Do you use the "wrong" line at immigration?
 

I have recently received my green card, and although that's good news, it has ended my favorite sport: standing in the wrong line at immigration. You know what I'm talking about: the line that moves much faster than yours (in case you're a foreigner), or: the line that moves at acceptable speed, but much faster than the other one (in case you are an American). The officers never seem to care, and of course the system is set up to facilitate this kind of cheating, with handlers often directing foreigners over to idle lines for Americans, and the like. Over the years, I have done this at most US airports, and while I never had any problems, I would say that Atlanta and LAX are especially ideal for this purpose. As far as European airports go, frequently there is no apparent distinction between EU-citizens and non-citizens; most will agree, for instance, that only chaos reigns in CDG and Amsterdam. Whenever there is a distinction, I pick the shortest line, sometimes in blatant disregard of the signs. Fellow FTers, please enlighten me, do some of you engage in that wicked cheat as well? If so, what methods do you use, how do you spot indifferent officers, do you prefer certain airports? How does this work in the EU and Asia? Can you recommend a place where one could get in trouble for this ("you were standing in the wrong line, call your lawyer")?

I only have a US passport so I really have no choice...

if you're a perm resident or legal resident, I think you too can exploit that grey area of 'foreigners' since technically you're not an American citizen. Then again, i've seen legal residents go through the US line so who knows...

Once I thought the line at a US airport for non US Citizens looked considerably shorter and I asked an officer if I could use it. He said sure, but beware the line may not move as fast as you think. I stayed put and watched and sure enough the US citizen line got me through before I would have in the other.

I like using the VIP lane in a certain asian country which will remain nameless. Immigration officers have never had the guts to ask who I am and why I think I am entitled to use this lane. All I can say is that I have had a 100% success rate with this and spend less than a minute taking care of entry formalities which includes a digital photograph.

It often works to go with a fellow passenger or friend who qualifies for the faster moving line. I have never been hassled for attaching myself to such people, and neither have friends who attached themselves to me, anywhere in the world.

I once tried to do this with the SO. I had a 'permit' in my passport that allowed me to go through the EU residents lane but SO didn't. When we got to immigration, all lanes were open so I went to the EU lane and SO broke away and went to non-EU. This aroused great suspicion with my Officer. He questioned me as to why my travelling companion chose to go elsewhere (could there be some nefarious reason why we split??). So, I told him the SO didn't feel entitled to come with me - IO just smiled and waived me through.

DD

One time I stood 20 minutes in the transfers only Immigration line at CDG after a 9 hour flight from IAH(I was staying in Paris), needless to say I wasn't to thrilled to have to go to another line. I still dont like CDG, but Paris makes up for it ;)

No chaos at AMS. Usually they have queues for "all passports" and for "EU passports". Just last Friday, when queues were relatively long for AMS (between 5 and 10 minutes wait), I saw a guy with a non-EU passport being sent away from the EU desk and told to queue again in the other line.

I've been turned away from the Japanese citizen line at KIX before. It was kind of embarassing, but I wasn't really paying attention the signs and there no more than 50 people in the whole immigration hall after the flight from Busan.

At airports with separate lines for each officer, I try to stand in the line right beside the home-citizens. Often times those citizen-only lines will be opened for all passports when they get down to a few people.

I was at LHR one AM and the guy in front of me was an American citizen while his wife was a EU citizen.

Well, their little daughter was crying SO LOUDLY and profusely that the mom begged the intra-EU line agent (who wasn't really busy as it was mostly American flights landing) so she went and checked him in even though he was a US citizen.

In Germany they have EU and non-EU lines for Immigration, as well as for leaving the county. I have often seen non-EU citizens go through the EU line and then get turned away by the immigration officer. But, I have also seen people get away with it. The annoyance factor also depends on what airport you're talking about. At FRA, there are often much longer waits for the Non-EU line. But in Stuttgart, there are 2 EU lines and 1 non-EU line, although there are usually >90% EU citizens on any given flight. So I often breeze through Immigration at STR while 100 EU citizens stand in line.

