I often travel overseas on business but usually for less than a week at a time. I know how to pack efficiently and fit it all in a briefcase and roller bag so I never, ever, check luggage...Too many bad experiences there. On my return to the States, I'm often greeted by the customs officer who's surprised that I'm not carrying more luggage. Usually, it's not a problem but my last trip was longer than usual (10 days) and this time the luggage question was asked in a very skeptical manner, my answer met with disbelief, and it was followed by a detailed search and questioning. The process added about 15 minutes to my arrival and negated about half the benefit I usually get by not checking my bag, so I'm trying to figure out if I did something I could avoid in the future. I'm always very respectful to the immigration/customs officers and never offer any sass or lame humor, just the facts. Any idea from the group whether the lack of checked baggage on an extended trip is one of the major triggers for a search?

I am not privvy to policy in the CBP but in my experiance it has not been reason for search.

My anecdotes:
For a long time I have traveledd back and forth from Europe to the States and the States to Europe for a week or two at time (depending on where I am "living" and working that part of the year). Seeing as I have clothes, and goods in both locations I don't travel with much baggage and I never get searched. In fact I have never even been asked why I only have a carry-on.
Not sure if travelling on a US Official (brown) passport matters there, but I have not been searched when using the blue tourist one either.

Of course it could be the person or the day of the week or the phase of Mars, the way some policy is written.

As an aside, the only time it is a problem for me is on questioning in Europe before boarding a US bound flight using a US passport or NATO ID..."Where did you pack your bags" I answer "At home" and they freak out often....

Ciao,
FH

I think you've answered your own question. I tend to travel quite heavy (big suitcase, duffel with dirty laundry and a laptop backpack) and I've never had any issues. So I suspect that traveling light tends to make you "different", as well as I suspect that you're the first one out the door. That gives CBP a little more time to look you over and make a call because there is not a line of several hundred behind you.

There may be other aspects in how you're dressed or perhaps some age or racial profiling.

A friend of mine used to do MRs to AMS quite frequently. He would take a very small gym bag with a change of underwear, some toiletries and a couple books. I asked him how many times he got the rubber glove treatment on return from an overnight to AMS. He told me never -- he didn't fit the profile of someone who was a drug mule. I always found that hard to believe, but he was an overweight, balding middle-aged white guy. (Come to think of it, that's me as well.)

I'm a white, middle-aged male, typically wearing jeans, a suit coat, and dress shoes when traveling, so no obvious profiling cues that I can think of. However, I have noticed that when boarding int'l flights that have supplemental security screeing, you should never be the first one down the jetway since you're sure to be called over for a search. I don't think I was the first one to approach customs on this trip, but I was definitely one of the first and there was nobody in line when I approached, so it could well be the same phenomenon.

Does customs know how long you were out of the country? I thought only immigration had that information in front of them, but they don't see how much checked luggage you have. Or does immigration write something about the length of your trip on the bottom of the customs form?

In any case, I'd guess that you were just randomly selected for some additional screening. IME, both immigration and customs will often act like you have something to be nervous about just to see if it will provoke a reaction. I don't think that act necessarily has any basis in fact.

Mrs. hockeyguy and I (different last names) have even been challenged as to whether we're actually married -- seemed like a weird thing to challenge us on as I'm not aware of any particular benefit we would get from pretending to be married. Plus, I'm sure immigration knows full well that we live at the same address and they can easily see that we've traveled together for years. With all that, I have to assume it was just a "probing" technique to see how we would react. We've never had 15 minutes of screening, but a couple times they've taken maybe 3-4 minutes to ask some extra questions.

In short, you probably didn't do anything to trigger the extra search, and even if you did, it's probably not the luggage (and I doubt I&C will tell you what it was). I'd chalk it up to bad luck and I wouldn't worry about it for the future.

My assumption was that once they key it in to the computer, they've got all the immigration data. Could be wrong, though. I hope you're right and that it was just a fluke and/or the fact that I was one of the first cows in the gate. I guess I'll find out the next time I take a long trip but maybe I'll dither for a minute and let a few people into the line ahead of me.

Normally you should hand your declaration form over to the Customs agent as your are departing the baggage claim area (after immigration)

That form has your trip details (at least what you choose to write) and length on it.

