Questions asked by CBP
 

Hello fellow Fodorites! Yesterday my mom, sister and I flew back from Greece. The time we had there was great! Anyways, very long haul flight (11 hours) from Athens to Philadelphia (not our final stop). Now, it's been a couple of years since I've flown international and I guess my memory is getting a bit fuzzy, but when going to the Customs & Border Patrol officer so he / she can stamp your passport, is it standard procedure for them to ask what you do in terms of a job? I don't know if it was me feeling tired, the fact that the CBP guy had a really pp attitude or a combination of both, but I felt slightly annoyed at being asked what I do in terms of a job and how long I'd been doing it. Can anyone shed some light on this or have you had the same experience?

CBP can ask pretty much whatever they like. Where have you been? How long? What do you do? They don't care much about the answers but rather how the traveller behaves. They are looking for, among other things, nervousness, deception, lies, excessive annoyance, and so on. If they don't like what they hear/see they may initiate a closer examination. If they like what they hear/see they may no do anything.

A friend and I walked into Mexico for an afternoon of fun and beer a few years back. When we returned, no passports, the customs guy checked our DLs, asked why we were there, why we were in San Diego (with PA DLs) and, finally, who won the World Series. We were friendly of course but when we immediately told him that winner in a shocked manner he simply laughed and said "You guys are Americans, welcome back ... and don't drive for a while!"

It's their job to ask you anything they want to ask. I can't at all understand why that or any other question would annoy you.

Here it is in a nutshell: When a person wearing a uniform asks someone not wearing a uniform a question, the person not wearing the uniform should recognize that the person wearing the uniform has the upper hand and answer the question(s) without showing any annoyance.

It's a question most often asked by citizens of countries other than US, Canada, UK/Ireland and Australia. Immigration/customs of most other countries don't open their mouth usually, but it's their duty for officials of these countries (and perhaps a few other) to ask questions.

Several years ago, we arrived at LHR on the way to pick up a cruise ship in Dover. We were asked where we staying the night, how long we would be in the UK, and some questions about the cruise. It was all very conversational and pleasant.

After we were handed back our passports and wished a nice stay, I thanked the officer and said, "I thought you did that very well." He grinned and replied, "But you weren't supposed to notice."

First, I would limit RoamsAround's nutshell to certain scenarios, customs included, but not to all encounters with uniformed people. Unless there were a compelling reason I wouldn't, for example, give any more information than legally required to any street cop.


Liked Jeff's 801 tale a lot! I once was returning through Miami from a scuba diving trip and the immigration guy seemed to have an unusual number of questions about me and my scuba habit. So I asked questions of him, too! Turns out he also had been certified years previous and missed diving. So a few weekends later I met him in Key Largo and we went diving for the day so I could give him an intense refresher course. And he bought the beers afterwards!

After 9/11 the airfares were very cheap. I flew to Manchester, UK to see a ManU match. Flew out on Friday and came home on Sunday.

An immigration officer asked me why I flew to UK for the weekend. I replied that it was very cheap flight (about $230 R/T) and I wanted to see the match and I had the ticket and match program signed by Sir Alex and David Beckham. She wanted to see it. I did pull it out and show it to her. She was very surprised, but welcomed me back.

That's their job.

"I don't know if it was me feeling tired,"

Put it down to just that. Immigration and Customs have their job to do, they do it for your benefit, not to annoy you personally.

I don't know about Immigration, but TSA officials are now being trained to spot nervous, out-of-place, suspicious characters by chatting it up with travelers.