at least a half dozen times that I've seen.

We get the rare USC that doesn't want to answer, that's fine, we have procedures for that. But the 1 or 2 GE members who pull that...those were special memories. I remember a new Officer working the GE line, stopping everyone for basic FLETC questions. He was holding up the line a bit and probably being an annoyance to the regular members who come through often. One passenger went under the rope we had, and when confronted, refused to answer anything more than his name to the other officer who stopped him. Another was middle age woman who "knew her rights." Countless times we've heard "But I have GE, I thought I didn't get asked questions, that's why I have it." BE that way in the regular line, but coming through a privileged trusted traveler line, cmon….

Had another guy throw a fit in the waiting room of an enrollment center, then get confused as to why he was denied. We took another applicant's statement and had no problem denying him when he refused to confirm information in his application.

I'm sure it's annoying for the regular travelers, or FT members here who know the rules, but if an Officer goes rogue or is under orders to break the status quo, taking that time to argue is a very good way to lose GE status.

BigFlyer

That may be true - but, most other countries do not see the need to question every traveler for customs purposes. Certainly no European country that I have been to does anything other than random checks, and I don't think I've ever been asked a question by a customs officer when arriving at any European airport (which I've probably done one somewhere between 50-100 times.)

garykung

No offense - most other countries are not the U.S.

84fiero

There are plenty of countries, outside of Europe, with regular or frequent questioning of non-citizens/LPRs (e.g., try New Zealand some time if you really want a thorough experience....even Canada can be fairly 'inquisitive'.) Whether or not "most" of the ~190+ countries are like this, I don't know.

As to treatment of citizens and LPRs, I don't know what's common elsewhere. I think the US goes overboard with returning citizens. Some of the time and resources spent regularly questioning US citizens (not referring to random inspections) could probably be better spent on other efforts within CBP's mission.

GUWonder

For returning citizens of democratic countries showing their passports to clear the passport control/immigration check in their country/area of citizenship, most such countries' authorities ask far fewer questions of their returning citizens than the US does (if they even tend to ask any). The major exception would be the immigration authorities of the Five Eyes, other than the UK (for now at least). As a GE user at US ports of entry, I expect to face more questions from CBP than I get when entering the UK via kiosks. And at US ports of entry, I expect it to get worse with the move toward shifting more resources for questioning in/after the baggage claim.