Ciao,
FH

Seems like immigration and customs are blurring the line of who does what. Recently in DTW the immigration guy, while waiting to give me back my passport, asks if I have any alcohol or tobacco with me. I used to think this was the customs question to ask. I must have answered "no" correctly and was sent on my way.

Same organization (CBP) is responsible for both functions - no blurring of lines. My guess, the CBP Officer was attempting to elicit a response to determine if you should be sent for a more detailed inspection of your luggage. From my experiences in Customs (having seen CBP officers perform a similar procedure at both IAH and ATL in the past year to other pax), you would have been told to report to a secondary security office, escorted to the baggage claim area, then escorted to a screening area for detailed inspections.

I'm looking at the CBP declaration right now, and as I thought, the only trip details you fill in are a) countries visited; and b) flight #.

Unless Immigration writes the trip details in the "For Official Use Only" section at the bottom (I've never looked to see what they write there), the customs official wouldn't know anything besides where you've traveled. I'm sure they could pull it up on their computers for questioning, but IME, the CBP agents never type anything into a computer when I hand them the form -- they just take the form from me, give it once-over (sometimes not even that), and then wave me on. I doubt they know anything about my trip besides where I've been when/if they decide to do further questioning.

My point was that whlie the CBP folks certainly have access to your trip info, it's not readily apparent to the customs person who accepts your form after you pick up your checked luggage. Yes, they could certainly look up the info, such as the length of your trip, but it would take a specific effort to do so. And I've never thought that immigration and customs were meant to be separate, they're just two parts of the same process.

IME, answer/checking "yes" for alcohol or tobacco is no big deal as long as your verbal answer matches your written one. Most of the time, they follow up with "how much?" or "what kind of alcohol do you have?", but that's it unless they're suspicious for some reason. Saying "yes" does not mean that you'll definitely get a second screening.

Well, they nearly always ask me the length of my stay so I assumed they recorded that information somewhere maybe with the declaration form, maybe not, you could be correct.

They could never know exactly for everyone as plenty of people leave the country with no airline record: military, driving, some boats, etc. Sometimes these people will fly back in through customs even though they did not leave a pax manifest flight, so obviously they can't know for everyone.

Ciao,
FH

It's been many years since Customs has asked to search my stuff despite an average of a dozen or more international arrivals each year. Must be livin' right.

D'Oh! Now I'll probably be strip searched next week.

I always travel light and I haven't had problems at USA customs any time. While I've had run-ins with immigration/customs at many places (incl USA), I can't think of a single time it was due to not enough luggage - it is my odd itineraries that draws attention. Admittedly I haven't yet travelled a day trip with no carry on - even if I don't need much I will always bring a bag/small backpack so it doesn't look so bad.

OTOH when I have been stopped I am asked if I have everything and sometimes they express surprise. A simple explanation of packing light to avoid checking bags works every time.

Big Brother is definately watching you.

CBP and DHS employs:

Advance Passenger Information System (APIS),
which provides:
Full name (last name, first name, middle name if applicable)
Gender
Date of Birth
Nationality
Country of residence
Travel document type (normally passport)
Travel document number (expiry date and country of issue for passport)
Address of the first night spent in the U.S. (Not required for U.S. nationals, Legal Permanent Residents, or Alien Residents of the U.S. entering the U.S.)

and Automated Targeting System
which provides
Date of reservation
Date(s) of intended travel
Other names on PNR
Number of travelers on PNR
Address
All forms of payment information
Billing address
Contact telephone numbers
All travel itinerary for specific PNR
Frequent flyer information
Travel agency
Travel agent
Code share PNR information
Travel status of passenger
Split/Divided PNR information
Identifiers for free tickets
One-way tickets
Email address
Ticketing field information
ATFQ fields
General remarks
Ticket number
Seat number
Date of ticket issuance
Any collected APIS information
No show history
Number of bags
Bag tag numbers
Go show information
Number of bags on each segment
Social Security information
Voluntary/involuntary upgrades
Received from information
All historical changes to the PNR

so if you get past this ...then I guess they are just checking to see if you have any vegetables or meat in your bags.