My parents and sibling flew out of the U.S. today and when checking in into their BA flights online the info asked included a question about their U.S. visa or green card or if they didn’t have a visa. I can’t remember this being a thing when they flew out on BA back in 2022.

Then at the BA counter at the airport my parents were asked to show their valid U.S. visa (as they had entered the US on immigrant visas that have since expired) and my parents had to show the employee their green cards.

I never remember this at all being a thing throughout my years of traveling on a student visa in the past nor do I remember my family facing this with the number of airlines they’ve flown on as far as I know. Especially since the final destination is BAH so I thought the airline would only be concerned with documents for the final destination. I was never even asked to show my green card when flying from U.S. to BAH and Saudi airports as my Saudi passport was always enough.

Is this a new US thing or a BA thing or what to be asked by an airline employee for one’s valid visa or green card when leaving the U.S.? Coupled with the online check-in process asking for that information, too.

The only thing that I can think of is that having a valid US visa or permanent resident card may waive the requirement for getting a UK Direct Airside Transit visa.

In concept, to facilitate tracking entries and exits, one is supposed to enter and leave a country using the same document. Years ago, Congress demanded immigration exit controls - something the US has not made much progress on. Effectively, therefore, the US does not have exit controls and commercial carriers pretty much only had to check that the pax had the appropriate documents for the destination. Perhaps this is a new step towards actual exit controls?

It is much easier to implement these things on commercial carriers, and in particular, air carriers, than other forms of travel. Commercial carriers have much to gain by partnering with government...

That might be the case I didn’t think about that. Though now Saudi citizens are part of the visa-exempt ETA family of nationalities. Not that that wouldn’t clash with airside transit directives from the UK gov. I think this might be it!

Edit: though the link says if there’s a valid ETA a transit visa isn’t needed. There are older pdf directives that specified nationalities that can TWOV if they have US visas or green cards among other things and Saudi passports are on that list. It could be the employees are still using that.


I kept wondering if related to requiring exit visa info though I haven’t heard of any changes. TWA’s mention if the UK transit requirements might explain it though. When I did my own travel with a Saudi passport and green card I flew UA and LH and transited in FRA from U.S. to BAH and DMM and wasn’t asked for visa info though I also once flew to LHR from U.S. as a green card holder but had a UK visa at the time.