Palal

Am I the only one that gets these?

After my flight from Israel last week at LAX, the guy looked at my US passport, scanned it and then asked me the usual "did you enjoy... blah blah blah", followed by:
"How were you born in the Ukraine?"
After some astonishment at the question, I replied: "Just like any other human being born, with the help of my parents."

He looked at me with blank eyes and then looked at his screen (which I could not see from my angle - a deliberate thing on their part) and told me to proceed to baggage claim.


BTW. They're still running Windows 2000. I hope they regularly patch their systems.

I also hope that my comment is not added to my entry in their database.

GUWonder

A few times, immigration's whole system at an airport has been known to go down. Or enough systems go down at a port of entry to really slow the lines.

I've been asked some stupid questions before -- most infamously in Brussels -- where immigration asked me where I was staying, who was paying, how I can afford it and the famous question of "do you have money with you".

Or at some places: "Do you have any relatives here?" "None that I know of, but you too may be my relative, if we go back a few millenia."

beefeater

Flying into Orlando airport .... with wife and 4 year old son in tow ...

Immigration guy : why are you visiting the US
Me : for our annual holiday at Disney World
Immigration guy : why ?

Answer came there none ...

alex0683de

In late 2002 I was flying home to FRA from MEX by way of EWR.

In Newark, I handed over my form to the guy at immigration. He glances at it and says:

"So lemme get this straight - you're flying from Mexico City to Frankfurt?"

Me: "Yes."

Guy: "So why are you in the US?"

Me: "I'm beginning to ask myself that same question."

For the record, the reason was 250 USD in savings vs. LH nonstop or 150 USD vs IB through MAD. Next time I go to Mexico, I'll know that that is money well spent.

I'm guessing I must have hit a newbie or something. Surely most INS (still INS back then) officers have seen international to international connections before? Especially at a hub like EWR?

Psychocadet

Funny thing about those "passport stampers" is that they have an absolute right to deny you entry and if they happen to be citizens of the same country you are, they can hold your passport while they make calls to whatever agency issued it in your respectiv countries to verify that it is real.

PhlyingRPh

One German stamp jockey sticks in my mind.

When I was entering West Germany as part of a Middle School exchange programme in 1979, he looks at my passport carefully, then looks at me in a very studious way before taking his glasses off and saying "Your passport is British, but you do not look British. (pause) You must not be British".

He finally let me in, but probably had second thoughts after I walked toward my classmates doing a Basil Fawlty Hitler walk.

As a returning foreign student in the U.S., INS at Stapleton Airport in Denver always used to ask very academic questions - it was like taking an exam (Are you sure you are in school? What's your GPA? Tell me what you are studying in Pathophysiology this semester?). I think it was because they only had one international flight three or four times a week and were quite thrilled with being able to practice their skills on people coming through.

GUWonder

A bored bureaucrat -- and bureaucrat is too kind a word for passport stampers -- can be a pest. This is also sometimes true when it comes to immigration "officers".

When you are the only person or first person in line to clear immigration, get ready to say at least one more word than usual. But that depends on a variety of factors too.

par

Before the wall came down i got some pretty stupid questions from the east german border guards. And you didn't know if they where serious or not so i was on my toes when they asked their questions. Finally learned that letting them confiscate a pack of marlboros and a porno mag reduced the number of questions and significantly sped up the vehicle inspection process.

PhlyingRPh

Hmmm, I wish I had known that in 1979. As a schoolboy, my closet was crammed full of, well you know

windwalker

mmm, dresses???

kkirksea

I was told that "off the wall" questions are often anything but.
The folk are trained to ask such questions, or probe in obscure ways,
not for the answer, but to see how you respond and how quickly.

Depending upon the manner in which you respond, they then decide
how to proceed.

For example, they once asked a guy in front of me about his vacation, how it was.. and then diverted and ask "What's your job title at Work?"... he stammered, paused, came up with an answer. He was then taken into a separate room for further questions.

Certainly doesn't explain all the folk you run across getting your passport stamped... but explains a bit of method to the madness.

rankourabu

Like the above poster, I have been asked three times
What is your job? A: Teacher
quickly followed by What school do you teach at? or What subjects do you teach?

I suspect any hesitation on my part to answer the follow up question wouldve resulted in special treatement, even just when on a Intl-Intl transfer through the US (which I cant avoid coming from Bahamas).

Two weeks ago I was asked when travelling on my Canadian passport who I thought would win the Canadian election at ATL...now I think that guy was just bored..

sadiqhassan

When going through the US, my mother was asked "why do you have a Canadian passport instead of a US one?"

studentff

I agree their goal is to guage the ease of response, but when asked by INS/ICE to give details of the talk I presented at an overseas conference (because the 15-word title wasn't enough for them), sometimes I think the agent was not prepared for the full enthusiasm of a grad student actually having someone seem interested in their work! I was tempted to ask if he wanted the 30-minute version or the 2-hour version and to get out my slides.

Recently I've taken to asking US ICE agents for an arrival stamp (as proof of travel and as proof I didn't overstay at the place I was visiting in the event they failed to give me an exit stamp). I think it kind of throws off the agent if the traveler initiates the conversation with them, because I've on average been asked fewer questions. Either that or they mistakenly think someone suspicious would always be stone-cold slient or something.

Olton Hall

I had this exchange from US immigration at YYZ this summer

Guy: What is the nature of your trip to the United States?

Me: I'm returning home.

Guy: What do you mean you are going home?

Me: The sign said this is the line for US Passport holders and I'm heading home from Canada.

Guy: Good point.

I guess the guy forgot which line he was working