Customs and Immigration
 

Are there any countries in the world where customs and immigration officials are so rude and unpleasant that you refuse or hestitate to visit these countries again? I know many people will mention the US, but please, what are some others?

Australia and New Zealand are tough on quarantine (eg x-raying every bag for evidence of plant products, wooden items and a whole raft of other items) and issuing big penalties for false declarations. Customs tend to be ok, but sometimes some interesting questions.

But that doesn't stop me coming home (Australia) or visiting New Zealand. Some others here who have been on the wrong end of one of those infringement notices may have very unpleasant things to say though!

Most other countries I have visited have been ok. America really has been ok with generally pleasant immigration officers and straight through Customs. U.K tends to ask quite a few weird questions, but also is ok on the whole.

I spose it all depends on what you look like, your itinerary and a few other things. Any customs/immigration/quarantine officer can be very annoying if you get them on the wrong day...

Well, if I can't mention the US, then I have to say none.

Though I do recall Cambodian immigration at Poipet not being much fun. They were very polite initially but then tried to scam me by requiring $25 for a visa that officially costs $20. They got a little unfriendly when I called them on it, but it worked out OK. I paid the $20 I was supposed to be charged.

Other than that, I have yet to find genuinely rude immigration staff in any country but the one you specifically excluded.

Many would say Canada. But we have no choice but to go there or else we can't go home.

While it does annoy me that I'm treated like a criminal every time I enter the US I've never felt that those in customs were rude or unpleasant (though some friends have had some pretty shocking experiences)

Australia is the pits. It really pisses me off that it's my chance to be a local and get through customs quick but the utter shambles and disgraceful organisation means that it is consistantly easily my longest customs clearance. I'd be embarrassed if I could ever get over my frustration and anger at the joke that is clearing customs at sydney.

I have to say Canada also. I remember one time were i went to Vermont by car for an afternoon with a friend from Holland. The Canadian custom officier did'nt want my friend to get back to Canada, it took over 6 hours to sort things out. A real nightmare.

OMG, how did you sort things out?

Definitely Canada. After having them ask me every time I go there, "why do you want to visit Canada?" (not to mention lots of other insulting questions), I started asking myself the same question, and now look elsewhere for my vacation plans (having said that, I would encourage anyone that has a similar experience while entering the US to ask yourself the same question). As if that wasn't bad enough, I always get the worst treatment from US immigration whenver I return from Canada (my favorite question: "did you use any illegal narcotics while you were in Canada?").

It's funny that everybody are picking on Canada.....I do not recognize that at all from my visits there.

Whenever I enter Canada, I get a smile and "welcome" and not much more -- whereas I regularly get a 3rd degree when going to the US (I am EU citizen....maybe Canada likes EU more than the US does?)

Canadian customs treats no one worse than returning Canadians. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had no hassles from a Canadian custom agent returning home.

I get shocked disbelief from my foreign friends visitng or immigrating to Canada - they tell me no one is nicer than the immigration folks here. I guess the agents specifically hold their anger for Canadians (and according to this thread, Americans).

I think US and Canadian customs have an unwritten rule to treat their own and each other's citizens in the worst possible way. Apparently, as soon as we cross the border, they think we plan to engage in all sorts of illegal activity that we wouldn't do at home. I always find it necessary to go to Canada to use illegal narcotics; I can't find illegal narcotics anywhere in Los Angeles. :rolleyes:

I have to put another vote in for Canada. I'm a US Citizen as well, for the record, but have always travelled to Canada on my Aussie passport. Regardless of whether I'm going to Canada or just transiting through, I always get a grilling (compare this to US/UK/France/Germany/Australia, etc., where nobody even looks at me twice, just to confirm that I don't actually look suspicious ;) ). I love it when I write "in transit to US" or "in transit to 3rd country from US" and I'm asked the purpose of my visit to Canada :rolleyes: . Or, I'm meeting a friend at Whistler to ski for a few days. "And why isn't your friend with you now?" "Uh, because he thought Sydney would be a bit out of the way on a trip from JFK to YVR." :rolleyes:

I've only had two incidents with border officials.

Once was in Romania. I was 10 at the time. We were on a long trip, we had things packed so we could carry everything if we needed to. That meant backpacks. (This was before wheeled luggage caught on and we were in plenty of places where wheels would have been basically useless anyway.) Rather than packing in the bags we had bare frames to which we strapped a suitcase.

Oops, my mother goofed and gave me my father's suitcase. I discovered it when I tried to put it on. There was no time to change things around and catch the plane, we couldn't wear each other's frames, either. Thus I had on a backpack that weighed nearly half what I did.

At the border control we each went into a separate small room with an official. The guy I got didn't bother to look at me at all, he just waved me through. Only his wave was a push--on the top of my backpack. Of course I utterly lost my balance. I managed to keep my feet under me for the couple of steps to the wall and I had time to prepare, I wasn't going to be hurt much. I hit the wall--and found it was utterly flimsy. Had there not been a structural member behind it at that point I would have crashed right through. I can just imagine the scene that would have caused. The official never realized that my stumbling was due to his actions.



The second time was England. Due to a massive string of events my mother (who was blind) and I (17 at the time) ended up in tropical attire in London with a total of $5 in cash. It took two hours to convince the passport official to check with British Airways to see if they would take her credit card for a flight onward. When they had no problem with it he finally let us in.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...lines-business


"Visitors say U.S. is no vacation
Foreign travel reporters at an Anaheim event say the country makes it too difficult to enter.

Foreign travel reporters who made their way to Anaheim for an industry conference this week know why international travel to this country hasn't recovered since 9/11: It's too much of a hassle....


Global travel as a whole, in fact, has been on the rise since 1992 — up 61% as of 2006...


The U.S. hasn't grabbed its share of that increase. What's more, the number of international visitors hasn't rebounded to pre-Sept. 11 levels. There were 51.2 million foreign visitors in 2000 and 51 million in 2006.
...

What's wrong with the U.S.? In a recent survey, more than 2,000 international travelers rated the U.S. airport arrival process the "world's worst" by greater than a 2-1 ratio over the next worst, the Mideast.

The survey, conducted for a coalition called Discover America Partnership, found that 54% of respondents thought U.S. immigration officials were rude and that 57% felt the U.S. didn't want their travel business"




Twice as bad as traveling to the Mideast. Quite a statement.

In fairness to the US, surveys such as this are meaningless unless all 2,000 of the respondents have all visited the same places. If the respondents who rated the US as worst have never visited the Middle East, then obviously they can't rate the Middle East as worst! @:-)