drgitlin

Has Madrid added US CBP immigration preclearance? There was an additional document check before we boarded, but when Iberia landed at Dulles, they just let us off the plane and into the terminal. No people movers, no customs, no immigration, nothing.

Did they just .... up and release an entire plane load of passengers into the county illegally? (Wouldn’t put it last Iberia, which is ghastly).


edit: now I think about it, there was definitely no CPB preclearance when I flew MAD>JFK on AA a couple of months ago. And there’s no stamp in my passport for today from CPB, which now has me worried I’m in the country illegally.

LupineChemist

Holy crap, that's crazy but it's on MWAA rather than IB. I'd probably post in the checkpoint and border forum https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chec...cy-debate-687/

Personally, I'd just say nothing assuming you're planning on leaving within allocated time and not call attention to the problem. I'd make sure to keep copies of the boarding pass you came in on though

drgitlin

Well, the thing is I’m a PR and not sure when I’m leaving the country again. I’m also in the middle of naturalizing and if this messes that up I’m going to go postal.

drgitlin

Cross posting this from another sub forum on their advice.

Flew back from Madrid to IAD via Iberia today.

Has Madrid added US CBP immigration preclearance? There was an additional document check before we boarded, but when Iberia landed at Dulles, they just let us off the plane and into the terminal. No people movers, no customs, no immigration, nothing.

Did they just .... up and release an entire plane load of passengers into the county illegally? (Wouldn’t put it last Iberia, which is ghastly).


edit: now I think about it, there was definitely no CPB preclearance when I flew MAD>JFK on AA a couple of months ago. And there’s no stamp in my passport for today from CPB, which now has me worried I’m in the country illegally.

the Dulles CPB phone number gets no reply and the main CPB helpline isn’t open until Monday. I didn’t have a checked bag but I don’t see how any who did would be able to collect them since that carousel is before customs. And as I said, they just let us out into the normal terminal hall.

drgitlin

Just spoke to a relieved man at Dulles who is trying to track down everyone who came in on IB6131 yesterday, because they did indeed let us skip immigration control.

whitewave

Wow, that is frightening to think about.

drgitlin

I suppose it was immediately obvious to anyone who checked a bag, because that carousel is obviously before customs. But I didn’t check a bag, and the rest of the trip was stressful
enough that I didn’t really process it until I got home.

LupineChemist

Thinking about this, it could all be down to a single moon buggy driver who went to the wrong spot.

TWA884

The closest I can find is from the CBP I-94 website:

GUWonder

Indeed no pre-clearance at MAD. It was contractors and/or CBP IAP that you may have encounter at MAD.

This kind of thing about being accidentally unloaded in the “domestic” side has happened before at various major US airports of entry. In NYC, Newark, Chicago and Virginia, the request/demand was for such passengers to come back to the airport and let CBP/predecessor manually process the passengers again for at least the immigration purposes.

There are also recent press indications for something like this with an AA flight from CUN to JFK in November 2015, something that was blamed on an airline employee error.

I would go back to IAD, if it’s convenient enough, and have them manually process the thing. There used to be a land-side accessible office that was at least sometimes staffed. Maybe it’s still somewhere.

minhaoxue

That is only for people who were inspected by CBP and were admitted incorrectly. The most common reasons are for given the incorrect classification or given the incorrect time of admission.
The OP was not even inspected and walked out the door just like a domestic flight. But, if a person is not able to return to the airport or got onto another domestic connection flight, I could see the person might go to their local CBP Deferred office to explain the situation .

dinoscool3

Frightening? Annoying, yes. Idiotic, perhaps, but frightening?

whitewave

Who came into the USA unchecked?

dinoscool3

Well they weren't completely unchecked. They passed through EU security, they passed through EU emigration, and (presumably) their passports and visas were briefly checked by IB check in and/or gate agents. CBP wasn't able to do their checks which, sure, is a problem, but its not like the passengers were completely unvetted and are all criminals and terrorists that are now going to spread throughout America.

TWA884

There was also the APIS manifest which was transmitted by the airline to CBP. It includes passport number, country issuing the passport, passport expiration date, name, sex, date of birth and nationality as they appear on the passport, residency card for passengers who are lawful permanent residents of the United States and country of residence.