Funny. Perhaps they had her confused with someone else whose employment was known? Or perhaps they just assumed that someone working for a reputable law firm couldn't be a criminal/terrorist/immigration violator/whatever? Rather silly assumption if that's the case.

BTW, you all should probably know that nothing in this thread actually concerned a conversation with USCIS. They were all with CBP.

I was thinking Roni Deutch...

Coming home, AMS-BDL, about 10 days ago

Q) What countries did you visit?
A) France and The Netherlands

Q) Bring home any dope from Amsterdam?)
A) No

......Welcome Home



seriously, that was my conversation. My seat in 1A, through Immigrations & Customs to the curb waiting for my wife.....total time was under 3 minutes! Why can't all airports be this easy?

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space have been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

Copwriter, I think your last statement is a gross generalisation. I can understand your skepticism but please do keep in mind that just because it hasn't happened to you on a regular basis, doesn't negate the fact that some customs agents do give individuals a hard time upon re-entering the country. I'm not implying anything about the integrity of the agency or about all customs and immigration agents, but some agents do unnecessarily hassle incoming travellers. I doubt very many of us who get hassled purposely look for trouble after sitting on a cramped plane for 12 hours. The last thing we want is to be interrogated upon entering the country. But it does happen.

I'm a university student. There is very little reason that a customs and immigration agent has to ask what I study and ask me to explain my research in 20 words or less. There is little reason for an agent to ask the name of my friend that I visited, how long we've been dating, where we met, what he does, what we did during the visit, that I look young for my age or any of the inane questions that are completely irrelevant to assessing whether or not I should be allowed back into my country. Maybe it's my height, maybe I look young, maybe I'm getting racially profiled. But please trust me when I say this, I don't ask to be interrogated and I am not looking for trouble. I just want to get my passport scanned and pick up my luggage and go home to a hot bath. But the hassles do happen, to some more than others. I count myself among the lucky ones as I only get hassled about 25% of the time.

Much ado about the thought that CBP might care that you're a lawyer.

Actually, there are a lot of reasons for those questions. They are looking for behavioral cues which can manifest through "inane questions". They are trying to determine whether to release you from there or target you for additional inspection. It's a system that's been shown to work quite well over many, many years.

No questions at all is the kind of usual experience I get when arriving back in the US after saying "Hello" or "Hi there".

ewwwwwwwwww. i'm sorry. hopefully you got hazard pay

A 50+% chance that the person selected for additional questioning or screening is found to be without contraband, without dutiable articles, and being just who they say they are is "a system that's been shown to work quite well over many, many years"?

Deeg, I would agree with you if and only if those types of inane questions were uniformly applied to all students. I'll provide an example. I was sitting beside a fellow university student on a plane. We chatted during the flight. Very nice fellow. We both went into the same line, he cleared before I did. The agent neither asked him a long series of questions but simply allowed him through in less than 30 seconds. This was his 3rd or 4th time travelling I believe. I approach the window and I'm given the third degree. I am presentable, well dressed, always polite. I've travelled extensively for someone my age. The student before me was raggedy looking and in my opinion should have triggered more questions than I received (as nice a person as he was). I declared the exact amount I spent. He did not (I know he told me) but he got the wave through. So perhaps Deeg, you could speculate as to what triggered the wave of questions, because I am baffled. I am baffled why some agents feel it is appropriate to say that I am young looking for my age. What does that have to do with entering a country? I am baffled as to why some agents feel it is appropriate to insult the type of research I do (it has unfortunately happened). What does that have to do with entering a country? I am baffled as to why some agents feel it necessary to insult my hobbies that I do. What does that have to do with entering a country? I am baffled as to why some agents feel it necessary to insult me by saying, "oh you look old today". What does that have to do with entering a country? How do those questions play into a "system that's been shown to work quite well over many, many years." Granted, the "oh you look old today" only happened at Canadian Customs not UCIS, but still, the rest of those comments were asked by UCIS and Canadian Customs.

Unless those questions are uniformly applied to all, then I can't help but think that some agents deliberately choose to give certain people a hard time. And to be quite frank, I think some of their inane comments are completely inappropriate and insulting.

Yup, sure is. That's the main reason that CBP has a random selection program as well as targeted selection. The statistics show that the travelers targeted as suspicious by an officer are many times more likely to have contraband than a randomly selected traveler. Last I heard (several years ago), it was by a factor of 30-odd times more likely. I call that a successful system.

Fair enough. Sounds like you've had some negative experiences. I've had my share as well. I was only trying to make the point that some weird questions may have a reasonable basis for them. But there's no reason for the questioning to be insulting.

(Although, to be fair, some of the comments such as looking young for your age, could simply be conversational. It's hard to sit in that booth for eight hours and not pass the time by talking to people.)

Deeg, absolutely some questions may have a reasonable basis, ie "where did you come from, how much did you purchase, anything to declare etc". As I said, I consider myself lucky that I don't always get hassled. It's only about 25% of the time. It's those inappropriate questions that are insulting that are completely unnecessary. I can absolutely understand the need for human contact beyond the perfunctory questions when the agent is sitting there for 8 hours a day. But, I gotta say, if they were simply conversational comments, some of those agents really need to learn the art of conversation

Seriously, I can't believe that the PP basically said "CBP 'R People Too".

If they want to have a friendly chat, I'm all for it. Take off the badge and gun, tell me I'm free to enter the country. Then we can have a nice chat, if I have time.

Notwithstanding all that, it's a coercive fishing expedition. I like the Einstein who checked us back in at STT a few weeks ago, who literally could not believe that we didn't buy a single item to bring back into the country. "No, nothing. That's why I wrote zero on there." And then wouldn't believe we hadn't visited the BVI's. Again...if we had, I would have written it on the form. Unless I was trying to hide something in which case I certainly wouldn't admit it upon being asked, so, really, why the exercise? It boggles the mind why they would even waste the breath. Maybe they just have to ask a certain number of questions per hour and process a maximum number of people or else they're marked down on their performance review for not fishing enough.