Do NOT try this as a non-US citizen using the US citizens line at a US airport.

There are documented cases of people being denied entry and subjected to expedited removal as this may be construed as misrepresenting oneself as a US citizen.

As far as a know and have done, Canadians can use the US citizens line at immigration. I have never had a problem or odd glance using it whenever flying back into the US.

Personally, I wouldn't play around with immigration.

I am just going to follow the rules, read the signs and get in the correct line.

Now this I've never heard of. I'm a U.S. Citizen and my GF a Canadian Citizen. Whenever we fly to the States together, we would be separated at the immigration lines (i.e. she queuning at the visitors line and me at the citizen's line) and later re-join together after having cleared it. In the future we would continue using the "correct" lines as we always do in the past to prevent being scrutinized by the officials.

I'm a US citizen and my wife is a Danish citizen. We always go through the US citizen line without a problem.

My wife and I have also done this for the past 15 years with no problems, until two weeks ago coming into the US, the immigration officer said non-US citizen spouses could no longer accompany their US citizen spouses in the US citizen line, and directed her to the non-US citizen line. He added that if we wanted to stay together, a US citizen could accompany a non-US citizen spouse in the non-US citizen line.

That stinks. Did the rules really change or was it just this one officer?

I remember one older Chinese lady who did this at JFK- but I think she didn't read English (and JFK, last I was there, had NO signange in any other languages in Immigration) and was just quite lost, so I hope they didn't deport her. They spent a lot of time trying to figure out her situation. Must have annoyed the people behind her.

Sure. Try that in Russia for an extra dose of abuse ;)

Speaking of which, I was once reprimanded for standing in correct lane.

I flew to Vladivostok, Russia's Far East, from Osaka Kansai. On that flight, all non-Russian passport holders are usually Japanese. I was standing in the line for Foreign Passport Holders.

A woman in khaki uniform approached me and barked in Russian - what was I doing in foreigners' line?

That was a bad case of profiling based on height and facial features :D

That is sure a welcoming jesture for a citizen of it's own country to come home! :rolleyes:

Fortunately, Australia is pretty good about letting non-Australian travelling companions through the Citizen Line, which saves a load of time if you have ever been through SYD immigration. Otherwise I also try not to mess around with the immigration people since they can make your stay very unpleasant.

Does she have a green card?

My wife and I tend to separate (she's a US citizen, I'm British) unless directed otherwise. At some airports we've been told to ignore the labels and go whereever we want and others we've been told clearly to make sure we go to the right ones. I prefer to play itself as we've both had attention from immigration at times and it's easier to avoid it.

When travelling it's usually one passenger w/ US passport, one passenger w/ EU passport for us. We select the quickest line together. Never had a problem.

I have personally seen a Canadian passport holder being directed to the non-citizen line, after having finally made it to the front of the long citizen line. Of course the non-citizen line was even longer and slower than the citizen line.

Can't be sure, but can speak from experience.
This weekend, Mrs c (US) and I (UK) flew into ORD and went through the US Citizens line with no problem. Noticed another couple (also US & UK) do the exact same thing in an adjacent line.

We had no difficulty using the EU line at LHR on our return, either.

That said, we make it our practice that whoever is a citizen of the country in question takes the lead, presenting the documents etc.

No, but she does have a B1/B2 visa in her passport. Ironically, she first got this visa on the recommendation of an Immigration officer as it would streamline the immigration process.

There's usually someone "directing traffic" at immigration, sending US citizens to the lines on one side and non-US citizens to the lines on the other side. Next time I'll just ask this person first what the rules are (which line to use), and if there're any questions concerning the line we're in from the immigration officer at the booth, I can just refer them to this person.

Do you tend to enter through one airport in particular? If so, which one? (If not, then at which airport did the officer tell you that the rules had changed?).

I am still not sure if I used the correct line at ATH. In the course of IAD-AMS-VIE-ATH, UA/OS had misplaced my checked bag, and I just stormed out of the baggage claim area without choosing a door too carefully... to find myself in the entrance hall with my large carryon, no customs check, no immigration check. I'd arrived from a Schengen country of course, but I'd been waved through at AMS too, and I assuredly do not pass for a native in, well, any European country. Was a little concerned that if there were trouble there'd be no entry stamp in my passport.

No such shortcuts on the return to IAD of course.

It was at LAX. We almost always use PDX every summer (summer vacation in Oregon with family), but I had a little work to take care of in LA first this year. Maybe PDX immigration is just a little kinder to a returning Oregonian. :)

To a returning Oregonian, possibly. To anyone else though, I have my doubts. After all, PDX is also known as "De-Portland."

Then again, LAX showed up a few times in the "horrible airports" thread...

This reflects my experience exactly. Mrs. David (German) and I (US) have always asked the IO doing the "traffic directing" at the beginning of the line, and until last year were always sent to the "US Citizens" line. Last summer, the "traffic director" (a uniformed IO) sent us to the US Citizens line, but the private security person at the head of the line said that was wrong and sent us over to the Non-Citizens line. Last winter (Xmas), the traffic director said that Mrs. David could no longer use the US Citizens line, because only the Non-Citizens lines have the cameras and fingerprint readers required for non-US citizens. So, we both used the Non-Citizens line. AFAIK, this is still the situation.

One time clearing departure passport control at MUC T2, I (US citizen) was directed to us the EU National line by the folks herding us to the lines. Got through w/o a problem.

As of the end of July, I could see that the US Citizens line at LAX still had the cameras and fingerprint readers. So the rationale for sending non-US citizen family members to the Non-Citizens line may be due to plans to eventually remove the equipment (budget cuts?) now used to process non-US citizens, from the US Citizens line?

Might as well keep the equipment where it is as isn't it only a matter of time before Immigration starts taking photos and fingerprints of US citizens as well? :rolleyes:

This is getting to be almost as farcical as the time I inquired of Immigration here in Japan as to why dual citizenship (for adults) was not allowed. The official's answer: "If the US and Japan went to war, then there would be a problem as to whose side the dual national would have to fight on." :rolleyes:

BTW, thanks for the input, david7031. :-:

IME all the desks have all the equipment, because the roles are allocated according to demand and a desk may be switched from "citizens" to "visitors" at any time.

That said, this week Mrs c and I used the visitors line at ORD in preference to the citizens lines, because it was much shorter.

Funny!! I actually got barked at in Russia for being in the correct line also. It was in Moscow during 2000 and my first time flying international and I was by myself. My russian friends were on the other side of the looking glass waiting for me. In the passport control line some people said you only had to declare foreign currency if it was over $1500. Well, I didn't want to be one of those idiots who just believed things strangers in line said and get arrested. So, I read the signs saying to declare any foreign currency, looked at the lines, and being that the declaration line was shorter I went with that.

The woman in front of stopped to fill out a form so the guy asked for mine. I had fibbed a little and wrote $840 USD although I really had $843 so I was a little nervous. The guy glared at me and said in a condescending voice "You have $840??!!" I meekly said "Yes." (wasn't ready to fess up to the extra $3) He replied "What are you doing in this line?!" ME: "The sign says if you have foreign currency...." HE: "That's only if you have over $1500." ME: "I heard some people saying that but I didn't know if it was true.." HE (angrily): "JUST GO!" ME: "Uh, can I get my stuff?" (It was on the conveyor already. So, he thrust the reverse button, I grabbed my stuff and ran (ok, walked) out.

In LAX my bf (russian citizen) and I would usually both go through the US Citizens line. I normally would ask if he could go with me and they acted bored and said whatever. That's been awhile though since he's now my ex. :D